EurActiv (02.03.2018) Digitisation is on everyone’s lips and it will change the working world in the next couple of years. For employers, this poses a range of risks – but could also create some opportunities, as a recent analysis shows. EURACTIV Germany reports. Up to 60% of today’s jobs can potentially be replaced by computers or robots through digitisation, studies say. At the same time, numerous new jobs are being created in the digital industry. A development that, according to many experts, brings more serious upheavals than the industrial revolution of the 19th century.

At the 26th International Financial Congress, Sberbank and the Pension Fund entered into an agreement on interacting in the area of cybersecurity. The document was signed by Stanislav Kuznetsov, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank and Alexey Ivanov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation (PFRF).       

In accordance with this document, Sberbank and the PFRF will cooperate on cybersecurity on a mutually beneficial and pro-bono basis. The parties’ efforts will focus on counteracting cyber threats.

https://www.sberbank.ru/en/press_center/all/article?newsID=909acf1e-6736-4463-bd1c-b603cab719d2&blockID=1539&regionID=78&lang=en 

rts.ch (03.02.2018) Alain Berset devrait présenter vendredi au Conseil fédéral plusieurs variantes pour réformer l'AVS, a appris la RTS. Au menu: la retraite à 65 ans pour les femmes et une forte hausse de la TVA.

WHO (01.03.2018) Improving health system efficiency is a compelling policy goal, especially in systems facing serious resource constraints. However, in order to improve efficiency we must know how to properly measure it. This new policy brief therefore proposes an analytic framework for understanding and interpreting many of the most common health care efficiency indicators.

Le Temps (02.03.2018) La marque de vêtements Björn Borg, créée par l’ancienne star du tennis, impose à ses collaborateurs une heure d’exercice hebdomadaire au nom de la convivialité et de la productivité. Le cas n’est pas isolé dans le pays

OECD (24.01.2018) Artificial intelligence (AI) must put people and planet first. Discussions on the ethical use of AI are essential on a global scale to guarantee widespread implementation and a transparent solution. A global convention on ethical AI that encompasses all is the most viable guarantee for human survival.

Le gouvernement luxembourgeois (01.03.2018) Le ministre de la Sécurité sociale, Romain Schneider, et l’ambassadeur de la république de Corée, Son Excellence Hyoung-zhi Kim, ont signé le 1er mars 2018 la convention de sécurité sociale entre le grand-duché de Luxembourg et la république de Corée.

NPR (01.03.2018) Employees in South Korea work long hours: 2,069 hours per worker annually – the second-highest among the Economic Cooperation and Development states, after Mexico. In the United States, that figure is 1,783. Those long hours went hand-in-hand with the country's booming economy in the 1980s and '90s. But for all those hours worked, South Korea's labor productivity is low, and so is population growth — the country has one of the world's lowest birth rates.  This week its parliament passed a bill that aims to restore some quality of life, by cutting the maximum workweek to 52 hours — down from 68.

oecd-forum.org (23.01.2018) As India's Prime Minister headlines the Davos gathering and highlights the country's unique situation and economic potential, it is important to note that India can offer two major digital innovations to the world: the number zero and a unique ID system for a billion people. With mismanagement and lack of visionary leadership and innovation, its contributions could reduce to a single one: a big zero.

OpenGov is a content platform, dedicated to sharing ICT-related knowledge and information between governments. We focus on the public sector in the Asia-Pacific region. We help governments become more Efficient, Agile, Transparent and Secure, so as to improve the lives of their citizens.

Publication | Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean

Digital work platforms are transforming labor markets around the world. Firms that own, manage and deploy these work platforms have reframed employer–worker relations by defining their core business as the provision of the technology that enables certain services to be provided rather than the provision of those services, and offering their workers independent contractor arrangements rather than employee contracts. This has significant consequences in terms of wages, jobs security and other working conditions. Digital work platforms also increase worker welfare by offering unparalleled flexibility in setting work hours and most permit a workday to be segmented, allowing certain parts of the population who otherwise would not be able to work (due to other commitments or constraints) to have some source of income. At the same time, they pose significant challenges in the labor market. Companies replace employees with contract workers to control costs but this may lead to lower pay, benefits, and job security. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a policy debate on how to best prepare workers for this new reality. This document describes three main concerns: the issue of worker misclassification in digital work platforms, the lack of social security systems for workers in the gig economy that are not considered employees, and the problems that the isolating nature of on-demand work presents with respect to worker organization and the right to collective bargaining.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .-- Introduction .-- I. Labor issues regarding the on-demand economy .-- A. Non-standard employment and employee misclassification. B. Social security in the on-demand economy. C. Collective bargaining .-- II. Looking forward.

