oecd (20.05.2020) This policy brief discusses the measures countries have taken to support the livelihoods of those who cannot access unemployment benefits or short-term work schemes. It examines the raft of new programmes introduced across the OECD and beyond, including means-tested assistance, new cash transfer schemes, and direct support for those struggling to meet their expenses. It also discusses how to close social protection gaps beyond the crisis to ensure inclusive growth post-COVID-19.Supporting livelihoods during the COVID-19crisis: closing the gaps in safety nets

sbs.com.au (19.05.2020) Up to a million Spanish families could soon receive an ongoing monthly payment to help them through the coronavirus crisis as the country’s government looks set to approve a €3 billion ($A5 billion) basic income scheme. The program, targeting low or no income families, will likely remain beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, which is expected to push the unemployment rate to more than 20 per cent in the country of almost 47 million people, according to the International Monetary Fund. 

Le HuffPost (20.05.2020) Le gouvernement va proposer la création d’une cinquième branche de la Sécurité sociale pour faire face aux dépenses liées à la perte d’autonomie

The japanese company IDEC, an Vision Zero Supporter who signed up on the Vision Zero website to promote safety, health and wellbeing, has developed this interesting tool to manage wellbeing in times of COVID-19. Leveraging the Vision Zero philosophy to ensure Safety, Health, and Wellbeing, this checklist tool is based on the 7 Golden Rules. It focusses on the Vision Zero aspects of wellbeing, such as a ‘lack of control’ or a ‘lack of social support’ while working remotely, as well as other factors that define wellbeing at home. It is designed around IDEC’s core values being integrity, innovation, communication, passion and harmony. A first test was conducted and the checklist was sent to over 1300 employees that currently work from home. The initial survey result showed a gradualpositive trend in the overall wellbeing of its employees, but also helped IDEC to identify areas of improvements.

Download the tool here.

gobierno.aw (23.04.2020) During these difficult times, the Government allows businesses to reduce working hours to 0 or pay employees for the hours worked. This means that even if an employee has not been laid off, the employee can see a decline in income or lose income.

bayer.es (08.05.2029) El Gobierno de España ha puesto en marcha un asistente virtual llamado “Hispabot-Covid19”, que permite a los ciudadanos realizar preguntas relacionadas con la COVID-19 vía WhatsApp.

seg-social.es (20.03.2020) La Seguridad Social ha puesto a disposición de ciudadanos y trabajadores su propio asistente virtual para proporcionar información útil y orientar a los  ciudadanos sobre los servicios más demandados de la Seguridad Social. Este servicio “chatbot” está accesible desde la portada de la página web de la Seguridad Social pinchando sobre una ventana flotante con el texto “¿te ayudamos?” en el margen inferior derecho de la pantalla siendo la interacción por escrito en lugar de mediante la voz.

iustel.com (23.04.2020) Para poder dar respuesta a la necesidad de presentación de escritos, comunicaciones o solicitudes de carácter urgente e imprescindible, en aquellos casos en los que el ciudadano no dispone de medios de autenticación electrónicos (certificado digital y cl@ve), se ha habilitado una opción a través de la web de forma que cualquier interesado puede presentar escritos y solicitudes mediante el  acceso  “sin certificado”.

seg-social.es (22.04.2020) Para reforzar la atención que se presta al autorizado RED con el fin de proporcionar una asistencia acorde con las necesidades de este colectivo y que potencie la utilización del canal telemático, se ha puesto a disposición de los autorizados RED un nuevo servicio denominado CASIA  (Coordinación, Atención y Soporte Integral al Autorizado RED) que está disponible en la Oficina Virtual del Sistema RED y a través del cual se pueden plantear consultas, comunicar errores o incidencias, así como presentar solicitudes de trámites.

COVID-19 Series: Fumigation or Disinfection, they are not the same.

