GCSPF e-Newsletter # 71 – June 2022

A selection of country case studies: Bangladesh, Gabon, Honduras, Mongolia, Senegal and Somalia
This report contributes to the ongoing debates on the establishment of universal social protection through an analysis of eight specific country cases where trade unions are actively campaigning for extending social protection as part of national development strategies. This report showcases the national social protection needs of these countries, existing social protection coverage and financing gaps, as well as the existing contribution of official development assistance (ODA) towards social protection in the different countries concerned.
The cases showcase the potential for mobilising greater domestic resources for social protection as well as the importance of greater international financial support towards social protection, including strengthening the share of development assistance towards social protection to at least 7% of existing ODA allocations in the short term, as well as the potential for a Global Social Protection Fund in mobilizing and coordinating international financing to make social protection a reality for all.
The report is available in English, French and Spanish. This study was prepared by the ITUC, with financial support from WSM. Read more

By Temilade Sesan
The Nigerian government’s response to the vulnerabilities of workers in the informal sector has been slow. While progress has been made in the laying of institutional frameworks and the introduction of social protection programmes over the past decade, with coverage at just six per cent of workers in the country, these fall far short of the need.
The low levels of public investment in social protection in Nigeria reflect a general crisis of governance, one in which government priorities are informed largely by political considerations that do not align with the interests of informal workers.
The FIWON cooperative, a wholly informal worker-driven collective with chapters in Lagos and Osun, facilitates access to insurance for its members. The findings from the case study could be useful to others in contexts where public trust has been significantly eroded and government investment in social protection is low. Read more

CESR’s launched a new digital space in which they offer a powerful way for activists, campaigners, and communities around the world to use research to advance economic, environmental, and social justice.
Injustices like gender inequality, the climate crisis, racial discrimination, labor abuse, are enabled and exacerbated by economic policies. CESR’s Tools Hub offers the essentials for creating evidence that shows to what extent and by what means rights are being violated. By shedding new light on how economic policies harm people’s human rights, Decoding Injustice supports our demands for those in power to live up to their promises and right the wrongs of historic oppression. Read more

Public services as a tool to promote gender equality. 23 June 2022, 1:30 pm UTC
The escalating global environmental and inequalities crises, compounded by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, have further exposed and exacerbated the existing gender inequalities and have added to the factors that put women’s human rights at risk.
In the face of these structural and emerging challenges, public services can play a decisive role in the transformation of the asymmetrical and unjust power relations between women and men.
Panel 1: Challenges and risks: what are the key barriers to the development of gender- transformative public services?
Panel 2: Solutions and opportunities: how would gender-transformative public services look like in practice? What are the key components of a gender-transformative agenda for public services?
The side event is co-organized by Public Services International (PSI), Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Global Alliance for Tax Justice during the 50th session of the Human Rights Council. Registrations

A position paper issued by the Jordan Labour Watch - JLW (affiliated with Phenix Center for Economic and Informatics Studies) has illustrated that there are still many gaps in occupational health and safety in Jordan.
The paper called for conducting a review of all policies regulating the occupational safety and health in the Kingdom, according to a Phenix Centre statement. The paper also emphasized the importance of occupational safety with regards to mental health for workers, and the need to guarantee minimum standards for mental health within labor laws.
The paper showed that many women in Jordan work for jobs that might jeopardise their safety, such as working in factories and the agricultural sectors, which do not provide all types of social protection to women and men. Read more

There is growing evidence that social protection is a powerful tool to promote women’s economic empowerment and that it reduces gender based violence. Depending on the design, social protection programs can either reinforce or transform stereotypical gender norms. Today, there are still far too many social protection programmes that do not take gender into account. The policy brief “Social Protection and Gender Equality” introduces social protection, describes why it is important for women and girls, refers to the Global Fund for Social Protection, and summarises the main evidence of the impact of social protection on gender equality. It ends with recommendations on how to develop gender responsive social protection systems. The policy brief was published by Act Church of Sweden and The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation in May 2022. Read more

The report - “A Glimmer of Hope amidst the Pain” - draws on the testimonials of older women and men sharing the severe hardships they face because of the lack of an adequate social protection system in Lebanon.
HelpAge International and the International Labor Organization (ILO) partnered to feature the voices of Lebanon’s older people as they are often left without income security.
Lebanon is the fastest ageing country in the Arab region and has the highest proportion of older people. Yet, there is no inclusive social protection for older people to guarantee a dignified life in older age. The report is available in Arabic and English. Read more

