What's next for Social Protection: A Global Fund for Social Protection

The programme “Improving Synergies Between Social Protection and Public Finance Management” was launched by the European Union, the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF on a virtual conference that took place on December 1st.
The multi-country programme presented an innovative partnership on social protection and public finance management – supported through funding from the European Union – that was developed in collaboration with eight partner countries including Angola, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Nepal, Paraguay, Senegal, and Uganda. It supports the development of more inclusive, robust and sustainable social protection systems that can also respond to future shocks. This new partnership provides integrated support to national ministries and public agencies on the planning, design, financing and implementation of social protection systems, programmes and delivery mechanisms. Read more

A series of video/zoom conferences and a workshop in the Latin America region with participation of experts, trade unions, feminist organizations, academics and activists with a common inspiration in social and economic justice to debate on the monitoring, advocacy at national, regional and international levels will be carried out in 2021 and 2022. These activities hope to strengthen networks at national and regional level and it is an opportunity to reinforce the work of the GCSPF on (sub)regional level, as has been proposed in our Core Team strategy meetings.
These activities will be in Spanish and open to our members and interested partners from all our networks. Please contact Ana Zeballos at anaclau@item.org.uy if you are interested in participating.

Development Pathways and Act Church of Sweden co-published the report “The social contract and the role of universal social security in building trust in government”. Trust in government is the basic building block of any successful nationstate. It needs to be at the very top of the list of government priorities since, once trust is undermined, the state itself can be threatened. History tells us that a key factor in building trust is the provision of universal public services, since they can be enjoyed by everyone on an equal and impartial basis. And, if trust is to be built quickly, the best means of doing so is through universal social security.
COVID-19 has created a major crisis across all countries and has highlighted the failings of the prevailing social and economic policies in most countries in the Global South. A key question is whether COVID-19 can be the catalyst for the type of paradigm shift in social and economic policy that occurred across Western Europe following the Second World War. If this change in paradigm is to happen, it will need progressive politicians and development partners to come together and move away from the poor relief model that has dominated policy thinking across the Global South. Instead, they need to have an unremitting focus on building the type of universal social security system that transformed the social contract in Europe. Read more

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the fragility of the global system, highlighted inequalities, and left the most vulnerable groups exposed. The crisis has affected the enjoyment of human rights, social and economic protection as well as global trade and brings hunger for change and the hope of renewal. After the initial shock, the appetite for reform is suppressed by the yearning for the comforting certainty of the familiar. This new publication and its related podcast series by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Geneva office delineate concrete and possible avenues in different policy areas towards a world of prosperity and equality for all. The authors of the 13 think pieces have developed concrete policy recommendations. These recommendations are possible ingredients for a future in which “Building Back Better” is a success and not another failed attempt. Read more

The G20 Leaders’ statement released on 22 November covers many highly important topics but does not provide the urgently needed coordinated boost for jobs and social protection.
The support for equitable access to treatments and eventual vaccines is welcome, however there is no new initiative on support for developing countries and no progress on international tax reform.
Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary, said: “The world is facing its greatest employment challenge in living memory, however the G20 leaders have not shown the leadership that is needed. The Declaration acknowledges the scale of the challenge without offering real solutions. Coordinated action, with support for the least wealthy countries, is needed for recovery and resilience. The lack of global ambition in this G20 Declaration is extremely disappointing and will leave countries on their own to fight the terrible economic consequences of the pandemic.” Read more

How do global economic and development structures impact the daily lives of women? Experts Barbara Adams (Global Policy Forum), Emma Bürgisser (Bretton Woods Project), Eleanor Dictaan-Bang-oa (Tebtebba), Azra Talat Sayeed (Roots for Equity) and Chantal Umuhoza (SPECTRA: Young Feminists Activism) explain macroeconomic policies and their relevance to the struggle for gender equality, particularly in the Global South. Watch the video

The idea of a Global Fund for Social Protection starts from the finding that social protection floors are affordable, provided low-income countries receive international support in order to complement their own efforts to mobilize domestic resources.
The desirability and feasibility of a new international mechanism in support of social protection floors remains debated.
On 22-23 September 2020, Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, organized jointly with the French government a High-Level Expert Meeting on this topic, which brought together 12 governments, 18 international agencies, social partners, civil society, and academic experts. The questions listed here are informed by the views expressed during that meeting. The Special Rapporteur would be grateful for answers to be provided before 15 December 2020. On the basis of the reactions received, he intends to present the Human Rights Council with a mapping of the positions adopted, and to identify ways forward.
The GCSPF submitted its contribution which is based on “A Global Financing Mechanism for Social Protection”. Members of the Global Coalition have also participated, among them, ITUC, Markus Kaltenborn

