thedailystar.net (16.11.2020) The government decision to distribute the fund under its social safety net programme through mobile financial services will ensure transparency and bring more unbanked people under the formal financial system, according to industry people.
The Guardian (11.11.2020) Ballot measure exempting ride-sharing companies from treating drivers as employees could serve as model for future laws
European Commission (09.11.2020) The report analyses the progress towards the Europe 2020 target on reducing poverty and social exclusion, together with the latest social trends to watch, and presents the key structural social challenges in each Member State. However, following the COVID-19 pandemic that has swept across Europe in 2020, the report also focuses on the decisive action taken by Member States to protect employment, income and access to services through a variety of measures.
British Politics and Policy at LSE (03.11.2020) Jonathan Wadsworth explains why the furlough scheme seems to have done its job in preventing mass layoffs, as well as other reasons why the total entering unemployment is still much lower than in the 2008-2011 downturn.
VOX, CEPR Policy Portal (04.11.2020) While few groups have weathered the Covid-19 crisis unscathed, recent evidence suggests that the damage has been especially extreme among the economically vulnerable. This column evaluates changing attitudes towards welfare spending as a result of the pandemic. The findings suggest that people living in areas most severely hit by the crisis are increasingly supportive of long-term reforms to the welfare system.
lemonde.fr (23.10.2020) Cette mesure d’urgence pourrait se pérenniser et inspirer d’autres programmes de revenu universel sur le continent. 8-5-5… Trois chiffres qui ont permis aux vendeuses de rue de Lomé, aux couturières ou aux cuisinières de continuer à nourrir leurs enfants au plus fort de la pandémie de Covid-19. En composant ce numéro sur leur téléphone mobile, ces femmes, dont l’activité informelle a disparu à cause de la crise, ont pu bénéficier d’un revenu minimum.
The Washington Post (05.11.2020) Gig economy workers were pushed to the brink. It led to a historic confrontation over the future of the business model. The state ballot measure, Proposition 22, will make drivers independent contractors according to California law. That supersedes a new law, known as A.B. 5, intended to grant drivers full employment, including minimum wage protections, health care and such benefits as unemployment and sick leave.
ILO (21.10.2020) This paper provides updated regional and global estimates of the costs and financing gaps for targets 1.3 and 3.8 of the SDGs relating to social protection and health care in 2020 and projections of incremental financial needs for reaching universal coverage in 2030. The paper analyses options for filling social protection financing gaps in developing countries during the crisis and beyond using domestic and external resources, including the strengthening and expansion of contributory systems. The analysis incorporates the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
moroccoworldnews.com (20.10.2020) Morocco established several innovative digital solutions to increase the number of beneficiaries of social protection schemes during the pandemic.
Development Pathways (08.10.2020) COVID-19 has sparked a mass of interest in “basic income”. South Africa’s Minister of Social Development has advocated it; Spain has promised it on a permanent basis; UNDP has argued for it globally (at least on a temporary basis)... But the more you look at basic income, the less attractive it seems, at least from a social protection perspective.
