World Development (nov 2017) Cash transfers (CTs) are a social protection mechanism to reduce the poorest households’ vulnerability to shocks and build human capital by smoothing consumption and sustaining expenditure on education and social welfare. Our study examines whether and how CTs go beyond welfare objectives to promote livelihoods.

ILO (24.08.2017) Within the next 15 years, some 375 million young people will become of working age in Africa, equivalent to the current population of Canada and the United States combined. By 2050, nearly one in three young people will be living in sub-Saharan Africa, and most of them simply cannot afford not to work.

worldbank.org (16.08.2017) The effects of the 2015 El-Nino induced drought lasted well into 2017, and affected a quarter of Lesotho’s population of 2.2 million.

Can a universal basic income resolve future income security challenges? Universal basic income approaches are currently high on the agenda as possible policy options to resolve the income security challenges that emerge on the one hand from new forms of work in the wake of digitalization and automation, as well as from informal and precarious employment. 

Africapostnews (07.07.2017) Selon un rapport effectué par plus de 70 experts et publié par la revue médicale The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, l’obésité devrait coûter 52 milliards d’euros à l’Afrique d’ici 2030.

Radio Algérie (03.07.2017) Le Rapport de la Commission africaine de la deuxième session du Comité technique spécialisé sur le développement social, le travail et l'emploi (CTS), organisée récemment à Alger sera soumis à l’examen et l’adoption par la 29eme Conférence des Chefs d’Etat et de gouvernement, dont les travaux débuteront lundi à Addis-Abeba.

INCLUDE Platform (22.05.2017) Summary of the synthesis report ‘Boosting youth employment in Africa: what works and why?’

A promise of equal opportunity

“Basic income” would be an amount sufficient to secure basic needs as a permanent earnings floor no one could fall beneath, and would replace many of today’s temporary benefits, which are given only in case of emergency, and/or only to those who successfully pass the applied qualification tests. UBI would be a promise of equal opportunity, not equal outcome, a new starting line set above the poverty line.

unicef-irc.org (23.05.2017) There is more evidence now than ever before that cash transfers can empower families to improve their lives. In Africa, cash transfers are rapidly expanding as a key social protection tool for reducing chronic poverty and hunger and increasing investment in human capital.