europa.eu The report explores how 35 European countries monitor social spending through dedicated national frameworks, and investigates the processes assessing the outcomes and effectiveness of public social spending. While these are fairly diverse, the report identifies two broad categories of monitoring practices: within and separately from the overall public spending monitoring framework. The strengths of these frameworks include reliable, timely and precise indicators, mostly on levels of public social spending, as well as comprehensive centralised information systems. Social spending review processes may be recurrent, but are in most cases conducted on an ad hoc basis to respond to specific institutional needs or political circumstances. Supreme Audit Institutions often play a key role in social spending reviews. Monitoring of social outcomes of public spending, such as poverty, inequality reduction or income redistribution, appears to be quite uncommon, and reviews of its effectiveness (i.e. linking social spending to social outcomes) are even rarer.

rtl.fr (02.09.2022) Le ministre des Solidarités, Jean-Christophe Combe, veut revoir le mode de versement de certaines prestations sociales car il trouve "anomal que 30% des personnes qui ont droit à des aides ne les réclament pas".

ammannet.net (05/09/2022) Over the past years Jordan has been facing many challenges including a substantial population increase that includes many refugees; lower rates of economic growth; rising public debt, unemployment and poverty; the COVID-19 pandemic; and challenging geopolitical regional events.  Expectedly social protection has moved into the centre of the policy agenda.   This Policy Brief discusses Jordan’s expanding needs for social protection as well as the need for structural reforms.

saspen.org (2022)  This Brief examines social assistance spending in Africa before, during and post-COVID-19 and uses the same to demonstrate how social protection experts in Africa can build on this spending momentum to improve the adequacy and reach of social assistance.

thecable.ng (29.08.2022) The National Pension Commission (PenCom) says it is planning to provide incentives to contributors under the micro pension plan (MPP). The commission said incentives such as health insurance would increase participation in the scheme. Dahir-Umar said the MPP was implemented to curb old-age poverty by assisting informal sector workers, including small-scale businesses, entertainers, professionals, petty traders, and others.

dw.com (August 2022) An aging population, a dramatic labor shortage and a pension pot shortfall are an explosive mix for German economy and society. Would raising the age of retirement to 70 kill all those birds with one stone?

The Economic Times (26.08.2022) The government plans to integrate e-Shram portal with state portal for onboarding social security schemes run by the central government and the state governments to universalize social protection to workers and to improve employment opportunities for them.

Asia and the Pacific is the most disaster-prone region in the world. It also happens to be the most populous, leaving it disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In fact, of the 10 countries most affected by climate change in the last 20 years, six are in Asia.

UNICEF /UNDP (2022) Responding to climate change, reducing poverty, and supporting social inclusion must be addressed together to build resilient economies and societies. As the recovery from COVID-19 continues, governments need to invest in addressing social and economic inequalities while actively promoting new, sustainable, and climate-friendly livelihoods and income-generating opportunities for all. 

Addressing the related challenges posed by climate change and inequalities are essential elements to accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Government budgets are the most significant instruments to do so, including aligning policies and incentives and ensuring sufficient financing for just transitions. 

Ahram OnlinePrime (26.08.2022) Minister Mostafa Madbouly has announced that the country's newly introduced social protection package to help Egyptians cope with the global repercussions of Russian-Ukraine war will go into effect in September.

European Commission (02/08/2022)  These new rules  set out minimum standards for paternity, parental and carers' leave and establish additional rights, such as the right to request flexible working arrangements, which will help people develop their careers and family life without having to sacrifice either. These rights, which come in addition to existing maternity leave rights, were achieved under the European Pillar of Social Rights and is a key milestone towards building a Union of Equality.

Daily Post Nigeria (12.08.2022)  The Federal Government said the introduction of digitalized cash transfer payment will help in addressing some lapses while operating the analog payment system. Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, disclosed this at the official flag-off of the grant for vulnerable groups as well as the digitized payment for conditional cash transfer held in Dutse, Jigawa State.

