Affordable social security: the case of Uzbekistan
It is an article of faith among neoliberals that developing countries can afford to invest very little in social security. For example, in its Social Protection Strategy for Africa, the World Bank questions the fiscal affordability of universal pensions of southern Africa despite their relatively small budgets of between 0.5%...
“Progress Can Kill” – on Rethinking Development
In this blog, Olivia Woxell challenges the current direction of development and its focus on economic growth. She argues that this direction is driven by western values and that development should not be a one-size fits all concept. Otherwise, it causes more harm than good. Olivia demonstrates the disastrous effects that development has brought indigenous communities. Once happily self-sufficient, their health and well-being then plummet, while rates of depression, addiction and suicide soar. Development and progress must be about freedom. It must allow people to live the lives that they want to lead. If it is repressive, then it is not development at all.
The design and management of cash transfer programmes: an overview
Social protection programmes are increasingly recognised as an important tool for tackling poverty and inequality in developing countries, with many implementing large-scale cash transfer programmes aiming to offer comprehensive access...
Pension promotes wellbeing and impacts economy, evaluation for Uganda concludes
Findings of a new quantitative assessment of the impact of the Senior Citizens Grant in Uganda show that the programme has made deeper impacts than previously discovered. The findings of...
Lost in translation in social protection: rights and development
Those of us working on social protection have, most likely, interacted with both the human rights and international development worlds and noticed their somewhat different approaches to social protection. While there is some overlap between the approaches, they often struggle to work collaboratively. We need to develop a shared language...
Social pensions and their contribution to economic growth
A Ugandan Ministry of Gender, Labour & Social Development and the Expanding Social Protection programme report reviews evidence on how social pensions help expand local economies. It says that a number...
Are you designing social protection schemes from a charity or a citizenship paradigm?
Social protection is not always beneficial and popular. A way of predicting whether a programme will have positive impacts and be supported by voters is to identify whether it falls...