europa.eu (15.11.2020) The German presidency of the Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional deal on the EU4Health programme for 2021-2027. With a budget of EUR 5.1 billion, the new reinforced programme provides a strong basis for Union action in the health field based on lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. It comes at a time when EU citizens still experience the impact of a major health threat and the resulting human suffering and severe socio-economic consequences.

weforum.org  (11.11.2020) COVID-19 has accelerated global efforts to deliver digital healthcare. The move towards value-based healthcare could facilitate universal health coverage and aid post-pandemic recovery. Millions of people living in poverty could benefit directly from new model.

un.org (10.12.2020) The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, slams the levels of financial support for children allocated by high-income countries during the pandemic as totally inadequate, in a child poverty report issued on Friday.

(24.11.2020) China is planning to include new measures to encourage more births and address its rapidly aging population as part of its new 2021-2025 “five-year plan”, state media reported on Monday.

UNDP (03.11.2020) Severe long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic could push an additional 207 million people into extreme poverty on top of the current pandemic trajectory, bringing the total to over 1 billion by 2030, according to findings released today by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

OpenGov Asia (01.12.2020) The pandemic has fundamentally changed lifestyles and thought processes across the world. There is a paradigm shift in the way people now interact with each other. With social distancing becoming the new norm, citizens are increasingly becoming dependent on technology to communicate and interact among themselves. In order to help public sector utilise digital applications and APIs to enhance service delivery and get digital transformation right, OpenGov Asia hosted an OpenGovLive!

US Social Security Administration (November 30th) On September 28, India's president approved a law (the Code on Social Security, 2020) that consolidates and amends nine existing social security laws. Among the law's changes are an extension of benefit eligibility to fixed-term workers under the employer-liability gratuity scheme, a broadening of the definition of wages for contribution calculation purposes, and new protections for informal-sector workers.

blogs.worldbank.org (28.10.2020) Covariate shocks including disasters, economic crises, and pandemics threaten to reverse decades of gains achieved in poverty reduction and shared prosperity in the region. These shocks tend to disproportionately affect the poor and push near poor households into poverty.

worldbank (2020) The Sourcebook synthesizes real-world experiences and lessons learned of social protection delivery systems from around the world, with a particular focus on social and labor benefits and services. It takes a practical approach, seeking to address concrete “how-to” questions, including: How do countries deliver social protection benefits and services? How do they do so effectively and efficiently? How do they ensure dynamic inclusion, especially for the most vulnerable and needy?

swissinfo.ch (25.11.2020) The reform of the occupational pension scheme is intended to secure the pension level, strengthen financing and improve the protection of part-time employees and thus especially women, Interior Minister Alain Berset said at a press conference on Wednesday. He said he hoped it would be the first successful pension reform in the 21st century.