e-Newsletter # 65 - February - March 2022

By Michael Cichon and Hajo Lanz
The authors suggest a simple, feasible, pragmatic and affordable global strategy to support the attainment of social protection for all as a central means to combat poverty, inequality, insecurity and ill health; the strategy involves: Establishing a new international standard of universal social protection or universal social protection floors to extend the policy space for social protection on the national level; and Pivotal, targeted support for the temporary extension of national fiscal space for social protection in the poorest countries through a Global Fund for Social Protection or a similar financing facility. Read more

Human rights provide standards for the material conditions a society should guarantee to everyone. These standards, and the commitments that flow from them, can be leveraged to shift narratives about the economy and shift power in political debates. To help build a new story about what our economies are for and how they can be remade, CESR created Key Concepts, a new series made for anyone fighting for economic and social justice and in need of new inspiration and tools to catalyze change.
The first primer in the series, Human Rights & Economic Recovery from COVID (Spanish, Arabic), shines a light on the structural injustices exposed by the pandemic, what we gain from looking at recovery efforts through a human rights lens, and how we can hold governments and private actors to account. The next Key Concepts primer - on debt justice - will be launched next week ahead of the G20 Finance Ministers' meeting. Read more

There are 2 billion informal workers, representing social protection’s missing majority. This session will provide a deeper understanding of the heterogeneity of the informal economy and the different social protection instruments targeted at informal workers during COVID-19. The 5th webinar of the ‘ASPects series’ is related to the Building Block ‘Programmes and Delivery Systems’ of the World Bank’s Adaptive Social Protection framework.
17 February - 14:00 - GMT+2
Participants: Laura Alfers (Director of Social Protection Programme, WIEGO); Melis U. Guven (Senior Social Protection Economist, The World Bank) and Regis Hitimana (Deputy Director General, Rwanda Social Security Board, Government of Rwanda). Read more

PSI brought the voice of frontline workers to the debate at the World Health Organization (WHO)’s latest Executive Board meeting in January. Members of PSI's delegation raised deep concerns on the need for a covid recovery which prioritises strong public health institutions over market provision.
At the core of PSI’s arguments was the assertion that public health must be put before the commercial interests of corporations. Once again, PSI called for the suspension of patents on COVID-19 vaccines, tests, and medicines as a pivotal step towards ensuring equitable access. Read more

From 7 to 16 February 2022, the 60th Session of the United Nations Commission for Social Development (CSocD60) was held under the title: “Inclusive and resilient recovery from COVID-19 for sustainable livelihoods, well-being, and dignity for all: eradicating poverty and hunger in all its forms and dimensions to achieve the 2030 Agenda.”
During the UN Commission, the NGO Committee for Social Development held a Virtual Civil Society Forum (CSF 2022) featuring two plenary sessions and an NGO Collaboration session. The first plenary session, Setting the Stage: A global overview on poverty, human dignity and well-being, addressed how poverty, social exclusion and the lack of wellbeing impacts the dignity of individuals, showing the importance of including those directly impacted, and also presenting the case for measuring and understanding poverty differently, beyond a monetary lens. Session 2, Transitioning from Talk to Action: Towards a Hunger-Free, Green and Just Society included concrete examples of policy implementation at regional and national levels, highlighting the situation of children in conflicts and emphasizing the importance of using a rights-based approach to food. Click here to read the Civil Society Declaration endorsed by over 900 organizations and individuals.

Social protection schemes have played a key role in helping the world’s poor recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and should be expanded, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, told the 60th Session of the United Nations Commission for Social Development in New York.
Experience from more than 200 countries has shown that countries with strong social protection systems were better able to respond to the burgeoning demands for immediate assistance.
Examples of social protection schemes that have worked include cash transfers, school and child feeding programmes, the sale of basic food baskets at discounted prices, as well as tax and debt relief for vulnerable businesses and households. Read more

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is to host the Global Forum for a Human-centred Recovery from 22-24 February. The virtual Forum aims to increase the level and coherence of the international response to the profound and unequal impact of the COVID-19 crisis on people globally. It will bring together heads of State and Government, heads of international organizations and multilateral development banks, and employers’ and workers’ leaders from around the world to propose concrete actions and strengthen the international community’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.
The Forum will examine in particular the actions and investments needed to promote: Decent jobs and inclusive economic growth; Universal Social Protection; Workers' protection and enterprises' sustainability and Just transition towards a carbon-neutral global economy. Read more

