Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (15.05.2024) Amid an ongoing economic and fiscal crisis, Lebanon’s Parliament has approved a major reform to the country’s pension system. But it is likely to face challenges related to benefits, solvency, and coverage.

The Australian superannuation fund UniSuper had its private cloud data deleted accidentally earlier this month, disrupting the fund’s services for the past couple of weeks. A configuration problem caused Google Cloud to delete UniSuper’s account.

ceps.eu (13.05.2024) As European labour markets become increasingly digitalised, concerns about inequality and poverty are increasing. This study, completed for the European Commission, seeks to investigate these concerns further. Part A focuses on how prepared EU Member States are to manage the digital transformation in a socially fair manner. It develops 27 country fiches assessing the current and future prospects of each EU Member State. Key areas of focus include the labour market, individuals’ digital skills, social protection, and cross-cutting dimensions such as the digitalisation of businesses and digital infrastructure. Part B of the study reviews – through 30 case studies – some of the main actual and potential uses by a country’s public sector of digital technologies (including AI) for improving the design and the delivery of social benefits and active labour market policies, as well as for complementing how poverty and income inequality are measured.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (30.04.2024) Algorithmic management by large online platforms disrupts societal relations. A case study about drivers in Southeast Asia demonstrates the worldwide shifts that are underway.

Asian Development (02.05.2024) These charts illustrate the rapid increases in the population aged 60 and older in Asia and the Pacific and the urgency of addressing long-term care needs in the region. Over the past two decades, life expectancy at age 60 in the region has increased by more than 5 years. But the expected number of years lived in less than full health also increased in most economies. A new harmonized dataset on older persons in nine economies in developing Asia found that  on average, 57% Asians aged over 60 have at least one diagnosed noncommunicable disease (NCD). This share varies across the region, ranging from 35% in Bangladesh to 68% in the People’s Republic of China. Yet only 40% of older citizens reported they were having regular health check-ups. 

These are the most important changes since January 1, 2024: – Expansion of the flexibility of pension payments – Incentives for gainful employment after 65 – Raising the retirement age (now called the reference age) for women to 65 (from January 1, 2025) On September 25, 2022, the Swiss electorate approved the reform package to stabilise the pension scheme. This aims to secure and maintain the level of old-age pensions, ensure the financial balance of the system over the next decade and meet the need for flexibility.

Atlantico.fr (08.05.2024) Abondance de personnes âgées, marché du travail défaillant et manque de flexibilité des systèmes de retraite ... Au Japon et en Corée du Sud, de nombreuses personnes âgées vivent en situation de grande précarité

The Financial Express (02.05.2024) India has made remarkable progress in expanding social security through the groundbreaking Code on Social Security-2020 (CoSS 2020), positioning itself as a pioneer in this field. This legislation stands out for its acknowledgment of platform workers and extending universal social security to them. Furthermore, under India’s leadership, the G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration has prioritised the goal of ensuring adequate social protection and decent working conditions for platform workers under the overarching theme of “The Future of Work”. Despite India’s progress toward a comprehensive social security regime, challenges have arisen. Some recent state-level laws, created hastily, pose a risk to the envisioned universal framework of CoSS 2020. This deviation from the intended path could hinder the achievement of universal social security for platform workers.

VoxDev (20.03.24) Evidence from Mauritius shows the consequences of losing a formal job in a labour market characterised by high rates of informal employment are significant. Unemployment benefits help mitigate these effects, while generating only small disincentive effects on labour supply.

NBER (April 2024) Social protection programs have become increasingly widespread in low- and middle-income countries, with their own distinct characteristics to match the environments in which they are operating. This paper reviews the growing literature on the design and impact of these programs. We review how to identify potential beneficiaries given the large informal sector, the design and implementation of redistribution and income support programs, and the challenges and potential of social insurance. We use our frameworks as a guide for consolidating and organizing the existing literature, and also to highlight areas and questions for future research.

