The IMF admits “narrow focus on poverty targeting,” but workers see “no clear change in policy”
The IMF has acknowledged it has had an “overly narrow focus on means-tested targeting” in social protection and that life-cycle benefits have some advantages. The details of the new IMF social...
“Redistributive” social protection key tool for addressing rising inequality, says global coalition
Rising inequality is a setback for the Sustainable Development Goals and must be combatted by improving coverage and adequacy of social protection systems, according to the Global Coalition for Social...
Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan lose out in their struggle with the IMF over the targeting of child benefits
All those supporting inclusive social protection will be sad to hear that, in the past couple of months, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia have both lost out to the International Monetary Fund in their struggles to establish universal child benefits. The IMF has obliged both countries to target their schemes at those...
Social Protection through the Looking Glass: Lewis Carroll’s parable for the unwary
What can a 19th Century work of literary nonsense teach us about global social protection debates? To mark April Fools’ Day, our guest blogger Nicholas Freeland suggests that Lewis Carroll’s work The Walrus and the Carpenter can tell us more more about prevailing dogmas in the sector than you might imagine! Lewis Carroll...
The political economy of social protection
The Academy on Social Security is organised by the International Training Centre of the ILO. It runs this year from 16 – 27 September. Stephen Kidd, Senior Social Policy Specialist...
Hit and Miss: An assessment of targeting effectiveness in social protection with additional analysis
This paper (now updated with additional analysis as of June 2020) is the result of a global review of the effectiveness of different methods of selecting social protection recipients, both...
Poverty-targeting harms non-beneficiary children in the Philippines
Credit where credit is due. The World Bank recently published a report on the Philippines Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Programme scheme showing that, among young children excluded from the scheme, stunting rates increased by an average of 11 percentage points. In contrast, among beneficiary children aged 6 to 36 months, stunting fell by...
A progressive moment: Social protection’s rationale identified as citizenship, not charity at IMF/LSE event
Matthew Greenslade The London School of Economics is where the welfare state was invented. Social protection is now needed more than ever, everywhere, to address rising challenges of high inequality and political upheaval. A new social contract is needed, in all countries. Higher income countries have designed their welfare states,...
Poverty-targeting, politics and a pension delivered – our year of resources reviewed
Our blog highlighting the extent of the IMF’s involvement in the decisions of sovereign nations topped the list of our most accessed resources in 2018. The list, which included materials on the politics of social protection schemes, implementing disability-inclusive social protection, and harnessing technology in programme registration, is revealed today...
What a bunch of oxymorons in international social protection!
Nicholas Freeland Let me begin by clarifying that an oxymoron is not some kind of bovine nincompoop. An oxymoron defines a phrase that is inherently self-contradictory. The word itself is a good example, deriving as it does from two contradictory Greek words: ὀξύς (oxys), which means sharp or clever, and...