worldbank.org (June 2023) Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, limited work opportunities and low-productivity informal work have played a significant role in increasing poverty and vulnerability in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

ids.ac.uk (01.06.2023) The Covid-19 pandemic has re-emphasised the need to ensure equitable access to safe, effective and affordable health services. The very rapid shift to the use of smartphone apps and telephone consultations (telemedicine) has highlighted the potential impact of digital innovations on the capacity of health services to meet this need. It is time to take digital health seriously. In 2021, The Lancet and the Financial Times published a report by a commission of experts entitled Governing health futures 2030: growing up in a digital world.

 OECD iLibrary (May 2023) OECD countries continue to face persistent gender inequalities in social and economic life. Young women often reach higher levels of education than young men, but remain under-represented in fields with the most lucrative careers. Women spend more time on unpaid work, face a strong motherhood penalty, encounter barriers to entrepreneurship and fare worse in labour markets overall. They are also under-represented in politics and leadership positions in public employment.

oecd.org (2023) This second edition of Health at a Glance: Latin America and the Caribbean, prepared jointly by OECD and the World Bank, presents a set of key indicators of health status, determinants of health, healthcare resources and utilisation, healthcare expenditure and financing, quality of care, health workforce, and ageing across 33 Latin America and the Caribbean countries.

IOM (Janv 2023) This report interrogates country-of-origin measures to extend social protection and broader-based support services to African migrant workers abroad.

worldbank.org (2023) As the world struggles to cope with global economic imbalances, diverging demographic trends, and climate change, migration will become a necessity in the decades to come for countries at all levels of income. If managed well, migration can be a force for prosperity and can help achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. World Development Report 2023 proposes an integrated framework to maximize the development impacts of cross-border movements on both destination and origin countries and on migrants and refugees themselves.

Climate Risk Management (2023) Climate change is transforming the risks individuals and households face, with potentially profound socioeconomic consequences such as increased poverty, inequality, and social instability. Social protection is a policy tool that governments use to help individuals and households manage risks linked to income and livelihoods, and to achieve societal outcomes such as reducing poverty and inequality. Despite its potential as a policy response to climate change, the integration of social protection within the climate policy agenda is currently limited.

fao.org (2023) This article develops a conceptual framework on pathways through which non-contributory social protection can contribute to a resilient and inclusive agricultural growth in rural Africa. It draws insights from a review of rigorous empirical evidence on the impacts of cash transfers and multifaceted cash plus programs on range of relevant productive outcomes, including: accumulation of productive assets; inputs and farm management practices; off-farm labour and non-farm enterprises; and farm production and income.

ILO Working paper 87 (Feb 2023)  Human-centered social security administrations keep the human dimension in control of decision-making. This is made possible through the insight to be gained from digital data-driven innovation in policy and governance and managerial reforms. Moreover, there are risks associated with collecting and analysing people’s digital data analysed and using it to further automate business processes. Human centricity is examined in this paper, through a human + machine approach, starting with social policy through to service delivery.

World Food Programme (27.02.2023) The study examines the barriers and opportunities to strengthening digital financial inclusion for cash transfer recipients in the Asia-Pacific region, with a focus on Bangladesh, Cambodia and Nepal. Specifically, it maps the existing evidence on the landscape of digital financial inclusion and cash transfer programmes in the region, and explores the perspectives and experiences of cash transfer recipients in receiving digital cash transfers.