Numerous public services have adjusted to provide universal access or extend social protection coverage to an increasingly diverse population through bilateral and multilateral social security agreements or unilateral measures.

One mechanism for extending social protection and paving the way for universal coverage is the establishment of social protection floors – nationally defined sets of basic social security guarantees that ensure at a minimum, that over a lifetime, all those in need have access to essential health care and to basic income security.

Some of the examples include bilateral social security agreements between Canada and the CARICOM countries, Euro-Mediterranean partnership, and the United States and Australia and EU Convention. Such agreements enable, for example, Third-State totalizing and portability of benefits for workers.