Cash Transfer (CT) programmes can improve maternal and child health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. However, studies assessing the effectiveness of these programmes on maternal and child health outcomes (MCH), beyond nutritional outcomes and service utilisation, remain inconclusive. We synthesized current empirical evidence on the effectiveness of these programmes in improving MCH outcomes and suggested a framework for reporting such outcomes.

blogs.worldbank.org (23.04.2024) Since its inception, GamSR's data has played a pivotal role in various programs in The Gambia, notably the 'Nafa Quick' initiative, which formed the cornerstone of the Government of The Gambia (GoTG) COVID-19 pandemic response. It swiftly reached 78,422 households in 30 districts, to mitigate the adverse effects of the pandemic on impoverished households. Subsequently, the Nafa (cash transfers) program, aimed at providing cash to the poorest, covered 20 districts and 16,966 households, employing GamSR data for eligibility assessments.

ey.com (17.04.2024) Today, humanity is experiencing a paradigm shift and transitioning to a new era. We live in a world where every person’s well-being – the happiness of the body and mind – is impacted by social environments born of numerous changes, including an aging and increasingly diverse society, changes to how and where we work, and outbreaks of emerging diseases. This changing panorama is raising people’s interest in well-being technology, as well as its value and importance. “Well-being technology” describes technology that is intended to enhance happiness of the body and mind, and ultimately to improve the quality of people’s lives. Well-being comprises four essential elements.

SPIAC-B (2024) This Implementation Guide is designed for professionals involved in developing, implementing, and expanding social protection systems, particularly non-contributory schemes, or 'social assistance'. Targeted at national and local government partners, policymakers, social protection authorities, programme managers, social workers, civil society organizations, donors, and the private sector, the guide is also valuable for development and humanitarian agency staff supporting these efforts. It focuses on applying data protection and privacy standards effectively and provides practical solutions for managing technology, including privacy by design, biometrics, cloud computing, automated decision-making, and AI. The updated guide emphasizes enhanced data protection principles, offers expanded guidance on working with technology service providers, introduces new insights on cash transfers, and includes more real-world examples and strategies to tackle big data challenges. It is also a resource for individuals and families engaged in social protection programs as participants or beneficiaries, helping them navigate their rights and responsibilities as 'data subjects'.

wiego.org (February 2024) In this briefing note we review the current debates on strategies, challenges and opportunities regarding registration in the context of social protection. In the first part, we will present the key concepts, approaches and debates on registration and situating it in the overall social protection system. The second section highlights the basic registration strategies, including outreach and awareness. We examine on-demand, census sweeps and other methods using existing data. Then, we move into innovative approaches to registration, where we look at the challenges and opportunities of digitization and what we can learn from digitally enabled responses to the COVID-19 crisis. We conclude by exploring the challenges faced by informal workers to be included in registration systems and the different policies implemented to specifically register these workers.

socialeurope.eu (17.04.2024) Platform work is often presented as a stepping-stone for migrant workers. It may not however feel so benign to them.

After age 50, immigrants experience a downward trajectory of income compared to native-born individuals. The pattern holds true across racial and ethnic groups.

ilo.org (04.04,2024) While Kenya has made significant strides towards achieving gender equality, the findings of the report shows that significant gaps remain in the realm of digital labour platforms. Women in most sectors earn less than men and have lower access to social security benefits. The existing regulation fails to recognize most of the women workers on location-based and online platform work as employees, as a result excluding women from basic labor rights and protections. There is clear need for regulatory frameworks which can ensure that all platform workers, including women have decent working conditions. In addition, there should be policies in place to enhance safety for women working on location-based and online platforms through the establishment of clear guidelines and continuous monitoring and evaluation of implemented policies to ensure their effectiveness in addressing the challenges.

worldbank.org (31.01.2024) Angola is a middle-income country, but it has high poverty and vulnerability levels. In urban areas, households living in poverty or vulnerable to poverty are significantly more likely to be women-headed households, less likely to have access to adequate housing, and rely on self-employment. The country is affected by significant climate-related and price shocks. An analysis of drought hotspots indicates that the south and southwest regions of Angola are highly vulnerable to droughts, which have recently become more prolonged and persistent. Analysis also indicates that the most significant human impacts of flooding in Angola are associated with riverine flooding in socioeconomically vulnerable areas in Cunene, Namibe, Moxico, and Benguela provinces. In addition to climate-related shocks, the population in Angola is also affected by price shocks caused by a range of local and global factors. By providing additional income, safety net programs help poor households prepare for and cope with shocks. vulnerable households cope with and respond to shocks. Adaptive social protection systems respond to shocks by combining the regular safety net programs with a mechanism that allows its expansion primarily in two ways: vertical expansion; and horizontal expansion. To establish a long-term adaptive safety net system, it needs to be incorporated in key policy frameworks, establish a sustainable financing strategy, enhance monitoring and data management, and ensure appropriate coordination mechanisms.

