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Chile's Congress approves reform to private pension system pmassetti Reuters (29.02.2025) Chile's Congress approved a reform to the country's controversial private pension system on Wednesday, clearing the way for the bill to be signed by President Gabriel Boric. With 110 votes in favor and 38 against, the reform includes increased employer contributions, raises the guaranteed minimum pension and modifies the country's private Chile's Pension Fund Administrators (AFP) system. Pension reform was a key campaign promise by Boric, who rode a wave of left-wing optimism to the presidency following mass protests against inequality.
Greece Moves to Digitize Pension Records in Effort to Speed Up Payments - Dnews pmassetti As part of this modernization effort, EFKA is upgrading its ATLAS pension allocation system by digitizing paper records from 1980 onwards across all primary and supplementary insurance funds.
Including those in need, when they need it: Why dynamic social registries matter in shock-prone contexts like the Sahel pmassetti worldbank.org (29.01.2025) The Sahel is faced with increasingly frequent and severe interconnected shocks, particularly those related to climate change and conflict, exacerbating risks and vulnerabilities to poverty, food insecurity, inequality, and low levels of human capital. To effectively respond to these crises, governments require systems enabling them to rapidly and accurately identify sudden changes in household welfare. A new study supported by the Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program (SASPP), explores how dynamic social registries, as essential delivery systems, can play this role, effectively assessing changes in welfare among poor and vulnerable populations, those affected by climate change, and forcibly displaced groups. poverty Service delivery, Shocks & extreme events Africa
India: Government to Provide ID Cards and Security for Gig Workers pmassetti thedailyguardian.com 801.02.20259 Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Budget 2025 speech, announced that the government will issue ID cards to gig workers. These workers will also get healthcare benefits through a social security scheme. Moreover, the government will invest in street vendors, urban workers, and online platform workers to improve their financial security. digital platforms Extension of coverage, Platform workers india
Marco de Ciberseguridad rruggia Marco de Ciberseguridad - Reference website of AGESIC, the uruguayan egov agency. cybersecurity Security uruguay
Publication: State of the Art of Social Registries in Latin America and the Caribbean pmassetti worldbank.org (2025) The World Bank has worked to strengthen social registries in LAC and globally for several decades. This technical note aims to contribute to reducing the knowledge gap on the state of the art and challenges of social registries in LAC, identify where they are about various analysis criteria, and generate recommendations on strategies to strengthen and consolidate their role in the design, implementation, and evaluation of social policies in the region. This technical note is organized into five sections, including this introduction. The second section presents the role of social registries in social policy. Section three presents the evolution of social registries in LAC and how they adapted to the challenges that arose to provide immediate responses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The fourth part generally describes the state of the art of social registries in the region, analyzed from five pillars: (i) institutional arrangements, (ii) structural aspects, (iii) implementation chain, (iv) information and interoperability systems, and (v) performance measures. The fifth section presents the main challenges facing the registries and the study's recommendations. Data management latin america
Thailand: Implementation of the Employee Welfare Fund pmassetti wtwco.com (15.01.2025) The Employee Welfare Fund, Thailand’s much-anticipated financial safety net for employees, is set to launch in late 2025, bringing new contribution requirements for employers and their workforces. thailand
China: Expansion of voluntary personal pension system - WTW pmassetti In 2022, China’s central government piloted new tax incentives in 36 cities and regions to encourage employees to make voluntary contributions to individual retirement accounts to complement social security pension benefits and help address the challenges of a rapidly aging population. After a successful pilot, the system is now fully implemented nationwide as of December 15, 2024. Pensions china
Artificial Intelligence and Social Protection: a tool for enhanced efficiency or for exclusion? pmassetti socialprotection.org (15.01.2025) Artificial Intelligence (AI) has undergone rapid advancements in recent times in terms of computational power and general usage of algorithms across multiple areas, such as healthcare diagnosis, fraud detection and public service delivery. As we will see in this post, usage of AI, particularly algorithms, is not novel in public policy or in social protection and tends to increase (Benoit 2024). The wider acceptance of AI and general utilization of algorithms in public policy serves as the main point of contention. On one hand, as datasets are more widely available, improvements in generative AI take place, and stakeholders are further incentivized into using these tools (Ohlenburg 2020, Benoit 2024). To this end, efficiency is a major objective in using AI, notably on improving the usage of public resources (Murray 2024). On the other hand, efficiency usually comes at a cost, with risks at multiple fronts, be it on transparency or ethics (Bennoit 2024, Vredenburgh 2024), inclusion challenges (Considine et al 2022), among others. Based on this background, we briefly present how AI is (can potentially be) used in social protection, with a focus on automated decision-making. Next, we discuss the risks of exclusion of the most vulnerable, accompanying mitigation measures and good practices. Artificial intelligence