The Conference “Towards Universal Social Protecton by 2030 in Eastern Africa” sets the scene by highlighting the criticality of universal social protection as an end in itself – recognized as a human right – as well as a means to unleash the social and economic prosperity of nations, as also implicit in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
We will then explore the link between the global agenda and national efforts, discussing questions such as: What are common challenges to extending universal social protection in countries in Eastern Africa? To what extent can countries, within and beyond the region, learn from each other? And what is the role of an international partnership such as USP2030 in this respect?
14 JUNE 2022 from 14:00 to 16.00 EAT (UTC +3) - You can register here. Read more

By Shahra Razavi, Christina Behrendt, Valeria Nesterenko, Ian Orton, Celine Peyron Bista, Alvaro Ramos Chavez, Helmut Schwarzer, Maya Stern-Plaza and Veronika Wodsak | International Labour Organization (ILO)
The recently released World Bank publication, Revisiting Targeting, provides an excellent opportunity to explore some of the key policy issues. This comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic and other unfolding crises have made the case for universal social protection more compelling than ever before, putting the spotlight on the need to identify financing options for extending social protection, and in so doing help re-build the social contract. Read more

Amman-Jordan, Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD) is a Jordanian NGO founded in 2008. Our programs aim to mobilize the untapped potential of our societies in the Arab region and outside to contribute positively to their journey towards the renaissance, by encouraging dialogue, research, education, training, youth empowerment, gender justice, social and economic development, in addition to the provision of relief, social protection services and direct legal assistance.
Working towards a renewed Renaissance in the Arab world finds its foundation in the values of AlNahda. Since appearing during AlNahda, the legacy of pluralism, intellectual curiosity, and humanism has been overshadowed by regional conflict, yet ARDD prioritizes these trends as the roots of democracy and development. These values are the building stone in all our programs: Gender Justice; Youth Enablemente and Education; Social Peace and Cohesion; Governance; Legal Aid and Justice Sector Development; Right to Information and Freedom of Speech; Forced Migration, Refugees & Shataat; Human & Economic Development; Relief and Recovery.
Contact: Mar Logrono, Ph.D., Senior Advisor Access to Justice and Inclusive Social Protection Read more

Veille Citoyenne Togo is an association created in September 2019, and declared and registered in Togo since 2020 and intervenes in the field of citizen control of public action through: the citizen watch by promoting transparency of the budgetary process both at the national and local levels; citizen control of the transparency of public contracts and delegations of public services; citizen control of the efficiency of public spending; the fight against corruption and impunity; the denunciation of cases of misappropriation and mismanagement of public resources; the constitution of a file to be a civil party in economic crimes; monitoring the implementation of the Integrated Monitoring and Evaluation Policy (PISE); and advocacy and lobbying for Togo's membership in the Open Government Partnership and the promotion of Open Data and Open Contracts.
Contact: Pidenam SAMA, President/Executive Director Read more

Progress towards an equitable world – must be more than a promise! May 2022
This C7 Communiqué reflects the policy positions and priorities of Civil7 2022 along the Working Groups and in the section entitled “Actively promote transformative development finance” calls for setting up a Global Fund on Social Protection.
Actively promote transformative development finance. Recommit to the 0.7% ODA target and agree on a clear timeline to reach this target with new and additional resources; mobilize new and innovative sources, including a financial transaction tax, e.g. to finance a new Global Fund for Social Protection.Recommit to the 0.7% ODA target and agree on a clear timeline to reach this target with new and additional resources; mobilize new and innovative sources, including a financial transaction tax, e.g. to finance a new Global Fund for Social Protection. Read more

Statement by Global Unions to the Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank, April 2022
Developing countries face a fiscal stimulus gap and workers everywhere are suffering from insecure work, violations of labour rights, and a lack of social protection. Collective bargaining and worker protections are therefore central to an inclusive recovery by helping reduce inequality and create quality jobs. Global Unions1 call for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to promote universal social protection and decent work, including the fundamental right to organise and collectively bargain. Strategies and operations should be designed accordingly, including the new IMF trust fund for resilience and sustainability. Debt relief and a permanent multilateral restructuring framework are part of the enabling environment for jobs and recovery. Read more