IZA - Institute of Labor Economics (April 2024) We use detailed, population-wide data from Finland to provide evidence of the impact of earnings disregard policies on part-time work during unemployment spells, and describe the longer-run trends in combining part-time work and social benefits. We find that part-time work while receiving unemployment benefits is strongly concentrated in the service and social and health care sectors, and that women participate in part-time work much more commonly than men (25% vs. 12% of benefit recipients). The share of part-time workers among benefit recipients increased sharply from 10% to 18% over a few years after the implementation of earnings disregards in unemployment benefits and housing allowances, which allowed individuals to earn up to 300 euros per month without reductions in their benefits. Using variation in the impact of the reforms on incentives between individuals eligible for different types of benefits, we estimate a 16–28% increase in participation in part-time work due to the implementation of earnings disregards. However, we find no evidence of economically significant positive or negative effects of increased participation in part-time work on transitions to full-time employment.

bbc.com (08.04.2024) People are living longer, and daily life is getting more expensive. It may be time to rethink the timeline for leaving the workforce. Handing in your proverbial badge as a sexagenarian has been the goal for many workers around the world: turning 65 would open a golden portal to retirement. Yet increasingly, the idea of stepping away from the workforce in your 60s doesn't seem realistic – or even sensible – for many people, especially now. Some major financial figureheads agree. In March, investment-management firm BlackRock released its annual letter to the company's investors. Its CEO Larry Fink sounded a warning for workers hoping to retire – comfortably and financially secure – in their 60s. As global life expectancy grows, social safety nets fray and cost of living spikes, Fink warned that retirement at age 65 won't be possible for many, even most, people.

ipsnews.net (05.04.2024) Climate change is exacerbating inequalities between and within countries, disproportionately affecting poor households in rural areas. In fact, we know that more than half of the resources of the poor – a large part of whom are small-scale farmers – are lost due to climatic hazards. This has negative impacts on the incomes of these people and their ability to meet their essential needs, including food. As the new FAO report The Unjust Climate finds, floods widen the income gap between poor and non-poor households in rural areas by approximately USD 21 billion a year, and heat stress by more than USD 20 billion a year. Despite the critically important role that small-scale farmers play in growing the food that feeds us and in stewarding the natural resources that determine the health of planet Earth, only 1.7 % of climate finance currently reaches them Every year, over a trillion dollars are allocated to combating climate change and its consequences. Far too little of this financing reaches the most vulnerable. Shockingly, despite the critically important role that small-scale farmers play in growing the food that feeds us and in stewarding the natural resources that determine the health of planet Earth, only 1.7 % of climate finance currently reaches them.

oecd (22.03.2024) Generative artificial intelligence (AI) presents myriad opportunities for integrity actors—anti-corruption agencies, supreme audit institutions, internal audit bodies and others—to enhance the impact of their work, particularly through the use of large language models (LLMS). As this type of AI becomes increasingly mainstream, it is critical for integrity actors to understand both where generative AI and LLMs can add the most value and the risks they pose. To advance this understanding, this paper draws on input from the OECD integrity and anti-corruption communities and provides a snapshot of the ways these bodies are using generative AI and LLMs, the challenges they face, and the insights these experiences offer to similar bodies in other countries. The paper also explores key considerations for integrity actors to ensure trustworthy AI systems and responsible use of AI as their capacities in this area develop.

SundayWorld.com (05.04.2024) Up to 800,000 workers will be automatically enrolled into a pension scheme for the first time under new legislation published today. Workers who have no occupational or private pension and would have otherwise been solely reliant on the State Pension upon retirement will have access to the scheme under the bill. Employees aged between 23 and 60 years old, who earn over €20,000 per year and who are not already paying into a pension scheme, would automatically be enrolled.

theportugalnews.com (30.03.2024) Heather Humphreys, the minister for social protection, has outlined her plan to implement the much-anticipated pension auto-enrolment programme for workers. Under the plan, businesses would match employee contributions with an additional €3, meaning that the State will contribute €1 for every €3 an employee contributes to their pension account. Workers between the ages of 23 and 60 who are not currently registered in a pension plan will be enrolled automatically.