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Nepal launches national campaign to bring informal workers into social security pmassetti ilo.org (24.12.2025) The campaign, launched by the Social Security Fund (SSF) in collaboration with ILO Nepal, brings together government institutions, employers’ and workers’ organizations, local governments, civil society, and the media to expand social security coverage to those most in need. Extension of coverage nepal
China studying better benefits for gig workers, with inspiration from Singapore pmassetti asianews.network (08.01.2026) In December, top lawmakers deliberated ways to offer better legal protection for the country’s workers in flexible employment, based on a report that pointed out that “issues such as unstable income and insufficient labour protection persist” despite strides made in recent years. digital platforms Platform workers china
Social protection and coloniality: learning from the past and present: framework paper pmassetti idos-research.de (2025) The historical influence of colonial powers and the continued, deep-rooted engagement of international development actors in shaping social protection systems is widely recognized across academic and policy arenas. Nevertheless, evidence of the role of coloniality in social protection remains limited. This Discussion Paper explores the enduring impact of colonialism on contemporary social protection systems by considering the role of coloniality in social protection in the Global South, and Africa in particular. Africa
Towards a Coordinated Approach to Formalisation in Jordan: Mapping Systems, Challenges, and Opportunities pmassetti ilo.org (22.12.2025) The informal economy in Jordan plays a significant role in providing livelihoods, yet its scale and dynamics present important challenges for ensuring that workers and enterprises can benefit fully from the protections and opportunities of formality. This ILO study provides a structured mapping of the regulations, policies, actors, and interventions shaping formalisation in Jordan. It identifies the structural factors that sustain informality—including high formalisation costs and limited institutional coordination—and outlines options for more integrated, systemic solutions. Grounded in ILO Recommendation No. 204, the report emphasises that formalisation is a multi-layered transformation involving government institutions, the private sector, and workers. Drawing on primary interviews and extensive policy and data review, the study offers an evidence-based assessment of the challenges and opportunities for strengthening formalisation. It supports ongoing national efforts to link social protection, employment, and enterprise development in pursuit of a more resilient, fair, and inclusive economy. Extension of coverage jordan
Towards a Unified Social Benefit in Portugal pmassetti oecd.org (Sept 2025) A Review of the Existing Social Benefits in Portugal and Reform Proposals for an Improved System portugal
Labour Reforms: Formalising and Safeguarding India’s Gig & Platform Workforce pmassetti Government of India (dec 2025) Gig & platform workers are formally recognised under labour law Social security benefits include life & disability cover, health & maternity benefits, pension, accident insurance, and crèche. Aggregators contribute to a Social Security Fund, and facilitation centre to address worker grievances to be setup by Government. Each worker gets a unique Aadhaar-linked ID on e-Shram, making benefits portable across platforms. Platform workers
Developing Innovative Community-Based Long-Term Care Systems and Services pmassetti Asian Development Bank (Nov 2025) Showcasing innovative community-based long-term care (LTC) models in Indonesia, Mongolia, and Viet Nam, this publication looks at ways integrated and holistic care and support services can underpin aging in place and improve health outcomes. Health, Long-term care
Lao students lead innovation at National Symposium on Social Protection pmassetti ilo.org (11.12.2025) Student teams showcase creative ideas to strengthen social assistance systems, bringing fresh perspectives to national policy discussions. Innovation capacity laos
Lao People’s Democratic Republic launches its first social security mobile application pmassetti ilo.org (12.12.2025) Developed with the support of the ILO-China Partnership Programme, the app represents a milestone in modernising social protection. Mobile technologies laos
Africa’s biometric-ID systems blocking millions of citizens from rights and services pmassetti ids.ac.uk (04.12.2025) Millions of citizens in Africa are unable to obtain essential services that they are entitled to as new digital ID systems continue being imposed across the continent, requiring them to provide biometric and personal information, new research reveals. Biometrics Africa
Building Rights-Based Unemployment Protection Schemes: Guidance from ILO Social Security Standards pmassetti ilo.org (05.12.2025) As crises become more frequent and complex, robust unemployment protection systems are essential to safeguard income security and support full, productive and freely chosen employment. This new ILO brief provides practical guidance for building rights-based unemployment protection schemes that deliver on these goals.  Employment
