How effective are pension systems in ensuring a minimum income in old age? An index to measure global progress
Our Social Policy Specialist, Anh Tran, has gathered data from a range of sources to provide a snapshot of the world’s pension systems in terms of their ability to guarantee the old age population a minimum pension.
Digital Transformation in the age of COVID-19
Digital progress in the public sector has been slow in the past, but the economic, social and political challenges presented by the COVID-19 crisis and resulting lockdown have forced governments to accelerate their transformation plans.
Towards a Strong and Prosperous Indonesian Society
We have provided technical support in order to help the Government of Indonesia to improve the quality and effectiveness of programmes to reduce poverty.
Can you picture the right to social security?
By Alexandra Barrantes (Development Pathways), and Anna Bulman and Ria Singh Sawhney (Picture Human Rights) Development Pathways and Picture Human Rights have collaborated on a new mini-series on the human right to social security that seeks to demonstrate, through illustration, the importance of framing social protection debates and policy...
Moving beyond charity in the SWANA region – the time is now for a new social contract
Is it time for a new social contract based on universal social protection in the Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region?
Social registries: a short history of abject failure
This paper, which was written in partnership with Act Church of Sweden, examines the utility of the so-called "social registry" - a database that determines people's eligibility for welfare programs - within social protection.
Gates-for-all by the year 2025? Let us kick-start a Global Fund for Social Protection by crowdfunding
Our guest blogger, Michael Cichon, is the former Director of the ILO’s Social Security Department and led the creation of the Social Protection Floor. He is still actively engaged in providing advice on social security globally. At the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, we still have...
SIDA’s event highlights lessons for progressive realisation of universal social protection to decrease inequality
In an event titled “Expanding social protection to decrease inequality,” Carin Jämtin, Director General of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), emphasised that “COVID-19 presents an opportunity for universal...
Training on the political economy of targeting social security programmes
The politics of social protection do not enjoy as much of the focus of donors and UN agencies as the economics. But an understanding of the distribution of power between...
Is the World Bank’s report on Universal Basic Income taking universality seriously?
The World Bank recently published a report on Universal Basic Income. In her comments, Gunnel Axelsson Nycander appreciates several aspects of the report, but also points at issues that are missing. The World Bank is not known for promoting universal social protection. Rather, it is seen as one of the...