The “Global Wage Report 2020-21: Wages and minimum wages in the time of COVID-19” by the International Labour Organization (ILO) has found that monthly wages fell or grew more slowly in the first six months of 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic , in two-thirds of countries for which official data was available, and that the crisis is likely to inflict massive downward pressure on wages in the near future.
The wages of women and low-paid workers have been disproportionately affected by the crisis.
Furthermore, while average wages in one-third of the countries that provided data appeared to increase, this was largely as a result of substantial numbers of lower-paid workers losing their jobs and therefore skewing the average, since they were no longer included in the data for wage-earners.
In countries where strong measures were taken to preserve employment, the effects of the crisis were felt primarily as falls in wages rather than massive job losses. Read more

The Institute of Global Homelessness (IGH) drives a global movement to end street homelessness. Our vision is a world where everyone has a home that offers security, safety, autonomy, and opportunity. Founded in 2014, IGH is the first organization to focus on homelessness as a global phenomenon with an emphasis on those who are living on the street or in emergency shelters. It is a partnership between DePaul University (Chicago, USA), and Depaul International (London, UK), which provides direct services for people experiencing homelessness  in the UK, Ireland, Ukraine, Slovakia, Croatia, USA, and France. The IGH staff and Advisory Committee work with a broad network of world-class advisors, experts, and organizations — balancing geographies, cultures, and skills.

Contact information: Lydia Stazen, Executive Director, lstazen@ighomelessness.org
https://ighomelessness.org/ - Twitter: @ighomelessness - https://www.facebook.com/ighomelessness

The global community of nations has long decided to ensure the Human Right of all people to social protection. Studies have shown that ensuring a basic level of social protection for all is affordable for most countries and definitely for the global community of nations. A solidarity-based Global Fund for Social Protection could support countries to design, implement and, in specific cases, co-finance national floors of social protection. This side event offers civil society and academic perspectives on the proposal of a Global Fund for Social Protection and gives room to discuss ways and means of turning this idea into reality.
Moderator: Alison Tate - Speakers: • Valérie Schmitt (ILO) • Gabriel Fernandez (APSP) • Markus Kaltenborn (Ruhr University Bochum) • Sulistri Afrileston (ITUC) • Michael Cichon (GCSPF) • Marcus Manuel (ODI)
Watch the video

Nicola Wiebe spoke on behalf of the GCSPF at the Civil Society Meeting “Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond” held by the UN Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General with civil society on 2 November 2020. She spoke about the rationale and need for the Global Fund for Social Protection, details of the civil society call for this were shared and responded to in the meeting and the GCSPF SPF film was shown in the course of the meeting. The video of the intervention on Social Protection is here and the PDF version is available here.

The High-level Meeting provided the opportunity to comment on the menu of options, strategize on how to strengthen the role of the United Nations in economic governance and explore how to keep the momentum for FfD in the coming period. The video of the event is here. Read more

Members of the Global Coalition also participated in the meeting:

Dialogue 1 – Climate: The UN role in promoting a Just Transition
David Boys, Deputy General Secretary, Public Services International

Dialogue 2 – Fiscal Consolidation/Austerity and Privatization of Public Services
Magdalena Sepulveda, Executive Director, Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR)

Open Dialogue with interventions from the floor
Helen Saldanha, VIVAT International on behalf of the NGO Committee on FfD

Interlude 3 – Video on Social Protection Floors

Closing Segment
Peter Kamalingin, Pan Africa Program Director, Oxfam International

By Michelle Bachelet, Olivier De Schutter and Guy Ryder
Building back better from the pandemic so that we have greater resilience against future crises’ requires international solidarity and better social protection for all, that covers the poorest and most marginalized as well as those who currently have resources to pay.
Social protection floors for all are affordable. The financing gap for all developing countries – the difference between what these countries already invest in social protection and what a full social protection floor (including health) would cost – is about $1,191 billion in the current year, including the impact of COVID-19. But the gap for the low-income countries is only some $78 billion, a negligible amount compared to the GDP of the industrialized countries. Yet the total official development assistance for social protection amounts to only 0.0047 per cent of the gross national income of donor countries. Read more