Scoping Review on Innovative Climate Financing for Social Protection in Rural Areas pmassetti socialprotection.org (2025) This scoping review investigates the potential for channelling innovative climate finance into social protection systems with a specific focus on rural populations. Given the escalating global impacts of the triple planetary crisis (UNFCCC, 2022) – climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution – social protection is increasingly recognised as a vital policy tool for advancing climate adaptation and mitigation, supporting the Just Transition, and responding to losses and damages. This scoping review presents four promising climate finance instruments – sustainable bonds, debt swaps, carbon and biodiversity credits, impact bonds – that could be used to mobilise new resources for government-led social protection. It analyses each instrument's thematic alignment with both social protection and climate action; its potential to ensure a predictable and sustainable funding flow toward national financial systems; and its accessibility for governments of low and middle-income countries (LMICs) and small island developing states (SIDS). Finally, the review assesses their potential impact on vulnerable populations (including rural populations) and synthesises the evidence of success from other sectors. We also explore how blended finance models can be leveraged as an overarching approach to strengthen social protection systems. The study is distinctive in that it prioritises how these instruments can support social protection systems to contribute to long-term adaptation and mitigation goals rather than focusing on their role in shock response. rural world Environment and climate change
Best practices for developing and managing interoperability standards - Digital Convergence Initiative pmassetti Digital Convergence Initiative (nov 2025) This publication presents the results of a study conducted to identify best practices from public financial management (PFM) standards (PEFA, SDMX, GFSM), healthcare interoperability standards (HL7 FHIR, IHE), and ISO standards to inform the development of DCI standards. The study highlights several key factors behind successful interoperability standards: Engaging a diverse and extensive pool of experts, while keeping a clear focus, drives adoption and prevents complexity. A robust change management framework, with clearly-defined processes for proposing, reviewing, and approving updates, ensures consistency and transparency. A precise stakeholder framework, delineating roles, committee and work group formation, and transparent processes for participation, fosters inclusive and effective governance. A standard must be maintained as a single, cohesive entity, versioned as a unified bundle to mitigate issues. Once a standard reaches a critical level of adoption, the focus should shift to building momentum by implementing incentives, conducting thorough testing, establishing clear metrics, aligning with regulatory requirements, fostering community engagement, and providing practical support to encourage and sustain further adoption. Community-driven standards often require localisation to reflect local user requirements. To support implementation, it is important to publish comprehensive, open documentation on standards, as well as making available reference examples for implementation and holding regular Connectathon events to ensure the practicability and usability of standards. Sustained community contributions through financial and in-kind inputs, combined with opportunities for implementers to benefit from participation, help ensure independence. Together, these practices offer a roadmap for the DCI to develop robust, inclusive, and interoperable standards, enhancing efficiency and connectivity across social protection systems. Interoperability
US: Reforming Long-Term Care Policy pmassetti ldi.upenn.edu (dec 2025) For more than 60 years, Congress has debated public policy around long-term care. Meanwhile, middle-class American families struggle to afford the care their older relatives need. Most people will need help with basic daily activities at some point in their lives, and many will be unable to pay for it. In this brief, we present an overview of the current long-term care crisis and its historical context . We present a range of options for reforming federal policy, from changing Medicaid and Medicare to creating a new public insurance program and addressing private market failures. We also illustrate the very real costs of the status quo, in the words of people facing the challenges of aging with dignity and providing care for their loved ones as they age. Long-term care United States
Finances publiques : la France face au bouleversement démographique pmassetti lemonde-fr (02.12.2025) Dans un rapport rendu public mardi 2 décembre, la Cour des comptes a analysé les conséquences de la baisse de la fertilité et du vieillissement de la population sur les finances publiques. Old-age pensions france
Demographic and Workforce Projections in Italy and Sweden: Social Security Challenges and Prospects pmassetti E-Journal of International and Comparative Labour Studies (Vol. 14 No. 2 - 2025) This paper examines the challenges facing European social security systems, focusing on Italy and Sweden’s differing approaches to pension reform amid ageing populations. It analyses how demographic shifts—such as declining fertility and increased longevity—are impacting the balance between contributors and beneficiaries in pay-as-you-go (PAYG) schemes. The study contrasts Sweden’s rapid, intergenerationally fair transition from non-financial defined benefit (NDB) to non-financial defined contribution (NDC) pensions with Italy’s slower, rights-based approach. It also discusses key design features for NDC sustainability, the role of solidarity, and the shifting relationship between public and private actors in welfare provision. Pensions Europe