What Does a Good Digital Welfare State Look Like? pmassetti Institute of Development Studies (17.12.2024) The introduction of ‘digital-by-default’ welfare and social protection systems in the UK and beyond has delivered efficiencies and cost savings for governments and can be convenient for recipients. But, given the rapid pace of change, we need to understand the ethical, social, and political implications of digital welfare from the perspectives of the poorest and most marginalised members of our societies. In the face of a growing body of research on these communities’ challenges in accessing their entitlements, this briefing looks at what a ‘good’ digital welfare state might look like. Our research shows the need for systems which are designed to treat people with care and dignity, inclusivity, adaptiveness, and transparency. Digital welfare systems need to work for the hardest to reach first. In the words of a workshop participant: ‘a good service makes you feel trust in the service itself, the platform, and the government’. E-services united kingdom
Prepare now: Europe must get ready for the coming long-term care surge pmassetti bruegel.org (23.01.2025) Demographic change and ageing populations in European Union countries will impact many aspects of the economy and have a direct effect on long-term care (LTC) systems. Demand for LTC already exceeds supply in many EU countries, leading to the ‘care gap’. This gap is expected to widen, threatening quality of life for the elderly, exacerbating gender disparities and imposing significant economic costs. The root causes of the gap include demographic shifts, inadequate public investment, workforce shortages and a heavy reliance on informal caregiving. Women stand to lose the most if no steps are taken to prepare LTC systems for the coming surge in demand because care, both formal and informal, is predominantly provided by women. The care gap can be reduced by either increasing the supply of care or by reducing the demand for care. We assess LTC reforms in five EU countries and explain how these can affect the care gap by influencing demand and supply. Long-term care Europe
How Jharkhand is setting a precedent for universal social security in India: where there’s a will… pmassetti Development Pathways (27.01.2025) Who would’ve guessed that one of the boldest moves in designing social security benefits would come from—not even a country—but a state in India called Jharkhand? For those unfamiliar, Jharkhand is one of India’s poorest states,¹ nestled in the country’s eastern region, often making headlines for its mineral wealth rather than groundbreaking social policy. Yet here we are, talking about Jharkhand as the unlikely pioneer of what can only be described as a “‘Semi-UBI”: a universal basic income, but just for women aged 18 to 50. The recently revamped and relaunched Maaiya Samman Yojana is a universal, tax-financed social security benefit provided to all women in the selected age group across the state.² Simple as that: no complicated targeting mechanism or elaborate eligibility criteria, just a source of financial assistance that will be easily accessible to a high proportion of the female population. The central objective of the benefit is to empower women and improve their socio-economic conditions.³ It’s mainly aimed at mothers (which is why women of reproductive age were chosen), providing much-needed support in a state where life is far from easy for most families. Universal Social Protection, universal-basic-income india
Bringing Rwanda’s social protection practices onto the global stage pmassetti worldbank.org (Over the past two decades, Rwanda has transformed from a nation rebuilding after tragedy to a global example of economic inclusion. Its impressive 5% average annual per capita GDP growth since 2006 tells part of the story, but economic growth is just one piece of the puzzle. The real story lies in how this growth has touched lives, especially the most vulnerable, through initiatives like Gira Wigire, which means"to have dignity" in Kinyarwanda. poverty Extension of coverage, Social policies & programmes rwanda
India: Will Budget 2025 extend benefits like social security to gig workers? pmassetti business-standard.com (21.01.2025) While the new Code on Social Security 2020 defines ‘gig and platform’ workers and outlines various welfare measures like life and disability insurance, accident insurance, health and maternity benefits, and old-age protection, its non-implementation implies that millions of gig workers remain without any protection.   Labour Lawyer B C Prabhakar says that since the new labour codes are not yet implemented, it is pertinent that the government comes up with a holistic framework for the welfare of this bulging workforce in the upcoming budget. digital platforms Platform workers india