The idea of a Global Fund for Social Protection starts from the finding that social protection floors are affordable, provided low-income countries receive international support in order to complement their own efforts to mobilize domestic resources.
The desirability and feasibility of a new international mechanism in support of social protection floors remains debated.
On 22-23 September 2020, Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, organized jointly with the French government a High-Level Expert Meeting on this topic, which brought together 12 governments, 18 international agencies, social partners, civil society, and academic experts. The questions listed here are informed by the views expressed during that meeting. The Special Rapporteur would be grateful for answers to be provided before 1 December 2020. On the basis of the reactions received, he intends to present the Human Rights Council with a mapping of the positions adopted, and to identify ways forward.
The GCSPF will submit its contribution which will be based on “A Global Financing Mechanism for Social Protection”.

More than three quarters of the global population had no access to comprehensive social protection and for even more people, income losses have been only partially mitigated.
These large and persistent gaps in the coverage, comprehensiveness and adequacy of social protection are linked to significant financing gaps that have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has both increased the urgent demand for social protection and eroded government resources by diminishing tax and social insurance revenue. A range of government action is under way to cushion the most adverse health and socioeconomic effects of the pandemic, including the introduction of many (though largely temporary) social protection responses (ILO 2020).
This brief summarizes the results of the 2020 working paper entitled “Financing Gaps in Social Protection: Global Estimates and Strategies for DevelopingCountries in Light of COVID-19 and Beyond”. It provides global and regional estimates of social protection financing gaps, which indicate the order of magnitude of the financial challenge that needs to be addressed in order to realize the human right to social security and achieve SDG targets 1.3 and 3.81. Read more

Choosing between people or the economy has become a persistent theme in political debates as the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic. Across countries, movements and world views, people are clamoring to rethink how our economies should function and who they should serve. To advance this debate, the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) and Christian Aid are launching a new publication, A Rights-Based Economy: Putting people and planet first. It asks a radical question: what would it look like if we had an economy based on human rights? Read more

On the occasion of the World Day for Decent Work, celebrated on October 7, the Jordan Labour Watch (JLW) issued a new report, demanding the new government expected to be formed within a few days to take quality measures to halt the growing unemployment rate.
In the report, the JLW said that unemployment rates have reached unprecedented levels due to the coronavirus crisis and due to the “ineffective policies” each government has implemented in the past. The decent work standards in the Kingdom suffer from many gaps, which have been there before the crisis began in March, where unemployment rates were already high and only increased further in the second quarter of 2020 to 23 per cent; 21.5 per cent among males and 28.6 per cent among females, the report said. Read more

AbibiNsroma Foundation (ANF) is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation established in 2020 in Ghana, and committed to identifying, promoting and empowering grassroots to develop innovative solutions for the developmental challenges in Ghana and Africa.  Through capacity building, training, research, advocacy and community development in the areas of energy, climate change and environment, natural resources, education, health and agriculture, as well as water, sanitation and hygiene to enhance Sustainable Development in Ghana and Africa as whole.
Further information can be found here.
Contact information: Robert Tettey Kwami Amiteye, Executive Director
info@abibinsromafoundation.org and abibinsromafoundation@gmail.com

Lessons from the global COVID-19 crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the national responses to it brought the world almost to a complete lockdown. All over the world, States have intervened, to various degrees, to restrict the freedoms of their citizens in order to slow down the spread of the pandemic and prevent healthcare systems from collapsing. What makes the situation even worse is that many countries were already confronted with massive social, ecological and economic problems before the crisis. These have not now disappeared. Climate change with its devastating consequences continues at a rapid pace; systemic racial and gender discrimination perpetuate inequality and injustice and undermine social cohesion; the increasing number of authoritarian regimes is a serious setback for human rights and the urgently needed socio-ecological transformation. The Spotlight Report 2020 unpacks various features and amplifiers of the COVID-19 emergency and its inter-linkages with other crises.

The GCSPF and several members of the GCSPF participated in the 2020 Report. The article “We are only as safe as the most vulnerable among us” - Strengthening public health and social protection systems in response to the COVID-19 pandemic by the GCSPF. Read the publication here and see below the contributions by members of the GCSPF.

The report was launched in a virtual event. If you missed it, you can watch the recording here.

