Is Latin America Transitioning from Poor Relief CCTs to a More Progressive and Inclusive Vision of Social Security?

Despite all the hype around poor relief conditional cash transfers (CCTs) in Latin America, the ideology underpinning social protection in the continent is shifting. While CCTs are targeted at the poor – with the result that the majority of the poor are excluded (see here for an explanation) – a growing...

Thailand’s Old Age Pension: an example of the importance of good quality analysis

I recently come across a draft report by the World Bank on Thailand’s old age pension system. The report states it is for consultation, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to provide a few thoughts and helpfully point out a key problem with the analysis. In 2009, Thailand implemented a large-scale...

Uganda’s Old Age Pension: Who Benefits?

Uganda has been piloting two social protection schemes over the last few years, under its Expanding Social Protection (ESP) Programme. This is a 5-year government programme, supported by DFID and Irish AID. The pilot schemes are intended to gather evidence on impacts of cash transfers as a means of informing...

The Imperatives for Social Protection

Nigeria must establish a social assistance/security system that caters to vulnerable members of society such as the extremely poor and the disabled. This fund must be targeted at persons who have not and/or cannot make any contribution to pension.

Bangladesh approves, in principle, its National Social Security Strategy

In early April 2015, the Cabinet of the Government of Bangladesh approved in principle its new National Social Security Strategy (NSSS), subject to some changes. Since independence, Bangladesh has instituted a range of social security schemes although the level of investment in conventional cash-based schemes has remained relatively low, at...

Africa Must Improve Its Social Services

The African welfare state and how it distributes resources is an interesting point of analysis. While some people see an all-inclusive welfare state structure, others see a system that overwhelmingly favours an economic elite. I belong to this latter group, writes Tochukwu Akunyili. Most African countries lack a coherent welfare...

A new dawn for social protection: a proposal to transform all social security programmes into conditional cash transfers

At Development Pathways, we like to please everyone. Recently, we’ve become particularly concerned by the continuing desire of many people to sanction poor and vulnerable families through the use of punitive conditions, despite the absolute lack of evidence of any added value from their use. So we’ve been racking our...

Equal pensions, equal rights: achieving universal pension coverage for older women and men in developing countries

In most countries, state pensions are financed from pay-roll taxes. However, such pensions have a strong male bias, with more men than women accessing them while also receiving higher benefits....

Pensheni Kwa Wote! Building the Social Protection Floor for Older Persons in Kenya

The 31st of March 2017 marked a great step forward for Kenya with the announcement of a social pension for all older persons. Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich – the Minister of Finance – presented the 2017/18 Budget to both Houses of Parliament which included measures to address poverty through social...

Grandmas, Pensions and Female Genital Cutting

Rebecca Calder reports on the surprising finding that pensions may be contributing to a reduction in female genital cutting in Karamoja, Uganda. In the 7th edition of our Pathways Perspectives...