We have seen people jostle for fumigation in the phase of the pandemic. Is this what we really need? Our Vision Zero Profiler  Ehi Iden doesn't think so. Fumigation is for vectors while disinfection is for micro organisms, it is as simple as that. You have the right to disinfect your offices or houses if you so desire but be careful not get swindled by pest control control agents in the name of disinfection. You might want to watch this video for more information and clarity on this.

UN Secretary-General Policy Brief: COVID-19 and the need for action on mental health

Key messages:

The problem:

• COVID-19 has the seeds of a major mental health crisis.
• The mental health and wellbeing of whole societies have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and are a priority to be addressed urgently.
• A long-term upsurge in the number and severity of mental health problems is likely.
• Specific populations groups are showing high degrees of COVID-19-related psychological distress.
• People caught in fragile humanitarian and conflict settings risk having their mental health needs overlooked entirely.
• Because of the size of the problem, the vast majority of mental health needs remain unaddressed.  The response is hampered by the lack of investment in mental health promotion, prevention and care before the pandemic.

Strategic shift (“theory of change”):

• The historic underinvestment in mental health needs to be redressed without delay to reduce immense suffering among hundreds of millions of people and mitigate long-term social and economic costs to society.

Public policy solution:

1. Apply a whole-of-society approach to promote, protect and care for mental health.
2. Ensure widespread availability of emergency mental health and psychosocial support.
3. Support recovery from COVID-19 by building mental health services for the future.

• Policy Brief - https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/un_policy_brief-covid_and_mental_health_final.pdf
• Video address by the UN Secretary General  - https://youtu.be/XLJlqcFYfeM

• Video address by WHO Director General - https://twitter.com/DrTedros/status/1260898292105449472?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
• UN press release - https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/05/1063882
• WHO press release - https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/14-05-2020-substantial-investment-needed-to-avert-mental-health-crisis
• WHO tweets:
  • https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1260916164143783937?s=20
  • https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1260902802957664258?s=20
  • https://twitter.com/DrTedros/status/1260898296094171136?s=20
  • https://twitter.com/DrTedros/status/1260898294663954433?s=20
  • https://twitter.com/DrTedros/status/1260898292105449472?s=20

prensalibre.com (18.05.2020) Bono Familia: Habilitan sitio web de inscripción para obtener ayuda por coronavirus. Los datos que se piden es el número de DPI del solicitante, un número de celular, el número de correlativo (se encuentra en la factura de energía) y el código del Bono Familia, que también viene impreso en la factura de consumo.

senat.fr (29.04.2020) Compte rendu de l'audition du directeur de l'Agence Centrale des Organismes de Sécurité Sociale (ACOSS, agence nationale du recouvrement des cotisations) sur le chiffrage des mesures d'accompagnement par la Sécurité sociale de la crise du Coronavirus.

To build Estonia’s digital society, it was not feasible to allow each government agency to ask for and store the user’s data. Such data duplication would make these agencies more susceptible to coordinated cyber attacks, as well as make it difficult to keep an individual’s information up-to-date. The solution to this was Estonia’s adoption of the “once-only principle,” whereby the user’s data is effectively divided up amongst the different agencies. This means information such as the user’s address can only be asked for and stored by one authority, in this case the population registry. If another agency wants to access this address, then they must send an electronic request to verify this information. But how can this be accomplished in a safe manner? Every digital service as well as the organisation or institution behind the service must be able to connect to the X-road. This software provides a way to link each entity’s information system to another via a secure data exchange platform. The X-road is responsible for connecting 150 public sector institutions with one another, in addition to 450 different organisations and enterprises. This amounts to more than 3000 services on offer! Moreover, not only are information systems connected on the national level, but since 2018, an agreement between Estonia and Finland established a federation. This allows the two countries to share data internationally and makes room for more opportunities to establish digital business opportunities, cross-border cooperation, and policy coordination. None of this could be possible, however, without a high level of trust from the users of the system. As such, cyber security is an important issue, and one that will be discussed in our next week’s video. See you then!