Spring Meetings Opportunity to Reset Approach for Universal Social Protection
Human Rights Watch released a report ahead of the 2022 Spring Meetings on the limited success of means-tested, targeted social protection programs in protecting human rights. The report draws on findings from 16 countries and calls on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to adopt a different approach that facilitates universal social protection. During the Covid-19 pandemic, targeted programs excluded millions of people who needed social security to protect their rights, leaving them without adequate food and with other problems. Social protection programs seek to reduce or cushion people from poverty, particularly in situations that affect their ability to earn an adequate income such as sickness, disability, old age, unemployment, and childrearing. Social protection programs can be universal, designed to benefit everyone in a certain group. Or they can be means-tested, targeted to those who meet certain criteria, often based on income. IMF loans and World Bank projects have largely promoted means-tested programs, though the Bank acknowledged universal social protection to be key to combat poverty and inequality. Read more

Financing for Development in the era of COVID-19 and beyond. Report of the Inter-agency Working Group on Cluster 2. Socioeconomic response: Social Protection, Gender, Children, Youth, Health, Education and Human Rights.
At the request of the UN Secretary-General, a working group of 16 UN agencies, programs and offices, coordinated by the ILO, produced a comprehensive report in 2021 for the Secretary-General on lessons from the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic for future policies on social protection, gender, children, youth, health, education and human rights. To help prepare its report, the working group organized a series of consultations with civil society organizations, trade unions, youth, and employer organizations. The Office of the Secretary-General has recently posted the report here and ILO posted reports of the individual consultations here

Social protection is one of the key demands of working people for a new social contract and has been at the forefront of government responses to the COVID-19 crisis.
But social protection is facing huge financing gaps that will require the mobilisation of domestic resources coupled with support from development cooperation funds, which are still too low at only 2.7% of all aid funds in 2020.
During a high-level panel debate, ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow highlighted the cost effectiveness of social protection: “If you invest in social protection, you will have more than double the amount of the investment back in the mid-term and huge social returns.
“Although ODA alone cannot do everything, it should be a confidence boost for developing countries to commit to more social protection funding and ensure statutory-based, comprehensive social protection around the world. We want seven per cent of ODA to go to social protection by 2030 and an increase to 14 per cent after that.” Read more

UN collaboration on social protection: Reaching consensus on how to accelerate social protection systems-building
FAO, ILO and UNICEF, in conjunction with many other UN agencies and development partners, convened a taking stock exercise to reflect on UN collaboration on social protection. This has resulted in the launch of this review paper that outlines how efforts can be systematically developed to further advance UN collaboration and coordination on social protection. It is hoped the recommendations in this review paper will better support the design and implementation of adequate and comprehensive national social protection systems. Simultaneously this can support the ongoing post-COVID-19 socioeconomic recovery and the achievement of the SDGs on social protection by 2030.
The objective of this publication is to work towards a consensus among UN agencies on how best to support countries to achieve progress towards universal social protection in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. To this end the publication investigates (1) lessons learnt from past joint UN work on social protection; (2) priority areas for social protection engagement; (3) recommendations for improving UN collaboration; and (4) next steps for the way forward. The publication is available here and the webinar's recording is available here

Redefining Social Policy and Social Work Practice in A Post-Pandemic Society: Social Welfare Programs and Social Work Education at A Crossroads
Both the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) and International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW), have played a vital role in promoting social welfare over the past 93 years as international organizations in the field of social welfare and social work. The priority areas of IASSW are social work education, research and scholarship, and various activities have been carried out at the regional, national and international levels to strengthen social work education, promote skills and strategies, strengthen exchanges and cooperation among social work educators, as well as to create a just society. ICSW mainly focuses on social development, social welfare and sodial justice advocacy, knowledge-building and empowerment to help vulnerable groups cope with risks and challenges, and to advocate for policies and programs to balance social and economic goals. The current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic leaves us with the responsibility as international organizations to address and advocate around emerging social problems.
The COVID-19 pandemic period last longer than anticipated, and the longer it remains amongst us, the more we need to prepare for the post-COVID19 society. Through this event, various fields of social policy, social work education and social welfare practice will be dealt with. We also intend to provide a discussion forum for policy makers, social work educators, sodal workers and scholars all around the world to examine the elements necessary to prepare for a post-pandemic society and to discuss strategies and capabilities to achieve a well-prepared post-pandemic society.
Call for Abstracts closes on 30 June 2022. Read more.

