spdci.org (2023) - This document offers guidance on the application of the PDDs to social protection. After presenting the background and objectives, it sets out how each principle applies to digital social protection solutions. First, the original definition is presented for each principle, followed by the social protection perspective, and the key actions to apply it in practice. Barriers to implementation are highlighted and ways to overcome these barriers suggested. Country-level examples of good and bad practices, as well as additional resources, are provided throughout.

worldbank.org (14.02.2023) Imagine this scenario. A mother delivers a child at a health facility. When the birth is recorded in the health information system, it notifies the ward office. The mother receives a call from the ward office to register her child’s birth. At the time of birth registration, she learns if the child is eligible to receive a child nutrition grant. She also receives information about vaccinations and early childhood education. The birth registration system is linked to a household registry. Each new birth also updates the household database providing the palika with an overview of all households and individuals at any time. Such seamless access to services and information about benefits and services is unfortunately not quite what mothers face in Nepal.  The lack of linkages is apparent if we just look at rates of facility delivery (77.5 percent) compared to birth registration before 12 months at (59.5 percent). That means over 17 percent of births that occur at health facilities are not registered in the first 12 months. One reason, among many, for low birth registration is a lack integration both at the front-end (point of service delivery) and the back-end (information system).  Nepal is now working to establish an Integrated Social Registry which can serve as a platform to link across social protection programs and information systems and help address this issue, among several others. 

oecd.org (23.02.2023) The COVID-19 pandemic had massive consequences for societies and health systems across the OECD and beyond. Health systems were not resilient enough. Resilient health systems plan and are ready for shocks, such as pandemics, economic crises or the effects of climate change. They are able to minimise the negative consequences of crises, recover as quickly as possible, and adapt to become better performing and more prepared. Smart, targeted investments in health system resilience are needed to improve health and ensure the next shock is less disruptive and costly. This report reviews the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and applies them to build policy recommendations to ensure the global community is ready for the next crisis. The reviews and recommendations cover health system issues – including workforce, digitalisation, continuity of care and mental health – and other topics, including long-term care, supply chains and international co-operation.

aarp.org (14.02.2022) In Mexico, they’re teaching Indigenous artisans how to sell their textiles and crafts online. In Ethiopia and Colombia, they’re experimenting with new ways to provide health care services to residents in rural communities. In Bangladesh and Ecuador, they’re using targeted cash transfers to help older widows and others avoid poverty when they are unable to earn income. Around the globe, governments and other policymakers are exploring solutions to prevent older adults from living in poverty or otherwise being shut out of society, according to the Aging Readiness & Competitiveness Report 4.0 from AARP International.

Health Systems & Reform Volume 9, 2023 - Issue 1 - The Chilean presidential elections of 2021 included an unprecedented topic in the country’s political debate: long-term care (LTC). Although some public policies and programs have been in place for at least 20 years, during this 2021 presidential election LTC was mentioned for the first time in a political campaign. Five out of seven candidates highlighted the importance of LTC in their proposals and designed policies to address it. Why did this topic gain momentum as a campaign topic in 2021? What can explain the sudden inclusion of a new topic on the Chilean political agenda? Using Kingdon’s multiple streams framework this article aims to understand the factors explaining the inclusion of LTC in the Chilean political agenda during the past presidential elections. A two-step qualitative research design was performed using a case study approach. As a first step, a documentary analysis of the campaign programs was conducted searching for references to LTC proposals. In a second step, semi-structured interviews were carried out with representatives from three of the seven campaign teams, including the teams that reached the ballotage. Data were analyzed using Kingdon’s multiple streams framework. Results showed that the availability of national data on LTC needs helped highlight the problem and acted as a facilitator for advocacy; international organizations and other countries’ experiences in implementing LTC systems served as policy entrepreneurs; and four events—the feminist movement, the social outbreak with the constitutional process, and the COVID-19 pandemic—pushed LTC forward on the political agenda. The case of Chile illustrates how Kingdon’s framework can be used to identify facilitators for LTC inclusion on the political agenda, serving as an example for other countries facing similar issues and fostering the global debate around the increase in LTC needs.

(25.01.2023) Low-income Americans are struggling to obtain help from state governments when they most need it, facing long delays and sometimes insurmountable hurdles when applying for social safety net programs such as food assistance, welfare benefits and health insurance, according to a new report.

