worldbank.org  (17.11.2021) The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the vulnerabilities of the vast and diverse informal economy as well as the lack of social protection schemes to provide timely support, especially to those in urban areas. To protect vulnerable individuals from shocks and build their resilience, governments in Africa need to expand social registries and develop and implement policies to cover the informal economy by innovative social protection programs.

foreignpolicy.com (10.03.2022) One of the biggest challenges women face globally is the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their ability to work. According to the International Labor Organization, women’s workforce participation levels are still below pre-pandemic levels, whereas men’s jobs have largely returned.

Journal of International Development (nov 2021) As many other countries, India leverages on a pre-existingworkfare programme as a COVID-19 response. We com-bine monthly administrative data with migration and pov-erty statistics and provide four insights on the recent expansion of the programme. First, poorer districts includemore households, that is, increasing extensive margin. Sec-ond, in districts with a high proportion of return migrants,there is no increase, and third, unmet demand for work is higher than the national average of 22.7%.

Center For Global Development (16.02.2022) South Africa responded to the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown using a combination of existing social protection programmes, unemployment insurance, and additional measures to support those most affected. This paper reviews policies and implementation with the objective of highlighting lessons for the global community, including on the use of digital mechanisms.

International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) (10.02.2022) The COVID-19 epidemic broke out in Wuhan, capital of the Hubei Province in China in early 2020. This One Pager discusses factors that enabled the country to support affected groups in a timely manner and how this experience could inform social protection expansion efforts elsewhere.

International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) (10.02.2022) The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the foundations of the economy and provoked devastating social effects in all countries of the world, with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) one of the most affected regions. The region is experiencing deteriorating levels of poverty and extreme poverty, most significantly affecting children and adolescents. This One Pager discusses digital payment systems for social protection interventions in the region.

International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG)  (10.02.20222) This One Pager reflects on how to improve social protection systems in Latin America and the Caribbean after the COVID-19 pandemic, analysing how it can ensure food security and social and economic ‘double inclusion’. In particular, it provides a regional overview of the social protection measures to respond to COVID-19 in rural areas, and analyses four country-level examples that show promising features for building back better during the recovery process.

brookings.edu (17.02.2022) The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed an estimated 124 million people into extreme poverty globally, the first increase in extreme poverty in 20 years. To meet the magnitude of this need, governments around the world have dramatically ramped up social protection measures, and in particular cash transfers, which comprised one-third of all COVID-related social protection programs. A staggering 17 percent of the world’s population, or 1.3 billion people, were covered by at least one COVID-related cash payment between 2020 and 2021.

africanarguments.org (10 febrary 2022) In 2020, when the pandemic began, many governments worldwide undertook the task of channeling emergency support to their most vulnerable citizens. This task, made more difficult by the unprecedented public health restrictions implemented in various settings, was fraught with difficulties. This included ensuring that help reached those who needed it the most, and that precious resources did not go to people who did not need support.

unicef-irc.org (2022) Financing quality social services will require increased public investment and greater mobilization of both domestic and international resources in the post-COVID era. Currently, low- and middle-income countries invest, on average, just one third of their total government expenditure in social spending on education, health and social protection. However, the fiscal space to enhance social spending remains constrained in many parts of the world.