socialeurope.eu (20.04.2021) The labour status of people working in the online platform economy is key to their socio-economic protection. But it has proven a difficult issue for courts and regulators. The European Union is considering introducing a ‘rebuttable presumption of employment’ to help address this problem. What could this entail exactly? 

Le Maroc a annoncé avoir lancé auprès de 9 millions de bénéficiaires son plan de généralisation de la couverture sociale destiné à terme à couvrir 22 millions de personnes actuellement dépourvues d'assurance maladie. Les agriculteurs, les artisans, les commerçants, les professionnels indépendants et leurs familles seront les premiers inclus dans le régime de l'assurance maladie obligatoire (AMO) en 2021 et 2022.

The World Bank (March 2021) The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered one of the largest economic downturns since the Great Depression. Beyond its devastating effect on health, morbidity, and mortality, the pandemic shook economies and labor markets around the globe, leaving no firm, worker, and household untouched. Governments responded to the crisis with a series of public health and containment measures that deeply affected societies and economies, including the supply and demand for goods, capital, and labor.

dol.gov (06.03.2121)

The U.S. Senate approved a Republican measure setting federal unemployment benefits for those made jobless by the coronavirus pandemic at $300 per week, as part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill.

gov.cn (26.01.2021)

Considering that the risk of the pandemic still exists, some enterprises may be under great financial pressure, the policy of phased reduction of premium rates of unemployment insurance and work injury insurance will be extended for another year until 30 April 2022.

Monash University (12.04.2021) As the pandemic-related shutdown intensified across Australia from March 2020, temporary and undocumented migrants and their advocates warned of devastating impacts on migrant workers and international students who were simultaneously losing their incomes while being excluded from social security benefits.

theconversation.com (29.03.2021) Since the mid-1990s, new approaches to poverty reduction have been introduced in countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Some have involved income transfer programmes that target poorer citizens based on various means tests. Most have targeted female caregivers, primarily mothers. The most expansive child and family grants are in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina and South Africa, which has put in place the biggest social provision net in Africa.

Reuters (07.04.2020) Oman on Wednesday restructured its pension and social protections systems, part of a reform push by the Gulf Arab state wrestling with an economy battered by low oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic.

ilo.org (March 2021) This brief is part of the policy resource Package Extending social security and facilitating transition from the informal to the formal economy. Lessons from international experience.