The Spotlight Report is published by the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), Global Policy Forum (GPF), Public Services International (PSI), Social Watch, Society for International Development (SID), and Third World Network (TWN), supported by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES).

By Mira Bierbaum, Thomas Gebauer and Nicola Wiebe
Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors
The health and socioeconomic crisis caused by COVID-19 has shown in a dramatic fashion that we are only as safe as the most vulnerable among us. Despite previous legal and policy commitments and laudable progress in many countries, only between one-third and one-half of the world’s population were covered by essential health services. More than 55 percent had no access to social protection at all, with devastating consequences for societies worldwide. Millions of people have already fallen into poverty, are suffering from hunger and destitution or have died. The crisis has put into sharp relief the large underinvestment in public health systems that struggle to detect, isolate and treat cases. It has also demonstrated the need for robust and comprehensive social protection systems that protect individuals against income losses in case of sickness or job loss and that reduce the depth and duration of economic downturns by means of counter-cyclical spending. Read more

By Roberto Bissio
Social Watch
COVID-19 is a global catastrophe, but every one of the millions of infections has happened in the context of close local contact. While global mobility has spread the new coronavirus at fast speed all over the world, national capacities and policies to confront it are very different. Injustices and inequalities aggravate the impact of COVID-19 and without strong intervention from the State, the existing imbalances are reinforced. A few billionaires are getting richer while the slow-paced progress over decades to reduce global hunger and poverty is being reversed.
Civil society organizations around the world are monitoring the impact of COVID-19 and reclaiming the streets, with revitalized leadership and a rainbow of demands that combine old and new issues.
“Back to normal” is not possible nor desirable. The needed global changes are being incubated by a myriad of local hopes and actions. Read more

By Daria Cibrario
Public Services International (PSI)
Where they existed, public and social housing services have been scaled down or liquidated. Governments embracing neoliberal policies have encouraged housing market deregulation and the sale of public housing and land stocks of local governments by promoting - and in some cases subsidizing - their private purchase through tax breaks and low-interest loans. The generalized failure to address real estate speculation at a national and global level has further resulted in the sale of housing stock, leading to deeper urban gentrification, social segregation and inequality in many cities and metropolitan areas worldwide. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Madrid sold over 1,800 social housing units to the private equity firm Blackstone for EUR 128.5 million. As of 2018, the value of those same apartments had risen by 227 percent. Read more

By Daria Cibrario
Public Services International (PSI)
Although the legal frameworks underpinning housing policies and allocating resources are typically set at a national level, it is often local and regional governments which are responsible for the implementation of local housing development and manage public and social housing stocks and related services. As the global trends in urbanization widening inequality and mass displacements accelerate due to war, migration and the climate crisis, the role of local governments in housing policies is more important than ever. Yet, their resources, powers and institutional capacities are often inadequate to effectively curb real estate speculation and to uphold the right to housing in their territories. Read more

By Daniel Bertossa
Public Services International (PSI)
Around the world, frontline public service workers continue to receive praise and support for their vital role in responding to the COVID-19 crisis. Yet these underfunded public services and brutal working conditions are not inevitable. They are the result of decades of deliberate erosion of our public services through budget cuts, privatization and understaffing.
Undermining the quality and accessibility of public services has been part of a deliberate strategy to loosen the deep political commitment our communities have to protecting them. This has involved the creation and promotion of many myths: that public services are inefficient, wasteful, poor quality, harm economic growth and are protected by public servant elites for their own benefit. Read more

By Daria Cibrario
Public Services International (PSI)
While the promotion of market-led approaches to housing is still prevalent at a global level, some local governments are joining forces to swim against the tide.
Facing a 100 percent surge in rent prices since 2015, Berlin’s local government has frozen rent prices for the next five years at June 2019 levels and repurchased 670 apartments that were to be sold to real estate holding company Deutsche Wohnen, sparing tenants disproportionate rent rises due to superfluous renovations imposed by the company. In late 2019, the public Berlin’s Housing Association further remunicipalized 6,000 apartments in the Spandau and Reinickendorf districts. This makes sense when thinking of Vienna, one of the cities topping the world ranking for the quality of living, where 62 percent of the city’s residents live in publicly owned or subsidized housing. Surprisingly, these are not only the lowest income earners, as housing here is seen as social good, not as a market commodity. Read more