Indonesia is among the countries with the highest exposure to natural disasters, and risks are expected to increase in the future due to climate change. Natural disasters and also other shocks require welldeveloped social protection systems that are able to cushion the economic consequences for those most vulnerable to these events. Many international and national organisations advocate for ‘Adaptive Social Protection’ (ASP) which links social policy with strategies on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. The main emphasis is on improving households’ ability to prepare for, cope with, and adapt to shocks.

This paper uses the tax-benefit microsimulation model INDOMOD to analyse the adaptiveness of the Indonesian social protection system both under normal conditions, and after a simulated hypothetical income shock caused by a natural disaster, using El Niño as a showcase. El Niño is a climate phenomenon that has the ability to change the global atmospheric circulation and as such to influence temperature and precipitation around the world. The drought caused in severely hit regions in Indonesia leads to a disruption of established crop patterns and harvest losses. The dry periods furthermore often cause forest fires affecting the livelihood of those employed in the forestry, transportation, tourism, and public health sector.

The book deals with the phenomenon of platform work and contains national reports (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom), other more transversal reports dealing with the issue of fundamental (collective) workers' rights, as well as the applicable European legal framework. The idea of the book is to underline differences and similarities between the Member States' Systems and the UK System and to understand if there is a common ground of rights and protections for platform workers in the EU.

This module stresses specific challenges for the extension of social security to workers in new forms of employment, particularly platform workers, and explores some policy options, based on international experience and guided by ILO social security standards.

The European Parliament reached a deal on the platform workers’ directive, pending confirmation by the Employment and Social Affairs Committee on 12 December.

The deal is the outcome of months of lengthy negotiations on the platform workers’ directive, which seeks for the most part to clarify platform workers’ employment status.

“There is a deal, and I am very happy about it,” Elisabetta Gualmini, the left-wing lawmaker spearheading the directive, told EURACTIV.

Finding a deal on such a complex and politicised file required Gualmini to walk a fine line, as the divide among MEPs was stark, with debates carried out on more on lines of national culture than political affiliation.

Platform work is the matching of demand and supply of paid work through an online platform using an algorithm. Three parties are involved in the matching process: the client demanding work, the platform which manages the algorithm and the person who provides the work through the platform. It is work based on the performance of individual tasks or projects rather than a continuous employment relationship. A larger task is usually divided up into smaller subtasks, or ‘micro tasks’, that are independent, homogenous and contribute to producing a specific output. These tasks are carried out separately, resulting in a widespread, even global, division of tasks.

Center for Global Development (19.02.2023) Kenya moved towards electronic payments of social benefits in 2013. In 2018 the payments system for its premier social protection program, Inua Jamii, was restructured to offer most, but not all, beneficiaries a choice between several payment service providers (PSPs), all commercial banks. This study surveys the payment system from the perspective of recipients, including their views on convenience and the benefits from competition. It also considers whether these digital G2P payments programs have increased financial inclusion more generally – recognizing that this was already high in Kenya due to the market penetration of M-Pesa digital wallets. It finds strong support for making payments through financial accounts. The overwhelming majority of respondents consider this to be a good system, with some favoring the commercial bank channel and others expressing a preference for direct payments through wallets. There is strong support for offering choice where this is feasible, but we find that the single payer G2P model can also be effective depending on local conditions. While social transfers may have enabled poor people to afford cell phones and mobile money accounts, the system can be developed further to enhance financial services access.  

Pension Policy International (08.02.2023) China is planning to offer free fertility treatment to citizens under its national insurance scheme in a bid to reverse its plummeting birth rate. The National Healthcare Security Administration said on Friday it would extend its coverage to help shoulder the costs for families trying to conceive. It said the new coverage would include assisted reproductive technology (ART) techniques and also cover labor analgesia to ease pain in childbirth. The most commonly performed ART procedure is in vitro fertilization (IVF). The administration described China’s falling population as one of the biggest obstacles to national development and stressed it had already added ovulation-inducing drugs to its coverage, to help “reduce the burden of infertility.” The expanded coverage is part of a wider attempt by Chinese authorities to persuade more people to get married and have more children. The country’s birthrate has been falling for years and last year the country recorded its first population decline in more than 60 years.

vietnamplus.vn (07.02.2023) More than 16 million informal workers in Thailand have not participated in any savings scheme to prepare for their life during retirement even though the country is expected to become an aged society in the next two years.