Three challenges of social protection in sub‐Saharan Africa: informality, climate change and pandemics pmassetti International Journal of Social Welfare (2025) This article provides an overview of social protection challenges in sub-Saharan Africa. It explores three main challenges: the integration of informal workers, the management of climate change and pandemics. Despite the proliferation of social protection programmes in sub-Saharan Africa, effective coverage remains low. About 76.3% of the population is not covered by any formal social protection mechanisms. Following the principle of qualitative comparative analysis, this article offers a twofold contribution. Firstly, it provides an overview of the diversity of social protection mechanisms in sub-Saharan Africa. This article proposes to describe the three categories of social protection using the concept of social protection mix: formal, semi-formal and informal. Secondly, using this concept, this study explores three major challenges of the social protection mix in sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, this article suggests ways to strengthen social protection systems that address new challenges and incorporate the diversity of social protection mechanisms. Africa
Financial incentives and flexible retirement: Quasi-experimental evidence from the Finnish pension system pmassetti Center for Open Science (2025). In 2017, Finland introduced a partial old-age pension scheme, allowing individuals to claim either 25 or 50 percent of their old-age pension after turning 61, irrespective of their employment status. Claiming a partial pension before the statutory retirement age results in a permanent reduction of the full old-age pension. Due to the rapid rise in consumer prices in 2022, individuals who claimed their pension before the end of 2022 benefited from a three-percentage points higher index adjustment in 2023, resulting in a permanently higher pension compared to those who claimed their pension in early 2023. In this study, we assess the causal effect of the financial incentive arising from the exceptional index adjustment on pension take-up using regression discontinuity design and full population register data. We also analyse differences in responses by socioeconomic status and gender. The extraordinary pension index adjustment increased the probability of claiming the partial old-age pension in the first month after becoming eligible for it by around 8 percentage points, or around 80 per cent. The effect is explained by individuals claiming a pension sooner than they would have in the absence of the exceptional index adjustment. Individuals with a higher pension accrual, higher earnings, or with upper tertiary education were more likely than others to respond to the index adjustment. Pensions finland
Are Belgian pensions really under threat? pmassetti vrt.be (13.01.2025) Unions are today taking action in defence of pension rights. The five parties negotiating a new federal government want to save cash on pensions. A major reform is inevitable, says formateur Bart De Wever (Flemish nationalist/N-VA). Teachers and NMBS staff fear they will have to work longer ultimately for lower pensions. What are the measures on the table? Pensions belgium
Publication: The Impact of Social Safety Nets on Economic, Social, and Political Outcomes in Fragile, Conflict, and Violent Contexts: A Review of Evidence pmassetti worldbank.org (13.01.2025) Social safety nets (SSNs) have emerged as a primary policy instrument in Fragile, Conflict, and Violence (FCV). Safety nets encompass a variety of non-contributory programs, primarily cash and in-kind transfers, accompanying measures, labor-intensive public works (LIPWs), and economic inclusion interventions aimed to provide regular, targeted, and predictable support to the poorest and most vulnerable households. SSNs can be designed and implemented as adaptive and flexible tools to respond to shocks and crises, expanding to reach more individuals or increasing support for current beneficiaries. In conflict settings, often marked by emergencies and limited government response capacity, safety nets can play a critical role in addressing urgent needs and preserving human capital and productive assets in the long term. Despite their increased use in fragile and conflict countries, the impacts of SSNs in such contexts are still not fully understood. This study, part of a broader analytical and research agenda supported by the World Bank's Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program, reviews and synthesizes available literature to better understand the impacts of SSNs on economic, social, and political outcomes in FCV settings. It explores the effects of SSN programs on household well-being, social cohesion and conflict or shaping attitudes toward state institutions, among others. The findings aim to inform the operational design and implementation of SSNs to promote positive outcomes and avoid exacerbating conflict risks. Shocks & extreme events