From 7 to 16 February 2022, the 60th Session of the United Nations Commission for Social Development (CSocD60) will be held under the title: “Inclusive and resilient recovery from COVID-19 for sustainable livelihoods, well-being, and dignity for all: eradicating poverty and hunger in all its forms and dimensions to achieve the 2030 Agenda.”
During the UN Commission, the NGO Committee for Social Development will hold a Virtual Civil Society Forum (CSF 2022) on February 9th, and 11th. CSF 2022 is organized with the support of FES and UN DESA. This year's Forum will include an all virtual Orientation and Networking event, as well as two Thematic Sessions and an NGO Collaboration Session. Learn more and register here.
More specifically, the first Thematic Session is entitled; Setting the Stage: A Global Overview on Poverty, Human Dignity and Well-being, and will feature Special Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter as keynote. Click here to view flyer and register.

The purpose of this side event, organized by the International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW) in cooperation with several international partners is to explore the pre-requisites and core activities necessary to ensure that all individuals and communities, including the most disadvantaged, are food-secure and have access to healthy nutrition. Sustainable pov- erty eradication cannot be achieved without addressing the threats to food and nutrition security and implementing a well-focused set of mutually reinforcing social and economic policies attuned to the national circumstances and implemented in an integrated manner. Read more
Event Flyer - Wednesday February 9th 2022, 8:30-9:45 am EST
You can join the event in Zoom - Meeting ID: 868 2023 7369 - Passcode: ICSW22

This side event will bring together activists with a lived experience of poverty from Burkina Faso and Ireland, academics working on poverty-based discrimination, and Member State representatives proposing good practices, including laws prohibiting discrimination based on social status. They will discuss the importance of addressing poverty-based discrimination, both at interpersonal and institutional levels, to ensure the rights, dignity, and well-being of all, especially that of individuals and families with a lived experience of poverty. Read more
Click HERE to register - Friday February 11th 2022, 11:30 am - 12:45 pm EST

As the WHO Executive Board met for its 150th session, HelpAge shared a statement calling on the WHO and Member States to do more to address the continuing inequity of global vaccine distribution which is exposing millions of those most in need to unnecessary risk. Read more

2021 was another tough year for informal workers: their earnings stayed far below pre-pandemic levels and hunger and debt remained huge obstacles to their recovery. The crisis is by no means over for these workers, making this an important time to look at what we have learnt from the pandemic in 2021, so that workers can be supported better in 2022.
Through the WIEGO COVID-19 Crisis and the Informal Economy Study we have listened to workers and, also drawing on our programmatic work, were able to distill five valuable lessons. Read more

By Mai Saleh
In times of political conflict, occupation, major economic crises, and epidemics, the poorest and most marginalized, including women and especially refugees and migrants, are exposed to multiple forms of violence and discrimination. In the past two years, the Covid-19 pandemic revealed the fragility and sometimes absence of social protection and led to the collapse of health systems worldwide. The global aspect of the crisis meant that many women have become scapegoats, sacrificed, and thrown into the ocean until the storm ends! Read more

Filling the financing gap through domestic resource mobilization and international support and coordination. The ILO Working Paper 44 by Mira Bierbaum and Valérie Schmitt discusses the magnitude and urgency of the challenge of filling social protection financing gaps and the options for achieving this. Options exist even in low-income countries, including by broadening the tax base; tackling tax evasion and building fair and progressive tax systems together with a sustainable macroeconomic framework; duly collecting social security contributions and tackling non-payment or the avoidance of social security contributions; reprioritizing and reallocating public expenditure; and eliminating corruption and illicit financial flows.National social protection systems should be primarily financed from domestic resources; however, for countries with limited domestic fiscal capacities or countries facing increased needs due to crises, natural disasters or climate change, international financial resources, in combination with technical assistance, could complement and support domestic resource mobilization for social protection. Furthermore, more dialogue and coherence need to be achieved between international financial and development institutions to avoid contradictory policy advice on the level and nature of investment in social protection. Finally, international cooperation, such as on tax matters or debt restructuring, is needed to create an environment that facilitates domestic resource mobilization. Read more

The ILO’s World Employment and Social Outlook – Trends 2022 report warns of a slow and uncertain recovery, as the pandemic continues to have a significant impact on global labour markets.
The ILO has projected that total hours worked globally in 2022 will remain almost two per cent below their pre-pandemic level, corresponding to a deficit of 52 million full-time equivalent jobs (assuming a 48-hour working week).
The impact has been particularly serious for developing nations that experienced higher levels of inequality, more divergent working conditions and weaker social protection systems even before the pandemic. Read more