High income inequality can engender a wide range of negative impacts. It can harm child development, increase ill-health and mortality, limit the status of women, generate distrust in government, exacerbate levels of violence and social unrest, slow the pace of poverty reduction and hinder economic growth. The Asia-Pacific region is characterised by high levels of income inequality, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis. Therefore, it is imperative that countries in the region take action to tackle high inequality and create fairer and more decent societies. This report provides analysis and recommendations on how to reduce inequality in the region.
Investments in social security are one of the most effective means of tackling inequality. This includes schemes such as child, unemployment, sickness, maternity, disability and old age benefits, funded from general government revenues as well as by social insurance. Currently, across most countries in the Asia-Pacific region, investments in tax-financed social security are minimal. Nonetheless, the report demonstrates that, both globally and in the Asia-Pacific region, universal social security systems are much more effective than poverty-targeted systems in reducing inequality.
Nonetheless, countries need to do more than rely only on social security to tackle inequality. They should take forward other policy measures that are effective in reducing inequality, such as investments in other public services and labour market interventions to deliver decent work and fair wages. Read more

Phenix Center for Economic and Informatics studies has launched two studies on gender-based violence in the workplace and the impact of the COVID-19 on the employment of youth within the Jordanian labor market.
The study found that over 46% of the study's sample size of over 380 women in the governorates of Tafilah, Madaba, Karak, and M'an are paid less than the minimum wage, with 50% of respondents lacking health insurance and 36.6% being excluded from social security coverage. The study revealed that just 47.8% of women's workplaces in the labor market abide by occupational health and safety practices, which means that more than half of women are exposed to work injuries of different levels of severity. Additionally, the study showed that only 13% of the respondents said that they are able to access their legal financial rights, such as accessing loans and provident funds. The study argues that these factors disempower women both economically and socially. The study also found that women's health is adversely affected as a result of a lack of health insurance and the high costs of treatment compared with their salaries. The study also found that one of the factors leading to an increase in risk of gender-based violence is a common perception within the labor market that women are weaker, despite the fact that 13% of working women are the heads of their households and over 300 thousand households in Jordan are female-headed. Read more

Daria Cibrario and Vera Weghmann
Looking at the intersection between various dimensions of inequality and the lack of equitable access to public services (PS), this paper is PSI's contribution to the GOLD VI Report and it explores emerging trends in local PS delivery, including public, public-community and commoning approaches. It especially focuses on (re)municipalisation as a viable policy option for local and regional governments, highlighting the need for adequate public investment; recal-ling the primary role of public institutions at all levels to ensure equitable PS access for all; and alerting about the risks that privatization entails in terms of deepening inequalities. Read more

You are cordially invited to the launch of the global network INSP!R, the International Network for Social Protection Rights. Close to 100 social movements mobilize across 24 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe join their forces to guarantee the right to social protection for all.
Thursday 3rd February 2022 at 2 PM (CET time)
The invitation is available in English, French and Spanish. Read more

By Thalif Deen. Inter Press Service (IPS).
The UN’s highly-ambitious goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030 has been severely undermined by a rash of problems worldwide, including an escalating coronavirus pandemic, continued widespread military conflicts and the devastating impact of climate change.
According to published estimates, more than 700 million people have been living in poverty around the world, surviving on less than $1.90 a day.
But the fast-spreading pandemic, whose origins go back to December 2019, has been singled out as the primary reason for a rise in global poverty– for the first time in 20 years. Read more

The participants in the Arab Ministerial Forum 2021 endorsed the Declaration “The future of Social Protection in the Arab Region: Building a vision for a post-COVID-19 reality”. The Ministerial Declaration states key guiding principles for post-COVID-19 social protection that will inform policy making for countries and international partners in the region. Read more

By Martha Melesse, Rachel Moussié, Ana Ogando
The Covid-19 pandemic is not just a health and economic crisis. It is also a crisis of care, which has impacted women the most. But not all women have been affected in the same way. Nor have they enjoyed the same levels of support through social protection measures and access to public services. Unlike those in the formal economy, informal workers have no paid family and sick-leave policies, or unemployment benefits. They frequently also lack the technology and opportunity to work remotely, which has enabled many white-collar workers to sustain their livelihoods through the pandemic. Read more Versión en español

The forum “Promote Development Justice for meaningful post-COVID 19 Recoveries” was organized at the critical moment when the whole world is grappling with COVID 19 pandemic and unfortunately, South Asia is already has already been agonized with various internal issues including poverty, hunger, inequality, insecurity, environmental degradation, climate change and decaying democracy and human right situation. The fallout from the pandemic is affecting women and girls significantly, the poor, marginalized, vulnerable and daily wage farmers and workers have been badly affected. Beyond wage and income inequality, digital divide and vaccine inequality have explicitly appeared as new forms of inequality. Social exclusion has been instrumentalized as a political strategy. Geo-politics and growing nationalism are deepening challenges in the region. Ensuring rule of law and access to justice has become challenging at the moment with the SAARC, the inter-government regional cooperation mechanism, is almost non-functional catering the issues of South Asia.
The participants of the SAPF 2021 urge all key decision-makers and stakeholders to act urgently to address the deteriorating democratic and human rights situation and to promote rule of law and access to justice in South Asia with special focus on hunger and inequality, digital divide and environmental justice. These ambitious policy objectives are set out in SDGs of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to which all governments across South Asia are signatories. Read more

