To build Estonia’s digital society, it was not feasible to allow each government agency to ask for and store the user’s data. Such data duplication would make these agencies more susceptible to coordinated cyber attacks, as well as make it difficult to keep an individual’s information up-to-date. The solution to this was Estonia’s adoption of the “once-only principle,” whereby the user’s data is effectively divided up amongst the different agencies. This means information such as the user’s address can only be asked for and stored by one authority, in this case the population registry.

X-ROAD® DATA EXCHANGE LAYER

X-Road is a free and open-source data exchange layer solution that enables organizations to exchange information securely over the Internet. X-Road is released under the MIT open source license and is available free of charge.

The basic idea of X-Road is that information systems do not exchange data directly with each other. Instead, information systems are connected through additional, standardized access points (Security Server) that implement the same technical specifications and therefore, can communicate with each other.

The first programme, Tadamun (solidarity) 1, will cover institutions that are already covered by the SSC. Jordanians, Gazans and children of Jordanian women married to non-Jordanians will benefit from this programme, with employees receiving 50 per cent of their salaries provided that the amount ranges between JD165 and JD500. The employer will pay 20 per cent, with a maximum of JD250, Rahahleh said. 

samoagovt.ws (07.04.2020) A special payment of $300 tala per person for all pensioners under the Senior Citizens Benefit Fund on top of the normal pension. A date for this special pay-out will be announced in due course.

samoagovt.ws (07.04.2020) 20% early withdrawal for members in the Hospitality sector who have lost employment due to COVID-19. Subject to certain conditions, members in the affected sector to be allowed: a) member loans offset from contributions b) Early withdrawal of either: 20% of net contributions OR $4000 tala, whichever is lesser. c) Other Terms and Conditions apply for eligibility

GroundUp (29.04.2020) Introducing the new “Covid-19 grant” announced by President Cyril Ramphosa will pose a huge challenge. But South Africa can learn from Namibia, which introduced an emergency grant at the beginning of April and within three weeks had paid out nearly 580,000 people. The Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress grant of R350 per month, together with the R500 per month supplement to each Child Support Grant (CSG) recipient, provides for the first time a social safety net for able-bodied working-age adults.

World Economic Forum (30.04.2020) Pakistan's government are offering labourers, who are out of work due to the coronavirus lockdown, a chance to earn money by planting trees. The project is part of Pakistan's existing initiative to plant billions of trees to counter the effects of climate change.

samoagovt.ws (07.04.2020) Six-month moratorium on contribution payments for Hospitality Sector Employers in the hospitality sector will be permitted to postpone their contributions payments for the six-month period January to June 2020 to be payable only in July 2020. The total value of this assistance is $2.6 million tala.

Additional Measures of Social Support for Families with Children

The amendments specify and complement clauses of the Executive Order On Additional Measures of Social Support for Families with Children concerning monthly payments to such families, as well as the introduction of additional one-off payment for each child aged between 3 and 16.

news.bloombergtax.com (05.05.2020) The Russian Federal Tax Service April 20 announced reduced insurance contribution rates for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), effective April 1.