ILO (2018) This policy paper: (i) provides a global overview of the organization of pension systems
and their contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG); (ii) monitors SDG
indicator 1.3.1 for older persons, analyses trends and recent policies in 192 countries,
including the extension of legal and effective coverage in a large number of low- and middleincome
countries, through a mix of contributory and non-contributory schemes; (iii) looks
at persisting inequalities in access to income security in old-age; (iv) presents lessons from
three decades of pension privatization and the trend to returning to public systems; (v) calls
for countries to double their efforts to extend system coverage, including the extension of
social protection floors, while at the same time improving the adequacy of benefits.