Publication: Pakistan Health Financing System Assessment: Providing an Empirical Foundation for National and Sub-National Health Financing Strategy Dialogues - Policy Brief pmassetti worldbank.org (13.01.2025) Accelerated progress towards and achievement of universal health coverage (UHC) has become a central goal of the Government of Pakistan’s (GoP) policy agenda in health in recent years. Both at the center and in the provinces, Pakistan’s domestic governments have now consistently reiterated, through the National Health Vision 2016–2025 and other essential agenda setting documents, their joint commitments to making UHC and primary care access a priority across the country. The federal and provincial governments have initiated critical UHC and primary health care (PHC) related interventions. First, Pakistan has become an early adopter of the Disease Control Priority 3 (DCP3) framework and, in collaboration with the DCP3 Secretariat and the World Health Organization (WHO), has begun implementing for the first time a prioritized Essential Package of Health Services (EPHS). Another major program led by the federal government and now adopted by the provincial governments is the social health protection initiative, the Sehat Sahulat Program (SSP). The program, a tax-financed scheme, provides cash-free coverage to inpatient hospital services at empaneled public and private hospitals for eligible low-income populations (households earning less than US2 dollar per day). The EPHS and the public health insurance scheme are two promising developments that together hold the potential to expand health coverage, grow existing health finance resource pools, and improve efficiency of public health expenditures. Each would in turn help achieve broader objectives in a health financing system that has to date produced concerningly lagging health and human development outcomes. However, faced with resource needs significantly higher than current health expenditures, and a particularly turbulent near-term macro-fiscal environment, the GoP’s ability to sustainably fund crucial UHC priorities has become decidedly uncertain. Health pakistan
Nigeria: PenCom targets 20 million contributors under micro-pension scheme pmassetti thesun.ng (23.12.2024) The National Pension Commission (PenCom) is targeting inclusion of over 20 million contributors in its Micro Pension Scheme as part of its plans to overhaul and expand the commission’s landscape. The commission said the overhauling of the Micro Pension Plan (MPP) was part of a broader strategy to increase financial inclusion and extend pension coverage to more Nigerians, particularly in the informal sector. Pensions nigeria
Global Trends in Government Innovation 2024 pmassetti oecd.org (19.12.2024) Governments worldwide are transforming public services through innovative approaches that place people at the center of design and delivery. This report analyses nearly 800 case studies from 83 countries and identifies five critical trends in government innovation that are reshaping public services. First, governments are working with users and stakeholders to co-design solutions and anticipate future needs to create flexible, responsive, resilient and sustainable public services. Second, governments are investing in scalable digital infrastructure, experimenting with emergent technologies (such as automation, AI and modular code), and expanding innovative and digital skills to make public services more efficient. Third, governments are making public services more personalised and proactive to better meet people's needs and expectations and reduce psychological costs and administrative frictions, ensuring they are more accessible, inclusive and empowering, especially for persons and groups in vulnerable and disadvantaged circumstances. Fourth, governments are drawing on traditional and non-traditional data sources to guide public service design and execution. They are also increasingly using experimentation to navigate highly complex and unpredictable environments. Finally, governments are reframing public services as opportunities and channels for citizens to exercise their civic engagement and hold governments accountable for upholding democratic values such as openness and inclusion. Innovation capacity
UK: Who chooses to work, and who is forced to, after retirement? pmassetti theconversation.com (20.12.2024) The state pension age in the UK is currently 66. Yet 9.5% of people aged 66 and older (1.12 million people) were still working, according to the most recent data from the UK’s Annual Population Survey (July 2023 to June 2024). This figure has been rising over the past decade, increasing from 8.70% (880,000 people) in July 2013 to June 2014. We think of retirement as a time to pursue hobbies, relax and enjoy the fruits of our labour. So why then, are so many people still working beyond retirement age, and who are they? This is what we sought to find out in a recent study. We investigated who is more likely to “choose to work” and who is “forced to work”, using data from the UK’s annual population survey. Pensions united kingdom
