H. E. Leila Ahmed Awad Al Najjar of the Omani Ministry of Social Development has given an interview with the Oman News Agency about the country’s ‘Oman 2040’ programme, in which she redoubled Oman’s commitment to developing a comprehensive social protection system and observing humanrights.
She highlighted the commitment as part of the Oman Vision 2040 plan, which includes as its objectives the promotion of effective, sustainable and fair social insurance; economic empowerment for children, women and persons with disabilities; and an integrated social protection system that targets the most vulnerable.’
Certain programmes in the country do still make use of poverty-targeting however, which research shows regularly misses many of the poorest households due to the difficulty of effectively identifying who is the most vulnerable. [See: Hit and Miss, Athias & Kidd 2020]
The interview comes after recent reforms of the Omani pensions and social protection system, which included an extended social security system to cover Omanis living on low incomes.
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