By Kate Donald and Ignacio Saiz
Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR)
The imperative to redistribute economic power and resources was already urgent long before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, as with so much else, the pandemic has magnified existing trends, shining a harsh spotlight on how extreme and unjust the status quo has become, and also how the systems we have in place channel wealth and power upwards, even in the midst of a global health emergency.
The relief and recovery packages being put in place by governments and international institutions are a critical means for tackling the structural inequalities exposed and perpetuated by COVID-19. In designing and implementing these packages, governments have the chance to start disrupting the status quo and breaking up the concentration of corporate and elite power at the root of these inequalities. Read more

By Roberto Bissio
Social Watch
Half a year after the eruption of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the comparison between the assessed “capability to prevent and mitigate epidemics and pandemics” and the actual impact of the new coronavirus, in terms of deaths per million inhabitants, is shocking: Among the fifteen countries better ranked in the GHSI we find many of those with the highest casualty rates, while among the ten deemed the worst prepared we find for example Algeria, which is one of fifteen countries considered “safe” and from which travel to Europe has been allowed since 1 July 2020.
Thousands of deaths could have been avoided if, instead of downplaying the risks, the perceived certainty of statistics had pointed to the dangers that even the richest countries were facing and thus press for earlier action. Read more

In view of the global harm from the COVID-19 pandemic, with food insecurity, poverty and loss of livelihoods rising globally, it is essential that national social protection floors are made available to all people – through nation and international solidarity. While recognising that the foremost responsibility for social protection lies at country level, the pandemic puts a spotlight on the need for international solidarity. What is needed is the creation of a solidarity based Global Fund for Social Protection to support countries design, implement and, in specific cases, finance national floors of social protection. It is the adequate multilateral initiative needed to respond to Covid-19 and to build a better future.

The GCSPF is calling on the world’s governments support low-income countries to expand and improve their social protection systems through the establishment of a Global Fund for Social Protection.
This Fund will enable low-income countries to implement national social protection systems that ensure income protection for all by providing temporary co-financing and facilitating access to technical support. Read more

Sharan Burrow (General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, ITUC), Prof. Olivier De Schutter (UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights), Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmena (Executive Director of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), Presiding Bishop Dr. Shoo (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania – ELCT), Joycia Thorat (Project Officer of the Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action) and Dr. Tavengwa M Nhongo (Director of the Africa Platform for Social Protection - APSP) guide us through different aspects of this new Global Fund explaining why we need the Fund and how it would work.

In expressing her support for the Call, Sharan Burrow, the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) stressed the importance of social protection in protecting people from the impacts of this crisis and the next: “Covid-19 has exposed the global scandal of a world without social protection for all. 70% of the world’s people have no or inadequate social protection, no income protection, no guaranteed access to health, no child protection and many other vital areas that ensure people are resilient against global shocks. Unions and civil society groups are calling for a Global Social Protection Fund for the poorest and most vulnerable of people. Join us, make the call for a Global Social Protection Fund!” Watch the video
Sharan Burrow addressed the High-Level Event on “Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond” on May 28 and she expressed that “today 70 per cent of the world’s people cannot count on the security of social protection. We need a global mechanism – GFSP – to help countries most in need to sustain and expand protection in times of crises and to build resilience.” Watch the video

Olivier De Schutter, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, emphasized that “many poor countries are small and have a poorly diversified economy and they may be experiencing shocks, economic shocks, a loss of export revenues, a sudden increase of import bills, climatic shocks, droughts and floods, or indeed epidemics, as we have seen most recently. And these countries may be wary about committing to provide their populations with the support they need in the form of standing rights-based Social Protection Floors that people may claim as entitlements. So we need to support these countries by providing them the ability to be insured in times of crisis, to make sure that the Social Protection Floors they establish shall be affordable, even in times of crisis. There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come, and I strongly believe that that is the case for the Global Fund for Social Protection.” Watch the video

Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmena, Executive Director of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, reaffirms that “In 2012 we called on states to establish a Global Fund for Social Protection. Today, this goal is more important than ever. Despite being a basic human right, it is estimated that only 29 per cent of the world population enjoy access to comprehensive rights-based social security coverage. I welcome this new initiative by CSO to put the Global Fund again at the center of our call for social justice and for the pursuit of the 2030 Human Development Agenda.” Watch the video

