euro.who (June 2019)  Governance of the public health system is divided between the Minister of Health and three levels of territorial self-government. This fragmentation helps explain the slow progress in tackling important and longstanding problems and imbalances, such as high hospital bed numbers and hospital debt, and related to this, an overreliance on hospital care compared to community-based care.

Better Than Cash Alliance (2019) 

The ability of digital payments to deliver better outcomes for governments, businesses, and individuals—including driving financial inclusion—has been one of the success stories of the digital age.

Le constat est alarmant dans le monde du travail. La pénurie de travail et la stigmatisation à l’embauche offrent un boulevard aux plates-formes américaines pour recruter. Ce modèle, si on peut le qualifier ainsi, fragilise ces nouveaux embauchés et produit encore plus de précarité avec l’absence de protection sociale.  Dénoncer ces méthodes est bien là l’essentiel, car il s’agit en effet d’une vraie cause, d’un combat pour la préservation de notre modèle social unique au monde.

t20japan.org (2019) The rising trend of aging societies, a result of decreased fertility rates and longer life expectancies, signals drastic changes in the world’s demographic structure, as Asia clearly demonstrates.

Critical Social Policy (15.006.2019) The introduction of Universal Credit, a new social assistance benefit for working age people in the UK, constitutes radical welfare reform and entails a significant intensification and expansion of welfare conditionality. Numerically, women are disproportionately affected by the conditionality regime for main carers of children within Universal Credit.

The European Interoperability Framework (EIF) is part of the Communication (COM(2017)134) from the European Commission adopted on 23 March 2017. The framework gives specific guidance on how to set up interoperable digital public services.

EurActiv  (07.06.2019) Very few patients ask for reimbursements for treatment accessed abroad and the only exchanges of patients’ health data are between two northern member states, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) found in a report released on Tuesday (4 June).

ituc-csi.org (15.05.2019) The paper reviews several of the measures that States have taken with the intention of improving the sustainability of pension systems and evaluates their effectiveness. The paper highlights that many of the measures taken have had negative distributional impacts and have significantly compromised the primary function of pension systems: to provide a secure replacement income for people in old age and prevent their ability to fall into poverty.

Europa (24.05.2019) A new Synthesis Report produced by the European Social Policy Network (ESPN) puts forward several recommendations and calls for more effective policy action at European and national levels to tackle in-work poverty.

The BMJ (24.05.2019 Universal health coverage (UHC) has been identified as a priority for international development by the G20, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations General Assembly. Since it was explicitly incorporated into the sustainable development goals (SDGs) as target 3.8, much effort has been expended on promoting UHC. Here we focus on four areas that, on current trajectories, are unlikely to achieve sufficient progress to meet the target.