Privacy International (22.06.2021) The global Covid-19 pandemic has acted as a catalyst for technology-intensive initiatives for welfare distribution, coming at a high cost to human rights and inclusion: enforcing automated discrimination, exacerbating existing inequalities and compromising access to essential benefits.

This document provides an overview of social protection measures announced in response to COVID-19 that have made specific reference to persons with disabilities. Rather than seeking to provide an exhaustive survey of measures, it identifies the main characteristics and trends for social protection responses that specifically sought to support persons with disabilities during the crisis.

A record 80.5 million Americans have health coverage through Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, largely because states have had to keep people enrolled during the coronavirus pandemic, according to new federal data released Monday.

UNCTAD (16.06.2021) Coronavirus pandemic recovery efforts should provide comprehensive social protection, fight climate change and ensure vaccines reach the poorest people quickly.

Project Syndicate (16.06.2021) During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments worldwide have taken advantage of technological solutions to streamline social-protection schemes. But, for all its benefits, a digital approach to welfare programs implies an obvious risk: exclusion of those on the wrong side of the digital divide.

bbc.com (18.06.2021) The US Supreme Court has rejected a Trump-backed challenge by Republican-led states to former President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul. Despite the court's conservative tilt, its nine justices ruled by 7-2 that the challengers did not have legal standing to sue. It is the third time since 2010 that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as Obamacare, has survived a challenge. The law gave millions of low-income Americans access to medical insurance.

weforum.org (18.06.2021) Parental leave is a good thing, according to 90% of men who take it. Each month of paternity leave can increase a mother’s earnings by 6.7%. Billions of dollars in economic output is lost every year because women shoulder the burden of childcare.

social-protection.org (2021) The brief presents the Mozambican practice of preparing and publishing an annual National Statistical Bulletin on Social Protection. This practice demonstrates how this country has successfully developed a tool that harmonizes national data and underpins informed social protection decision-making, based on concrete and comprehensive data.

europa.eu (04.06.2021) The Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) has adopted the Commission proposal on establishing a European Child Guarantee. The objective of the European Child Guarantee is to prevent and combat social exclusion by guaranteeing the access of children in need – persons under the age of 18 years who are at risk of poverty or social exclusion – to a set of key services: early childhood education and care, education, healthcare, nutrition and housing.