Presiding Bishop Dr. Shoo (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania – ELCT) emphasized that this pandemic reminds us that “we have a moral obligation to ensure that during great disasters and challenges no one is left behind. It is time for the global human community to consider establishing a Global Fund for Social Security to which will ensure that even the most vulnerable, not only during pandemic like this, or natural disasters times, but even in their day-to-day lives have access to healthcare.” Watch the video

Joycia Thorat (Project Officer, Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action) tells us that “millions of people have lost their jobs and livelihood in India and around the globe due to the pandemic situation. It is very critical to have a Social Protection Fund to support the people who have lost their jobs, who are working in the unorganized sector, who are working as daily wage earners, as agricultural laborers, as housemaids. And mostly women are getting affected due to this Covid situation. It is important that we protect all of them through the Social Protection Fund, so we can have another world, where everybody can live equally, safe and in dignity.” Watch the video

Dr. Tavengwa M Nhongo, Director of the Africa Platform for Social Protection (APSP), expressed that “the Global Fund for Social Protection is a solidarity fund that will ensure the development and delivery of universal social protection programmes by all nations, to all citizens and for the common good of all.” Watch the video

In view of the global harm from the COVID-19 pandemic, with food insecurity, poverty and loss of livelihoods rising globally, it is essential that national social protection floors are made available to all people – through nation and international solidarity. While recognising that the foremost responsibility for social protection lies at country level, the pandemic puts a spotlight on the need for international solidarity. What is needed is the creation of a solidarity based Global Fund for Social Protection to support countries design, implement and, in specific cases, finance national floors of social protection. It is the adequate multilateral initiative needed to respond to Covid-19 and to build a better future. Read more

The Decade of Action and Delivery to implement the Sustainable Development Goals, launched by world leaders in 2019, mobilizes stakeholders to tackle both emerging and existing gaps in the realization of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.
The objective of the multi-stakeholder hearing was to take stock of the outcomes and recommendations of the 25-year review processes, including the sixty-fourth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. The multi-stakeholder hearing provided an opportunity to exchange experiences, lessons learned and good practices among different stakeholders, through inter-active dialogues, to advance the full, effective and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Rachel Moussié (WIEGO) participated in this event. Video recording

The pandemic and the measures taken to contain it have deprived millions of their livelihoods. In most cases, existing social protection systems have proved unable to secure the basic needs of those who cannot work, due to circumstances out of their control. Workers in certain sectors–especially informal workers without social and labor protections –are bearing the brunt. Globally, there are 2 billion such workers, some 60% of the global workforce. WIEGO and the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) present a briefing paper to show how we can leverage the commitments governments have made to guarantee human rights to steer us towards a just recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more

The Stakeholder Group on Ageing (SGA) Africa is inviting you to the Webinar “United and Coordinated Africa for the Inclusion of older persons in COVID-19 policy response and development agendas” that will take place on Thursday August 20th at 1:00PM West Central Africa. The 2nd SGA Africa Pan African Webinar is being organized in collaboration with the African Union Commission and UN DESA.
Read here the e-flyer with a link to REGISTER for the webinar online (FREE) and a link to check your local time schedule for the webinar.

As we are now in the midst of the devastating COVID-19 Pandemic, more political attention is being paid to strengthening social protection cash transfers and public health systems as necessary priorities.
The GCSPF Core Team is interested in gathering information on the experiences of our members regarding improvements (or not) in civil society engagement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) thus far on boosting social protection expenditures, especially floors, in current national anti-crisis programs, as well as with the World Bank and other international agencies.
Please respond to the questions below to send us information on your national experiences thus far. Please respond as fully as you can. We think that your experiences will be valuable to the GCSPF community. Your answers could facilitate comparison of national-level activities that may be particularly useful for advocacy work by members, and for follow-up with IMF and other institutions. We will compile the responses into a report back to members. Read more

As the rate of new COVID-19 cases accelerates across the developing world, it exposes the potentially devastating costs of job losses and income reversals. Unconditional emergency cash transfers can mitigate the worst immediate effects of the COVID-19 crisis on poor and near-poor households that do not currently have access to social assistance or insurance protection. This report provides estimates for a Temporary Basic Income (TBI), a minimum guaranteed income above the poverty line, for vulnerable people in 132 developing countries.
A TBI amounts to between 0.27 and 0.63 per cent of their combined GDPs, depending on the policy choice: top-ups on existing average incomes in each country up to a vulnerability threshold; lump-sum transfers that are sensitive to cross-country differences in the median standard of living; or, lump-sum transfers that are uniform regardless of the country where people live.
A temporary basic income is within reach and can inform a larger conversation about how to build comprehensive social protection systems that make the poor and near-poor more resilient to economic downturns in the future. Read more