Egypt’s experience bridging cash transfers and an economic inclusion program for sustainable social protection pmassetti IFPRI (18.12.2024) In 186 countries worldwide, cash transfer programs are the cornerstone of social protection, outnumbering social security or pension plans. These offer critical financial lifelines to vulnerable households, aiming to alleviate poverty by providing steady cash support. However, these programs can become long-term fiscal burdens for governments due to limited turnover of recipients, particularly when the programs do not lead to lasting reductions in poverty. To address this problem, economic inclusion programs (including so-called “poverty graduation” programs) are increasingly being introduced as complementary or alternative approaches. Economic inclusion programs aim to provide a cohesive set of mutually reinforcing interventions to help individuals sustainably move out of poverty. Governments are also increasingly interested in seeing if these programs can “graduate” households from relying on cash transfers. Economic inclusion programs typically provide one-time asset transfers, financial inclusion interventions, skills training, and consumption support for a set period. Evidence suggests that they can be more effective than cash alone in empowering recipients to achieve sustainable income gains, potentially offering a viable path toward financial independence (Banerjee et al. 2015, Bandiera et al. 2017). Building on such findings, economic inclusion programs have gained traction, being piloted or implemented in more than 88 countries (Arévalo-Sánchez et al. 2024), with governments actively exploring ways to incorporate these strategies into their existing social protection frameworks. Egypt’s experience is a case in point. The country’s Takaful cash transfer program has been a vital source of support for millions, but fiscal space is too limited for cash transfers to serve as a solution to poverty (Breisinger, et al. 2023). The hope is that graduating current cash transfer beneficiaries will free up public resources to reach other impoverished households. To garner support for the new option, the government provided cash transfer recipient households with a choice: Would you rather remain eligible for the monthly cash transfer or opt into the economic inclusion program? Cash transfers
Coordinating social security benefits and their effectiveness in protecting the rights of individual mobility pmassetti Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences (PGIHS) University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka (10.12.2024) Globalization has transformed the global landscape, fostering economic, cultural, and social integration. One critical area affected by globalization is the provision of social security benefits for individuals who move across borders. Ensuring the portability and coordination of social security benefits has become essential in a world where mobility is increasingly common, especially for countries like Sri Lanka with significant migrant worker populations. The primary objective of this study is to analyze how globalization has influenced cross-border social security systems, with a specific focus on Sri Lanka. It aims to identify the mechanisms through which countries, including Sri Lanka, coordinate social security benefits and to assess the effectiveness of these mechanisms in protecting the rights of mobile individuals. Collaborating with government agencies responsible for social security and labor, as well as NGOs focused on workers' rights and migration, will enhance the depth and relevance of the research. This research adopts a secondary-based qualitative approach, relying on existing literature, policy documents, and case studies. The study involves a comprehensive review of bilateral and multilateral social security agreements, reports on Sri Lanka's social security policies, and data from international organizations. The study finds that globalization has prompted the development of various bilateral and multilateral agreements to ensure the portability of social security benefits. In Sri Lanka, initiatives to protect migrant workers' social security rights have been established, but challenges persist. Key challenges include the lack of awareness among migrant workers about their rights and benefits, and gaps in the coordination of social security systems between countries, which can lead to delays and disputes in benefit claims. Consequently, policymakers must continue to innovate and adapt social security systems to the evolving demands of globalization, ensuring that social protection keeps pace with increasing global mobility. Portability and transferability, Migration sri lanka
Egypt’s experience bridging cash transfers and an economic inclusion program for sustainable social protection pmassetti IFPRI (18.12.2024) Egypt’s experience is a case in point. The country’s Takaful cash transfer program has been a vital source of support for millions, but fiscal space is too limited for cash transfers to serve as a solution to poverty (Breisinger, et al. 2023). The hope is that graduating current cash transfer beneficiaries will free up public resources to reach other impoverished households. To garner support for the new option, the government provided cash transfer recipient households with a choice: Would you rather remain eligible for the monthly cash transfer or opt into the economic inclusion program? In this post, we share evidence from a household survey during the period of recruitment for the economic inclusion program to capture respondent beliefs about their decision. We show that beliefs about the duration of consumption support and the income-earning potential of the program can influence household preferences for the new program. As the number of these programs continues to grow worldwide, such results highlight the importance of designing and communicating compelling economic incentives to encourage take-up of social protection programs by those expected to benefit. Extension of coverage, Cash transfers egypt