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Action Against Hunger recommends a bolder approach to universal social protection

18/03/2021

Action Against Hunger (AAH) France recently released a policy brief titled “Universal social protection in the aftermath of COVID-19: a step forward towards social justice.”

Through this paper, AAH looks back on the importance of developing rights-based social protection systems and on States’ commitments through the adoption of the 202 International Labour Organization’s recommendations on social protection floors. The document highlights how the macroeconomic policies of international financial institutions, and the social protection programmes they promote, have a negative impact on the realisation of the right to social protection for all, and offers recommendations to reverse this approach and deliver a new paradigm.

The paper highlights the flaws of a targeted approach to social protection, which “have been found to have higher administrative costs than universal ones, and exclude many people who need, and have the right to, protection.”

The paper recommends a bolder approach to universal social protection and calls on governments, development partners – in particular, G20 States (with a particular focus on France), the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group – to make a major shift towards social justice, through the promotion of universal social protection floors.

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Blog: The vaccine against poverty, inequality and insecurity needs a stronger prescription

Podcast: “Universal social security and the social contract”

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