X-ROAD® DATA EXCHANGE LAYER

X-Road is a free and open-source data exchange layer solution that enables organizations to exchange information securely over the Internet. X-Road is released under the MIT open source license and is available free of charge.

The basic idea of X-Road is that information systems do not exchange data directly with each other. Instead, information systems are connected through additional, standardized access points (Security Server) that implement the same technical specifications and therefore, can communicate with each other.

The first programme, Tadamun (solidarity) 1, will cover institutions that are already covered by the SSC. Jordanians, Gazans and children of Jordanian women married to non-Jordanians will benefit from this programme, with employees receiving 50 per cent of their salaries provided that the amount ranges between JD165 and JD500. The employer will pay 20 per cent, with a maximum of JD250, Rahahleh said. 

The second programme, Tadamun 2, targets companies that are not subscribed to the SSC or whose subscriptions are less than 12 months. Under the programme, each employee will receive JD150, the director general said. Rahahleh said that the third programme allows subscribers to receive advance payments and their temporary unemployment credits from the corporation, noting that the SSC will start receiving applications on Tuesday. Social Development Minister Basma Ishaqat said that this programme is the “biggest protection plan ever” for daily wage workers, with 200,000 families expected to benefit from its first phase.

Daily wage workers whose jobs have been affected by the government measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the Kingdom will be able to submit their applications immediately for 10 days through the bread subsidy website www.reg.takmeely.jo, to which a special window has been added to support these workers.

samoagovt.ws (07.04.2020) A special payment of $300 tala per person for all pensioners under the Senior Citizens Benefit Fund on top of the normal pension. A date for this special pay-out will be announced in due course.

samoagovt.ws (07.04.2020) 20% early withdrawal for members in the Hospitality sector who have lost employment due to COVID-19. Subject to certain conditions, members in the affected sector to be allowed: a) member loans offset from contributions b) Early withdrawal of either: 20% of net contributions OR $4000 tala, whichever is lesser. c) Other Terms and Conditions apply for eligibility

GroundUp (29.04.2020) Introducing the new “Covid-19 grant” announced by President Cyril Ramphosa will pose a huge challenge. But South Africa can learn from Namibia, which introduced an emergency grant at the beginning of April and within three weeks had paid out nearly 580,000 people. The Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress grant of R350 per month, together with the R500 per month supplement to each Child Support Grant (CSG) recipient, provides for the first time a social safety net for able-bodied working-age adults. These reforms amount to a temporary basic income grant payable to anyone without formal employment.

World Economic Forum (30.04.2020) Pakistan's government are offering labourers, who are out of work due to the coronavirus lockdown, a chance to earn money by planting trees. The project is part of Pakistan's existing initiative to plant billions of trees to counter the effects of climate change.

samoagovt.ws (07.04.2020) Six-month moratorium on contribution payments for Hospitality Sector Employers in the hospitality sector will be permitted to postpone their contributions payments for the six-month period January to June 2020 to be payable only in July 2020. The total value of this assistance is $2.6 million tala.

Additional Measures of Social Support for Families with Children

The amendments specify and complement clauses of the Executive Order On Additional Measures of Social Support for Families with Children concerning monthly payments to such families, as well as the introduction of additional one-off payment for each child aged between 3 and 16.

In particular:

RUB 10,000 will be paid for each minor. The President introduces unconditional support for families with children, regardless of their income level or whether their parents have a job. Each child under 16 years of age will be paid  RUB 10.000, based on a simple electronic application from parents or guardians.

In total, 27 million Russian children will receive such support. This payment does not cancel, but complements previously entered support measures. RUB 5.000 thousand a month for children under 3 years of age will be paid not only to those who have the right to maternity capital, but also to all families with such children (from April to June); one-half of the subsistence minimum for children from 3 to 7 years of age from low-income families (from June 1-one-time for all previous months, that is, on average, RUB 33.000  per child, then-monthly) and RUB 3.000 per month for each minor child of their families, where one or both parents lost their jobs (from April to June). In addition, the amount of child benefit has been doubled.