South Africa introduced a new amendment to the parental leave policy in October 2025. The aim was to provide equitable rights for all parents. Noreth Muller-Kluits, a disability researcher and social worker by training, examines the policy as it affects people living with disabilities. Her recent…
This paper explores how the evolving platform economy is reshaping the economic landscape across Asia and the Pacific, and how countries in this diverse region are navigating emerging opportunities and challenges. It situates platform work within the broader context of the region's economic…
worldbank.org (2026) This note and accompanying database present preliminary analysis from real-time tracking of country responses worldwide. The analysis encompasses 195 countries and 17 variables yielding 3,842 individual data points. Social policy actions have been classified under 5 program…
ILO Social Protection (2026) Agricultural and rural workers in different types of employment face several challenges and barriers due to the largely informal nature of their employment, their exclusion from national social protection legislation, policies or practice, their vulnerabilities to…
theconversation.com (14.04.2026) Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has grown too big, too fast.
The NDIS is a government-funded program providing support to more than 760,000 disabled Australians. It launched in 2013 as a way to make disability support more accessible and…
theconversation.com (13.04.2026) The familiar silhouette of bike and scooter delivery workers has become part of Paris’ urban landscape. For many city dwellers who rely on them to deliver meals to their door, these precarious workers remain largely “invisible” in surveys and public statistics.
Yet…
(Reuters) - Italy's population has stabilised after 12 years of decline, with immigration almost entirely offsetting a shrinking number of births, while life expectancy continues to rise, national statistics agency ISTAT said on Tuesday.
Preliminary data showed the resident population stood at 58…
Digital Convergence Initiative (April 2026) This report examines the barriers and enablers of digital interoperability aimed at enhancing the cross-border portability of social security entitlements across contributory schemes that address key life-cycle risks. Conducted under the Digital…
LSE Business Review (25.03.2026) Planning for retirement is one of the biggest financial commitments most people will make in their lifetimes. But our ability to do so depends on our wage, age, gender, financial literacy, location and, above all, confidence in investing. Sophia Dancygier explains…
wider.unu.edu (2026) South Africa has a relatively well-developed social protection system for a middle-income country. Despite its roots in the country’s racially discriminatory past, the system has been repurposed post-apartheid to address deep poverty and severe inequality. This paper…
jls-consulting.org (19.03.2026) On 29 February 2024, Zambia declared a national disaster. The El Niño-induced drought had pushed over 9 million people into deepening insecurity across 84 districts. One of the drought’s policy lessons was not only that households needed more support, but that…
Chinadaily.com.cn (26.03.2026) China has formally launched a national long-term care insurance program after a decade of pilot programs, establishing what it calls a "sixth pillar" of social security to ease the burden on families caring for a rapidly aging population.
The framework, issued in a…
cepr.org (21.03.2026) China is undergoing a sharp demographic transition: rapid population ageing, a shrinking labour force, persistently low fertility, and continued urbanisation. Using an overlapping-generations framework, this column shows that the demographic transition is a joint growth and…
english.scio.gov.cn Chinese officials elaborated on the country s landmark childcare subsidy program at a press conference Wednesday, noting that the subsidy applies equally to first, second, and third children, regardless of household registration, ethnicity or location.
Earlier this week,…
worldbank.org (18-02-2026) Indonesia’s population is aging, signaling both challenges and opportunities for the nation’s workforce. The old-age dependency ratio, the proportion of elderly to the working-age population, is expected to more than double over the next quarter of a century, from 11.0…
ilo.org (02.03.2026) A new ILO policy brief highlights that gender must be a core consideration in the design and implementation of social health protection schemes.
This article traces the evolution of care in Latin America from concept to political agenda to their institutionalization as national care systems. Rooted in gender equality agendas and supported by sustained feminist mobilization, care agendas in the region have advanced significantly, reframing…
news.cgtn.com (05.03.2026) China will advance a proactive national strategy in response to population aging, according to the government work report submitted on Thursday to the country's top legislature for deliberation.
The report prioritizes elderly care services in rural areas. Minimum basic…
developmentpathways.co.uk (february 2026) Nigeria faces a growing old age poverty risk as most workers, especially in the informal economy, lack reliable pension coverage. In this Perspective, Pietro Bonanome, Social Protection Specialist at Development Pathways, argues that the voluntary Micro…
ilo.org(25.02.2026) This Intervention Model aims to provide policymakers and practitioners with succinct practical guidance on how to extend social protection to migrant workers, refugees and other displaced populations so as to protect them against the adverse effects of climate change, while also…
cgap.org (February 2026) This Working Paper reviews how different countries have designed pension schemes for informal workers. It focuses on contributory schemes for the “missing middle”: informal workers who have sufficiently stable incomes to save for old age but lack access to suitable pension…
theconversation.com (05.02.2026) For nearly three decades, decisions about which medicines the NHS pays for have not been made by ministers, but by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, known as Nice. Its job has been powerful: to act as a check on the pharmaceutical industry by…
iadb.org (August 2025) The System for the Identification of Potential Beneficiaries of Social Programs (Sisbén) is Colombias main instrument for targeting social policies. To date, Sisbén has gone through four versions and uses statistical tools and techniques to identify and rank the population…
worldbank.org (22.01.2026) Governments in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face growing pressure to create jobs amid shrinking fiscal space and weak growth prospects. Employment solutions - like active labor market programs (ALMPs), regulatory reforms, or alignment of social programs - are…
dailynews.co.tz THE Prime Minister’s Office – Labour, Employment and Persons with Disabilities is set to launch the National Social Protection Policy of 2023 and the National Social Security Scheme for Self-Employed Persons in the Informal Sector (NISS) in Arusha today.
According to a statement…
