worldbank.org (July 2022) Reports that one of the most persistent patterns of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s labor market remains the large share of healthy and capable working-age populations excluded from the labor force and employment, particularly among women and youth aged 15 to 24 years not in employment, education, or training (NEET). The lack of inclusivity proves most apparent in the lost potential of women, whose labor force participation, averaging about 20 percent, remains the world’s lowest.

Oxfam (Feb 2021)  The report shows that COVID-19 has the potential to increase economic inequality in almost every country at once, the first time this has happened since records began over a century ago. Rising inequality means it could take at least 14 times longer for the number of people living in poverty to return to pre-pandemic levels than it took for the fortunes of the top 1,000, mostly White male, billionaires to bounce back.

UNDP (August 2020) The COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker monitors policy measures enacted by governments worldwide to tackle the COVID-19 crisis, and highlights responses that have integrated a gender lens. It includes national measures that are directly addressing women’s economic and social security, including unpaid care work, the labour market and violence against women. The tracker is coordinated by UNDP with substantive leadership and technical contributions from UN Women.

IPE (02.07.2020) The German parliament, Bundestag, has approved the law for the introduction of the basic pension – Grundrente – from 1 January 2021. The Grundrente is paid in the form of a supplement to pensioners with at least 33 years of contributions to the statutory pension insurance based on periods of employment, child-rearing or care work.

This document provides key considerations and examples of how gender and social inclusion (GESI) can be integrated into potential COVID-19 response options/strategies via existing social protection and / or humanitarian programmes (or a hybrid approach, leveraging social protection delivery systems and capacity). It aims to highlight key considerations for integrating GESI into social protection design and operation, in an effort to increase wellbeing and dignity, while minimising potential negative effects on vulnerable populations.

The Daily Star (08.07.2020) 

The government is set to distribute 10-kilogramme rice for free to each of over one crore "ultra-poor and destitute families" ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.

The food aid will be given to 1,00,06,869 vulnerable group feeding (VGF) card holders across the country to mitigate the consequences of disasters like flood and coronavirus outbreak.

LSE Business Review (05.02.2020) Older women are more likely to be rejected for jobs than older men, and less likely to be called for another interview than women under 45, writes Allyson Zimmermann

Critical Social Policy (15.006.2019) The introduction of Universal Credit, a new social assistance benefit for working age people in the UK, constitutes radical welfare reform and entails a significant intensification and expansion of welfare conditionality. Numerically, women are disproportionately affected by the conditionality regime for main carers of children within Universal Credit.

pensionsage (03.06.2019) The government is being urged to give new mothers a £2,000 pension top-up to address the pension gender gap. The call from Which? follows analysis by itself and the Pensions Policy Institute, which found that women who take time out of work to care for a while, are hit with a ‘motherhood pension penalty’, potentially saving £15,000 less towards retirement compared to the average full-time working woman.