With Paraguay's ratification on October 2021, 60 countries have now ratified the ILO Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102) , considered to be the foundation of all ILO social security Conventions.
Convention No. 102 is the only international instrument based on basic social security principles that establishes globally agreed minimum standards for all nine branches of social security: medical care, sickness benefit, unemployment benefit, old-age benefit, employment injury benefit, family benefit, maternity benefit, invalidity benefit and survivors' benefit.
It is considered an important tool in extending social security coverage and provides ratifying countries with an incentive for doing so by offering flexibility in its application, depending on their socio-economic level. Read more

In November 2021 the ad hoc group on IDA20 of the GCSPF submitted Comments on the social protection elements in the IDA20 draft Deputies Report in which it criticises the fact that the World Bank continues to promote targeted social safety nets rather than social protection floors in line with ILO standards.
The World Bank launched an early twentieth replenishment process of the International Development Association (IDA), its fund for the world’s poorest countries, aiming to support countries in their recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and transition to green, resilient, and inclusive development. The IDA20 replenishment will conclude in December 2021 with a policy and financial package to support 74 countries between July 2022 and June 2025. Read more

Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan designed emergency interventions to cover children at the height of Covid-19 infections, a study has revealed.
The Africa Platform for Social Protection (APSP), in collaboration with Save the Children, conducted a study on social protection interventions targeting children in East Africa during Covid-19, with the goal of generating evidence for child-sensitive social protection programmes in the region, during the pandemic.
The research provided an understanding of the nature of the Covid-19 emergency interventions and the challenges in implementing them. It found that governments in the region, with the support of their development partners, offered alternatives to in-person learning during the school closures. Read more

By Florian Juergens, Laura Alfers
‘Informal economy’ - this strange term, which sounds a bit like we are describing the weekend-version of The Real and Very Formal Economy (black-tie, gowns), somehow captures the economic lives of about two billion people worldwide. Rather than being an aberration, it is very much the norm: 61 per cent of all working people in the world and 70 per cent of those working in middle- and low-income countries do so in the informal economy.
Informal workers are mostly excluded from social protection systems — with dire consequences during COVID-19. Read more Spanish version is here

Informal work accounts for over 60% of all global employment and 90% of employment in developing countries, the International Labour Organization reported in 2018. In the first wave of the pandemic, the ILO projected that informal workers would be among those most severely affected, predicting sharp growth in relative poverty levels. Over a year on, labour experts now warn that workers are not recovering as quickly as first expected. They warn of a “great divergence” in recovery: between developed and developing countries. Date: December 8, 2021 Register here

The Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Mr. Olivier De Schutter, intends to dedicate his report to the 50th session of the Human Rights Council, to be presented in June 2022, to the gap between legal coverage and effective coverage in the area of social protection as well as to situation of informal workers. The report will seek to identify the obstacles individuals and households face in seeking to access social protection and to propose recommendations for how to overcome them.
The Special Rapporteur invites all interested governments, civil society organizations, academics, international organizations, activists, corporations and others, to provide written input for his thematic report. Deadline: 20 December 2021 Read more

The report by Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) aims to explore current subsidies offered by Arab States to their citizens and basic goods subsidized. The report also attempts to identify recent shifts in subsidies and, more specifically, to answer the following questions: which subsidy reforms were recently adopted by Arab governments?, what are the factors influencing the adoption of said reforms, and to which extent are they aligned with the particularities of Arab societies?, what role do the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and IMF strategy play in the adoption of subsidy reduction reforms, and what are the relevant rationale and arguments? and is subsidy reduction economically and socially viable? Read more

The social and solidarity economy (SSE) is receiving increased attention for its role in addressing a variety of economic and social challenges, ranging from the future of work to the provision of social services. The social and economic problems around the global COVID-19 pandemic have brought into focus the need to strengthen the SSE to support the recovery process, along with the public and private sector.
Five national reports present the analysis conducted in Ecuador, Italy, Morocco, Republic of Korea, Quebec (Canada). Read more