The disproportionate effect of the pandemic on young people has exacerbated inequalities and risks reducing the productive potential of an entire generation, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Since the outset of the pandemic more than 70 per cent of youth who study or combine study with work have been adversely affected by the closing of schools, universities and training centres, according to an analysis by the ILO.
According to the report, Youth and COVID-19: impacts on jobs, education, rights and mental well-being, 65 per cent of young people reported having learned less since the beginning of the pandemic because of the transition from classroom to online and distance learning during lockdown. Despite their efforts to continue studying and training, half of them believed their studies would be delayed and nine per cent thought that they might fail. Read more

Jubilee Debt Campaign has launched a new Debt Data Portal – an online resource bringing together the most important, up–to-date information on international debt levels and risks. This portal compiles key statistics and analysis on the debts of countries and governments.
One of the best guides to a government debt burden is the value of debt payments which leave the country each year compared to the government’s revenue. Countries in the global south spent an average 14.3% of government revenue on foreign debt payments in 2020, an increase from 6.7% in 2010. Read more

Ageing Nepal, is an independent, non-profit and non-governmental organization based in Kathmandu that was established in 2011. Ageing Nepal is a not-for-profit Non-Government Organization (NGO) registered with the government of Nepal and is also affiliated to Social Welfare Council (SWC). Ageing Nepal is a member based organization operated by trustees, member representatives and professionals. Ageing Nepal has ECOSOC Special Consultative Status, and is member of HelpAge Global Network and it is member of the Steering Group of GAROP.
Major areas of work: Awareness building, Consultancy services and Human Resource Development.
Further information can be found here.
Contact information: Krishna M. Gautam, Chairperson
http://www.ageingnepal.org/ - Twitter:@AgeingNepal

NACASUD-Nepal affirms its contribution to build on peaceful, just, equitable, inclusive, resilient and prosperous world. So, it works for peace, justice, human rights, democracy, governance and sustainable development.
NACASUD-Nepal is a non-profit making, voluntary, and non-partisan organization that was established in January 2017. NACASUD-Nepal is a collective platform of development professionals, civil society activists and persons involved in social movements. The general objective of the organization is to establish equality based social justice by safeguarding the values of democracy, human rights, justice and sustainability. NACASUD-Nepal aims to contribute in achieving SDGs at local level. NACASUD-Nepal is engaging with federal, province and local governments in the country. Moreover, it is engaging with Civil Society Major Groups, NGOs, UN Agencies, INGOs etc. on sustainable development agenda and other public issues.
Contact information: Daya Sagar Shrestha
http://nacasud.org.np/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nacasud
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Nacasud

The 2020 High Level Political Forum (HLPF) will take place from 7 to 16 July. The three-day ministerial meeting of the forum will take place from 14 to 16 July 2020.
The theme will be "Accelerated action and transformative pathways: realizing the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development".
The programme is here. 47 countries will carry out voluntary national reviews (VNRs) of their implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic virtual sessions will take place. You will find below a list of events by members of the Global Coalition.

Lessons from the global COVID-19 crisis and its impact on the SDGs

The COVID-19 pandemic will have a massive impact on the implementation of the SDGs and the fulfilment of human rights. The looming global recession will dramatically increase unemployment, poverty and hunger worldwide. Moreover, the crisis threatens to further deepen discrimination and inequalities. In many countries the macroeconomic situation had already deteriorated before the outbreak of the virus. A vicious circle of debt and austerity policies undermined socio-economic development in many countries.

Monday, 6 July 2020, 8:30-10:00am EDT - Read more and register here

Stakeholder Group on Ageing with Stakeholder Group of Persons with Disabilities and UN DESA
COVID-19 has exposed and deepened inequalities, discrimination, ageism and shown the inadequacy of systems, programmes and policy actions to safeguard the wellbeing and dignity of older persons and persons with disabilities. The pandemic has increased the visibility of those most at risk and reinforced the need for inclusive public policies that address the rights of people of all ages, in line with the SDGs commitment to ‘leave no one behind’. This event will look at the COVID-19 experience to identify learnings and opportunities to build a more inclusive world and accelerate action for achieving the SDG for all.
7 July 2020, 12-1:30 EDT / 6-7:30PM CET Read more and register here.

