South Africa introduced a new amendment to the parental leave policy in October 2025. The aim was to provide equitable rights for all parents. Noreth Muller-Kluits, a disability researcher and social worker by training, examines the policy as it affects people living with disabilities. Her recent work includes formulating a guide to support reproductive healthcare for women with disabilities.

This paper explores how the evolving platform economy is reshaping the economic landscape across Asia and the Pacific, and how countries in this diverse region are navigating emerging opportunities and challenges.

worldbank.org (2026) This note and accompanying database present preliminary analysis from real-time tracking of country responses worldwide. The analysis encompasses 195 countries and 17 variables yielding 3,842 individual data points.

ILO Social Protection (2026) Agricultural and rural workers in different types of employment face several challenges and barriers due to the largely informal nature of their employment, their exclusion from national social protection legislation, policies or practice, their vulnerabilities to economic, social and environmental crises, and lack of access to information and administrative procedures. This brief presents the key challenges in extending coverage to workers in the agricultural sector and sketches out possible solutions and good practices countries are employing to expand cove

theconversation.com (14.04.2026) Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has grown too big, too fast. The NDIS is a government-funded program providing support to more than 760,000 disabled Australians. It launched in 2013 as a way to make disability support more accessible and equitable. But public support for the NDIS is faltering. It’s one of the most expensive items in the federal budget, expected to cost taypaxers more than A$50 billion this year. And it’s a flawed system in urgent need of reform.

theconversation.com (13.04.2026) The familiar silhouette of bike and scooter delivery workers has become part of Paris’ urban landscape. For many city dwellers who rely on them to deliver meals to their door, these precarious workers remain largely “invisible” in surveys and public statistics. Yet, the availability of quality data about online platforms’ delivery drivers is a major issue.

(Reuters) - Italy's population has stabilised after 12 ‌years of decline, with immigration almost entirely offsetting a shrinking number of births, while life expectancy continues to rise, national statistics agency ISTAT said on Tuesday. Preliminary data showed the ​resident population stood at 58.94 million on January 1 this year, virtually ​unchanged from a year earlier, ISTAT said in its annual ⁠demographic report.

Digital Convergence Initiative (April 2026) This report examines the barriers and enablers of digital interoperability aimed at enhancing the cross-border portability of social security entitlements across contributory schemes that address key life-cycle risks.

LSE Business Review (25.03.2026) Planning for retirement is one of the biggest financial commitments most people will make in their lifetimes. But our ability to do so depends on our wage, age, gender, financial literacy, location and, above all, confidence in investing. Sophia Dancygier explains why the retirement income divide is not just a financial problem but a social imperative.

wider.unu.edu (2026) South Africa has a relatively well-developed social protection system for a middle-income country. Despite its roots in the country’s racially discriminatory past, the system has been repurposed post-apartheid to address deep poverty and severe inequality. This paper explores key characteristics of the current social protection system, highlighting its large scale and reach. Given high unemployment, the scope of social insurance is relatively limited and the social protection system is largely geared towards social assistance.