Mapping of Humanitarian, Development and Social Protection initiatives in the MENA Region pmassetti socialprotection.org (2025) The MENA region faces increasing vulnerability, displacement and humanitarian needs that outpace available resources. While social protection systems exist in several countries, conflict, fragility and parallel humanitarian responses have strained national efforts. Strengthening coordination between humanitarian, development and SP actors is critical to ensure more coherent, efficient and sustainable support and impact. This mapping exercise provides an overview of existing regional and national SP coordination initiatives, identifying gaps and opportunities to enhance regional coordination to support building stronger and more adaptive systems in crisis-affected contexts and to promote cross-country synergies. Extension of coverage, Shocks & extreme events arabic countries
Digitalisation of social protection | Eurofound rruggia This report focuses on the digitalisation of front- and back-office processes in monetary social benefits. In 10 EU Member States and Norway, a digital application is possible for all, or all but one, of the nine benefits investigated. In at least five Member States, paper applications have been discontinued for some of the benefits. The automation of benefits, which removes the need to apply and prevents non-take-up, is most common for child benefits. Digitalisation is often applied to identify overpayments, but rarely to detect cases of non-take-up. It also plays a role in assessing applications and processing documents. People in atypical situations are often excluded from digital processes. Trust can be enhanced by engaging stakeholders in system development and strengthening the roles of research, civil society and the judiciary. The resource savings made possible by digitalisation are often envisaged as being used to provide additional support for people who need it, but evidence for this is lacking. E-services, Technological transition european union
Why private pensions can’t fix the ageing problem pmassetti reuters.com (20.11.2025) Across Europe, politicians increasingly tout private pensions as a cure-all for reviving stagnant stock exchanges, fostering entrepreneurship and curbing ballooning public spending as populations age. But any governments that bet on this solution may be disappointed. A proliferation of individual piggybanks will not solve the deeper challenges that flow from having purchasing power ever-more concentrated in older hands. Pensions
Pakistan: BISP Rolls Out Social Protection Wallet, Distributes Free SIMs to One Million Women pmassetti dailyindependent.com (18.11.2025) The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) has launched a revolutionary Social Protection Wallet for its registered beneficiary women, marking a historic step towards digital financial inclusion. In line with Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s vision for a cashless economy, BISP has begun distributing free mobile SIMs to approximately one million eligible women across the country. This initiative also reflects the social protection vision of President Asif Ali Zardari and is considered among the largest social protection projects globally. Digital inclusion pakistan
Understanding ageism at the intersections: learning to inform future research, programming and advocacy (2024–25) pmassetti helpage.org (05.11.2025) HelpAge International’s 2024–25 Learning Report explores how ageism interacts with other forms of discrimination such as ableism and sexism, and how social factors like displacement, poverty, and gender shape older people’s experiences of exclusion. Old-age pensions
Jordan explores global models to extend social security coverage through contribution subsidies pmassetti ilo.org (13.11.2025) Organized under the framework of the Estidama++ programme, implemented by the SSC with technical support from the ILO and funding from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Norway, the workshop aimed at fostering dialogue dialogue and knowledge exchange international experiences and mechanisms for contribution subsidies across different national contexts. It also highlighted the Jordanian experience through the Estidama++ programme as a national model for developing contribution subsidy mechanisms to include workers in the informal economy. Extension of coverage jordan
From Reform to Reality: Understanding Perceptions of Iraq’s New Social Security Law pmassetti ilo.org (11.11.2025) A new ILO report, From Reform to Reality: Understanding Perceptions of Iraq’s New Social Security Law, presents evidence from a rapid survey of 121 formal enterprises and 300 workers in Baghdad and Basra. The findings show strong support for the objectives of the 2023 social security reform, but also reveal persistent gaps in awareness, enrolment and access to benefits. While most employers report registering their workers, many workers are unaware of their coverage, and only a small share have attempted to claim benefits. Both employers and workers point to administrative complexity, limited information, and low digital readiness as key barriers. The study underscores the need for simpler procedures, stronger enforcement, improved communication, and digital service expansion to ensure that Iraq’s private sector workforce can fully benefit from the law’s protections. managing reforms iraq
Spain: EU gig-workers still exploited, despite landmark laws pmassetti euobserver.com (11.11.2025) In Spain, there are three main food delivery platforms operating in the market: Glovo (by far the largest in the country, headquartered in Barcelona), Just Eat, and Uber Eats - each of them have reacted differently to the country's 2021 Rider Law. digital platforms Platform workers spain
Caring for the Future: Redefining development through care politics pmassetti ilo.org (03.11.2025) This document analyzes how Chile, Morocco, the Philippines and Spain are advancing in the design and implementation of public care policies, highlighting their progress, challenges and lessons learned. The report demonstrates that investing in care systems can create jobs, reduce inequalities and strengthen social protection. Health