Building on the UN Secretary-General's call to Prioritize Children’s Education, Food, Health and Safety amid the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the Group of Friends on Children and the SDGs acknowledgement that “children and young people are positive change agents with whom all stakeholders should partner to ease the lasting impact of COVID-19 and to achieve the 2030 Agenda,” the co-organizers will host an intergenerational dialogue between children and Member States to address: 1) Investing in and empowering children and youth as agents of change both in COVID-19 response and in the Decade of Action for the SDGs. 2) Strengthening inclusive, gender-responsive and child sensitive social and child protection policies and programmes to implement Agenda 2030 in light of COVID-19 realities.
This intergenerational dialogue is co-organized by UNICEF and the Child Focused Agencies which include Save the Children, ChildFund Alliance, Plan International, SOS Children’s Villages, and World Vision, in addition to the co-chairs of the Group of Friends of Children and the SDGs (Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Jamaica).
Wednesday 8 July 2020, 7:30 - 9 AM New York Read more and register here.

The COVID 19 pandemic rapidly escalated into a multidimensional crisis impacting the lives and minds of millions of people worldwide, reinforcing pre-existing systemic set of inequities and injustices, and resulting in increased levels of poverty, vulnerability and isolation for the most disadvantaged segments of the population.
For the Global North and South, today’s crisis represents an opportunity to rethink the world we want to see post Covid-19. How do we redefine - together with those directly impacted by poverty - what resilience means for societies in a changing climate? How can strong social protection systems guarantee that the poorest communities’ fundamental rights are realized? How can we ensure that new systems of solidarity and governance allow each member of society equal recognition and responsibility?
How do we achieve an equitable and just transition towards sustainable economies? By giving the floor to a variety of UN experts, researchers, and practitioners working in partnership with families living in poverty, this webinar aims at highlighting the urgency of the situation and proposing people-centred solutions favoring participation, solidarity, dignity and respect for the planet.
Wednesday 8 July 2020, 8 - 9 AM New York / 2-3 PM Geneva Read more and register here.

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought a crisis of unprecedented significance to people’s health, jobs and lives globally. Governments must take extraordinary and radical measures to overcome the emergency and to lay the groundwork for the recovery. A piecemeal approach clearly does not fit the purpose. On the contrary, systemic change based on interlinked and complementary policies at social, economic and environmental level is the way forward.
Covid-19 pandemic recovery requires that governments respond with specific measures for decent work and inclusive growth. These measures cannot happen without workers’ and employers’ organisations involvement and support. Resilience can only be built on social dialogue, which goes a long way in crafting equitable policies and to rebuilding a new social contract between governments, employers and workers.
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
Monday 13 July 2020, 8 - 9 AM New York Time Read more and register here.

Since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, member states and civil society have reported on the progress made in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
In National Reports on the 2030 Agenda: What do they (not) reveal? The event will present the key findings of an overview content analysis of 2019 Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) by the Committee for Development Policy (CDP).
This event is co-hosted by the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP), Social Watch International, Global Policy Forum and the Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs.
Monday, July 13, 2020, 8:00 am to 9:00 am (EDT). Read more and register here.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented public health crisis, which has touched all countries In the world, regardless of their development status.
However, the pandemic has also revealed the widening inequalities in society: people living in poverty are not only exposed to a much greater risk of infection, but also bear the disproportionate brunt of the negative economic and social consequences of the pandemic.
This event is organized by the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Franciscans International, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and the International Movement ATD Fourth World, with the support of the Permanent Missions of Belgium, Costa Rica, France, and Peru.
Monday, July 13th, 2020 - 15:00-16:30 CET Read more and register here.

WIEGO will host the Urban Thinkers Campus (UTC): Informal Workers & COVID-19: Impact and Vision for the Future. During this virtual event experts from WIEGO's Urban Policies Programme will provide detailed insights on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on urban informal workers while exploring creative policy and planning responses. The Urban Thinkers Campus is an initiative under the World Urban Campaign of UN-HABITAT.
The webinar will be in English with French and Spanish interpretation provided.

14 July 2020, 9 am - 11 am EDT (GMT-4) - Read more and register here