European Commission (06.02.2023) A newly released Eurobarometer survey shows that an overwhelming majority of EU citizens support strong action at EU and national level as well as more social spending.

Indiablooms (04.02.2023) The 1st G-20 Employment Working Group concluded in Jodhpur today on a positive note with all G20 countries showing interest and commitment in constructively working towards the objective of the three priority areas of Addressing Global Skills Gaps, Gig & platform economy & social protection and Sustainable Financing of Social Security set by the Indian Presidency.

euobserver.com (19.01.2023) Self-employed or employed? This question is at the heart of the negotiations of the proposal for an EU directive on improving the conditions of platform workers.

Home-delivery riders, or Uber-style app drivers are some of those who compose a sector estimated by the EU Commission to employ more than 28 million people. The number has been growing for years, and is expected to keep rising, reaching 43 million workers in the next two years.

EURACTIV.com (02.02.2023) After months of arduous negotiations, the much-debated and politically sensitive platform workers’ file was finally approved in plenary on Thursday (2 February), with 376 in favour and 212 against. The text enshrines a legal presumption of employment for self-employed platform workers and reinforces workers’ rights and protection in the face of algorithmic management. Minutes before the vote, centre-left lawmaker Elisabetta Gualmini, who spearheaded the work on the file, warned her peers not to believe the platforms’ narrative that the text “creates a general presumption of employment: it is not true, and it is impossible, both legally and technically”.

The Daily Star (31.01.2023) Bangladesh made a major step towards a universal pension scheme when parliament passed the Universal Pension Management Bill-2022 on January 24 with a view to bringing the country's growing elderly population under a social security system.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has enormous potential to promote global economic growth by more than 15 trillion USD. Additionally, it can advance social good by helping to combat climate change and biodiversity loss, reduce human trafficking,  improve healthcare, and support achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. AI also can strengthen the national security of the United States and other countries.

The report covers the extent and consequences of the labour market disruption caused by overlapping economic and geopolitical crises and analyzes global patterns, regional differences and outcomes across groups of workers. The report pays particular attention to the impact of the different crises on productivity, job quality and job opportunities and how these trends risk undermining social justice around the world.

guardian.ng (31.01.2023) A new International Labour Organisation (ILO) report, World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2023 (WESO trends), has raised concerns about inequality and effects of the global economic slowdown on the quality of employment. It warned that if left unaddressed, the challenges facing the world of work might threaten progress towards social justice. The report said the current global economic slowdown is likely to force more workers to accept lower quality, poorly paid jobs, which lack job security and social protection, therefore accentuating inequalities exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis.

consilium.europa.eu (30.01.2023) Council adopts recommendation on adequate minimum income This Council recommendation aims to combat poverty and social exclusion, and to pursue high levels of employment by promoting adequate income support by means of minimum income, effective access to enabling and essential services for persons lacking sufficient resources and by fostering labour market integration of those who can work.

G20 member nations consist of 2/3rd of the global population with 80% of global economic output. In this context, deliberation on the enhancement of labour holds significant relevancy. The 1st Employment Working Group (EWG)Meeting under the Sherpa track of the G20 will be held from the 2nd to the 4th of February 2023 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The Indian presidency of G20 has a mandate of addressing priority labour, employment and social issues for strong, sustainable, balanced, and job-rich growth for all.

NPR (27.01.2023) To developmental economist Lant Pritchett, "population decline" is a mild way to describe what could be a global demographic crisis. "The reaction is often 'ho-hum' as the rates [of population decline] are slow and hence the issue seems small and in the future," he told NPR in an email. But the problem is not small, he said, and falling birth rates could upend economies. Last week, China reported population decline for the first time in more than 60 years, raising questions about its future economic growth. Other countries are heading towards a similar fate. Slowing birth rates in the developed world are resulting in aging populations and smaller workforces. But in parts of the developing world, the youth population is still growing, and some countries are struggling to create enough jobs for an expanding working-age population. To economists, migration is the obvious solution. But the political implications could be harder to overcome.