The government should start investing on long-term programs to manage the increasing number of senior citizens in the country, particularly on health-care and employment opportunities, the Commission on Population and Development (Popcom) executive director said

International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) (01.08.2022) The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the foundations of the economy and provoked devastating social effects in all the countries in the world, being Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) one of the most affected regions. This report updates the regional overview of the response measures to the pandemic, details cash transfer programmes and analyses their coverage and discusses the challenges in adopting these innovations during the response to the first outbreak of the virus in Latin America and the Caribbean.

International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) (01.08.2022) There is a global trend to automate and digitalise the cash payments of social protection programmes, and there has been a shift towards diversifying payment means in some African countries such as Zambia, Namibia, Togo, Tanzania, Malawi, Comoros and Mozambique. In Mozambique, the COVID-19 pandemic response has tripled the social protection system’s coverage, from 520,000 to approximately 1.6 million households. In the past few years, the country’s emergency response has driven improvements in digital payments.

modernghana.com (14.08.2022) The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) says it will soon embark on a mass registration exercise, especially among those in the informal sector to shore up its membership. The prime objective is to ensure many Ghanaian workers are enrolled onto the scheme as against the current situation where only 1.7 million out of the remaining millions of the workers are active members of SSNIT.

worldbank.org (July 2022) Reports that one of the most persistent patterns of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s labor market remains the large share of healthy and capable working-age populations excluded from the labor force and employment, particularly among women and youth aged 15 to 24 years not in employment, education, or training (NEET). The lack of inclusivity proves most apparent in the lost potential of women, whose labor force participation, averaging about 20 percent, remains the world’s lowest. The limited public and formal private sector employment and prevalence of informality has had many repercussions on both the quantity and quality of jobs created for the region’s increasingly ambitious and competent population. The COVID-19 pandemic recovery in terms of jobs and unemployment for the majority of the population will prove slow and difficult. Includes a case study on an online learning platform to deliver accessible, quality education in Jordan.

lemonde.fr (12.08.2022) Alors que les 85 ans et plus vont croître de près de 90 % entre 2030 et 2050, la gériatrie reste le parent pauvre d’un système hospitalier déjà à bout de souffle et le maintien des personnes âgées chez elles réclame toujours une vraie politique nationale de prévention de la perte d’autonomie.

forbes.com (11.08.2022) The number of unemployed young people around the world is set to hit 73 million in 2022, a slight improvement from the year before, but still well above global youth unemployment rates before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new report from the United Nations, which found young people have been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus health crisis.

ilo.org (11.08.2022) Incorporating the most recent labour market information available, Global Employment Trends for Youth sets out the youth labour market situation around the world. It shows where progress has or has not been made, updates world and regional youth labour market indicators, and gives detailed analyses of trends and issues facing young people in the labour market.

GovInsider (12.08.2022) Reliable, well designed digital ID and payment systems can be an important social and economic leveller. But governments must be inclusive and citizen-centric in rolling them out, according to the World Bank.

TechRepublic (05.08.2022)  There are 2.9 billion people worldwide who do not have internet access or the opportunities to engage in the digital economy. Despite the technological advancements, the digital divide continues to affect all aspects of life, from banking to healthcare, education, communications and media.

worldbank.org (27.07.2022) The world has changed in the last two years. Governments in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) face the massive challenge of rebuilding post-pandemic economies. But one thing is certain: Women in the region were hit the hardest during the COVID-19 lockdowns. A recent report elaborated by the World Bank and UNDP, Uneven Recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean, shows that the gender gap in job participation in LAC continues to be highly elevated. Back in 2020, a previous report using High-Frequency Phone Survey (HFPS) data showed that women in LAC had been 44 % more likely to lose their jobs than men.

European Commission (19.07.2022) Amongst other findings, the report shows young people were among the most negatively affected by job losses during the economic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. It also shows that the recovery was slower for them than for other age groups. Possible explanations are linked to their high share of fixed-term contracts and difficulties in finding a first job after leaving school, university, or training.