ICLG.com Briefing (05.05.2020) Decision No. 01/19, dated 30/03/2020 (“Decision”), approved by the Government of Republic of Kosovo, has enacted the Emergency Fiscal Package.

Double payment of the social assistance scheme to all beneficiaries of social assistance schemes for April and May, a measure amounting to seven million six hundred fifty thousand (€7,650,000.00) Euros, including payments executed for March;

 Ministry of Finance and Transfers (21.05.2020)  The Kosovo Treasury has executed the payment of all pension and social schemes for over 310 thousand beneficiaries, a few days before the regular time, due to the pandemic situation and in respect of the official holiday of the Great Eid.

Apanews.net (25.04.2020) The Gambia government has shipped in a large consignment of rice and sugar to ease the livelihood challenges of the citizenry amid Covid-19 lock down. The over 300,000 bags of  rice and sugar have been off loaded and packed at the Mcmarthy Square in  Banjul, pending distribution to households in all regions in the  country.

Development Pathways (May 2020) The COVID-19 crisis and its widespread impacts demonstrate the need to reform current social security systems in Asia.

Development Pathways (21.04.2020) As the COVID-19 pandemic rages like a wild inferno at a global scale, humanity is neck-deep in responding with every resource, instrument, policy and strategy that is at its disposal.

Reuters (05.05.2020) Afghanistan’s government began distributing free bread to hundreds of thousands of people across the country this week as supplies have been disrupted during the coronavirus shutdown and prices have soared, officials and experts said.Afghanistan distributes free bread as prices soar amid coronavirus.

gnnliberia.com (14.04.2020)

The Liberian Government will take up the electricity bill of households in the affected counties for the duration of the STAY-AT-HOME order (total cost: US$4 million dollars).

gnnliberia.com (14.04.2020)

The government planned to use the amount of US$25 million to support food distribution to households in designated affected counties for the period of 60 days.

ewn.co.za (19.03.2020)

In March 2020, the Ministry of Education announced that schools will be closed but school feeding will continue for public primary school learners, in order to ensure that children are given one hot meal per day.

dailypost.vu (01.04.2020)

The government of Vanuatu aims to support jobs through the Employment Stabilization Payment Program, which will reimburse employers up to VT 30,000 per employee on their payroll each month for a period of four months. Employers will also receive a payment of 15% of the amount they are reimbursed for wages under this payment as an added incentive to keep their staff employed.

gulfnews.com (02.04.2020)

The Abu Dhabi Pension Fund announced that private sector companies in the emirate can apply to postpone paying pensions over the next three months.

observer.ug (04.04.2020)

Government started the distribution of food packs to 1.5 million vulnerable people in Kampala and Wakiso districts on Saturday, April 4, 2020. The food items distributed are: six kilograms of maize flour and three kilograms of beans and salt per head. Lactating mothers and the sick will additionally receive more two kilograms of powdered milk and two kilograms of sugar.

mof.gov.zm (20.04.2020)

K500 million to the Public Service Pensions Fund to pay over 1,500 retirees or their beneficiaries.

herald.co.zw (15.04.2020) One million households identified through the Social Welfare Department to benefit from the $600 million kitty availed by the Government to mitigate the effects of Covid-19.

Government Offices of Sweden (11.05.2020) Parents who have to stay home from work to care for children, whose schools are closed to limit the spread of the virus, will be eligible for temporary parental benefit. In such situations, parents will receive approximately 90 per cent of the daily allowance they would normally receive in temporary parental benefit.

The new ordinance also contains an exemption from the requirement of a medical opinion to verify the special need for care  if temporary parental benefit is to be paid when a child between the ages of 12 and 16 is sick. The need must still be verified, but it can be done by some other means than a medical opinion.

worldbank.org (14.05.2020) The economic downturn sparked by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) is having a major impact on global labor and financial markets – which in turn will have significant effects on pension systems.  Crucially, policy responses will need to strike a balance between the immediate protection of vulnerable groups and ensuring that our pension systems remain able to deliver retirement income in the future as the global population ages. Here, we propose four important policy questions to be considered as governments grapple with this challenge:

Federal Public Service - Social Security (05.05.2020) Self-employed workers who fall ill during the coronavirus crisis can receive sickness benefits from the first day they actually fell ill; the date mentioned on the sickness certificate is no longer taken into account. Due to the specific measures which apply to a consultation with a doctor (general practitioner), it may indeed take a long time before a sick person can actually consult his doctor (general practitioner). Consequently, this specific crisis measure applies from the period from March 1 to the end of September 2020.

Federal Public Service - Social Security (20.05.2020) May 16, 2020, the Council of Ministers approved a temporary parental allowance for the self-employed. Self-employed workers who do not benefit (or no longer) from other crisis measure, and whose activity reduced due to the care for their child (ren) in the exceptional circumstances following the COVID-19 crisis are entitled to the allowance. This is a monthly allowance of 532.24 euros (875 euros for single-parent families) for the months of May and / or June 2020 for parents of a child under 12 or disabled.

ILO (13.05.2020) The pandemic has highlighted something that had been almost forgotten by policy makers across the world in the past few decades; the importance of expenditure in public health and social protection systems.

nationalgeographic.co.uk (20.05.2020)Spain has just taken the first step towards it. Many feel the UK needs it. So is UBI a Utopian ideal, or a necessary salvation?

pensionpolicyinternational.com (22.05.2020) The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, a regional organism of the United Nations Secretariat has declared itself in favour of a new regime of welfare and social protection that includes the gradual, progressive and sustained establishment of universal basic income in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean.

theconversation.com (18.05.2020) Dans les pays en développement, les activités informelles concernent les deux tiers de l’emploi, et les quartiers informels abritent entre un tiers et deux tiers des citadins, selon les pays. Ce secteur informel est touché de plein fouet par la crise liée au Covid-19. Les médias d’Afrique francophone parlent d’une épidémie de « PochVid-20 », plus dangereuse qu’un coronavirus.