The Postal Social Services Project

Posts provide many services that improve people’s quality of life. In additional to their core letter and parcel delivery services, Posts are active in areas such as health and social care, education, and community development. This social role is gaining greater recognition as Posts form partnerships with governments and communities to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and, more broadly, to implement the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The UPU supports the diversification of postal operations as a strategic response to the pace of technological and social change (Istanbul World Postal Strategy 2017–2020), and to generate additional revenue, increase competitiveness and remain relevant. The need for governments to leverage the postal network for socio-economic development is one of the four key areas of action outlined in the Abidjan Postal Strategy 2021–2024 (document CA C 3 2019.2–Doc 3).

A project to review, synthesize and promote postal social services was initiated in November 2019 with sponsorship from the Ministry of Internal Communications of Japan. The aims of this project are to raise awareness of the social services that Posts already deliver, and to support further innovation and utilization of postal networks for social goals. These aims will be achieved by gathering international case studies, publishing a guide to implementing social services, and undertaking a pilot project with designated operators to introduce a new social service in 2020.

A total of 110 UPU members responded to a survey on social services, issued in December 2019. Of these, 80% confirmed that they offer some type of social service, and 59% have plans to offer new social services in the future. Our members reported a wide variety of postal social services, which are summarized in the document below:

If you have any questions about postal social services, please send an e-mail to: pss(at)upu.int