Measuring Progress towards Universal
Health Coverage

astanatimes.com (15.02.2018) The Kazakh Ministry of Labour and Social Protection will focus on formalising the self-employed workforce and continue digital transformation in the field in 2018, according to newly-appointed Minister Madina Abylkassymova.

The Practitioner's toolkit for PES Building Career Guidance and Lifelong Learning presents concepts and tools for public employment services (PES) to assess needs and strengthen the career guidance and lifelong learning system and services.

PES have a major role to play in career guidance and lifelong learning, especially considering the increased demands for a skilled labour force in a constantly changing labour market.

The practitioner’s toolkit provides answers to the following questions, among others:

• Which partners can PES cooperate with?
• Which services should be offered to people at different stages of a lifecycle?

Moreover, it provides a template for drafting an action plan. It uses instruments like forecasting, partnership building, collaboration with employers, a multi-channelling approach, staff monitoring and capacity building.

Le Temps (13.02.2018) Le salariat s’effiloche et c’est tout notre système social qui devra être revu pour protéger les travailleurs vulnérables de la «gig economy». A l’ère du travail indépendant et des robots collaboratifs, il faudra trouver le moyen d’asseoir une solidarité 4.0

CEPAL (09.02.2018)  La versión 2017 presenta información actualizada para un conjunto seleccionado de indicadores socio-demográficos, económicos y ambientales de los países de América Latina y el Caribe.

Vietnam News (07.02.2018) The average Vietnamese lives to 73.4 years - 70.8 for men and 76.1 for women. However, the average retirement age for both men and women is only 54.2 years old, 55.6 for men and 52.6 for women. Generally speaking, the years of participating in social-insurance for men is 28 years and 23 years for women while their years of enjoying the retirement pension is 18.1 years for men and 24.5 years for women.

allAfrica (12.02.2018) Although, Ethiopia has an array of formal and informal support mechanisms, programs, action plans and interventions that aims at serving a variety of social protection purposes, the most direct - the National Social Policy - is designed as part and parcel of an integrated approach to the progressive realization of social and economic rights noted in article 41 of the constitution, which state, "The State shall, within available means, allocate resources to provide rehabilitation and assistance to the physically and mentally disabled, the aged, and to children who are left without parents or guardian." Yet,the country doesn't, have a comprehensive and integrated social protection system as well as a strong social welfare system and structure.

Jamaica Information Service (19.02.2018) A sum of $6 million has been allocated to the Integrated Social Protection and Labour Programme in the 2018/19 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives. The project, which got under way in December 2012, aims to support the Government of Jamaica’s efforts to improve human capital and labour market outcomes for the poor by enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of key social-protection programmes

UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division

forbes.com (08.05.2017) Blockchain technology is making headlines everywhere. If you have recently attended any tech events it is highly likely that you came out of them having heard just that bit more about it. Everybody is talking about blockchain--from the President of the United States to the Nigerian government.

It’s no secret that America has a complicated relationship with healthcare. And with all the uncertainty of 2017 looming large over 2018, it can feel like a subject you just want to avoid reading about altogether.

But one startup is out to change all that. SimplyVital Health is using blockchain technology to give the healthcare industry a facelift.

The company has developed two products, both of which address different aspects and targets within the industry: ConnectingCare and Health Nexus.

ILO (22.02.2018) The ILO and UNHCR launch the Azraq Centre for Employment to help refugees access work permits and find employment.  The Azraq Centre for Employment (ACE), set up in coordination with the Government of Jordan and sponsored by the Dutch Government, aims to facilitate access to formal work opportunities across Jordan for Syrian refugees living in the camp.