The World Social Security Forum of the International Social Security Association (ISSA) took place in Panama City (Republic of Panama) on November 14-18, 2016.

More than 1,000 delegates from 120 countries including experts from international organizations such as the ILO, World Bank, UN, OECD participated in the event.

The Forum hosted the World Social Security Summit attended by the responsible Ministers from Argentina, China, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Uruguay, Panama, Spain on November 18, 2016.

At the Summit the Russian delegation was presented by the Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation Alexey Cherkasov.

The key topics of the summit were the demographics, expanding coverage of social security, health care, pension insurance, immigration issues, investing in enforcement of rights of women, youth, senior citizens and promotion of employment.

In his speech, Deputy Minister Alexey Cherkasov noted the role, dynamics of changes and new challenges in the social security system. He stressed the unprecedented measures to overcome the demographic crisis, one of which was the program of maternity capital working about 10 years in the Russian Federation. Deputy Minister Alexey Cherkasov spoke about the trends in the transition to a more efficient, targeted measures of social support of the population  based on criteria of need. Also he spoke about the prospects for establishment of a single global information system in the sphere of social security in the Russian Federation and it was going to be launched in 2018. Also, in his speech Mr. Alexey Cherkasov stressed the importance of bilateral/multilateral international agreements in the sphere of social security for a complete coverage of the population including foreign nationals.

As a result of Summit there was an election of officers for key positions of the Association: The President, Treasurer, Directors and Members of the Supervisory Board and Bureau for the next three years 2017-2019. The Vice-Chairman of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation Nikolay Kozlov was unanimously elected as the Treasurer of the ISSA.

Thus, for the first time in the history of the Russian Federation one of the key offices in the ISSA  is held by the representative of the Russian Federation.