December GCSPF #79 e-News!

There is broad consensus that expansion of social protection is a necessary response to the global food and economic crises. But an immediate reaction of countries when approached with the solution of universal social protection is “we can’t afford that!”. The teams at ACT Church of Sweden, Development Pathways and Action Against Hunger showed how, in actual fact, universality can be affordable.
Daisy Sibun launched the new paper, ‘Can a leopard change its spots? A critical analysis of the World Bank’s ‘progressive universalism’ approach to social protection’. The paper scrutinises the justification through which the World Bank continues to promote poverty targeted programmes, despite its more recent high-level support for the idea of universal social protection, and contrasts it with the human rights-based approach to social protection as promoted by the ILO. Watch the video

With this statement, the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (GCSPF), representing more than 120 civil society organisations and trade unions from all over the world, intends to react to the World Bank’s new strategy for social protection, published under the title “Charting a Course Towards Universal Social Protection: Resilience, Equity, and Opportunity for all”.
Recognising the human right to social security, as well as the central role that social protection plays in ensuring adequate standards of living, promoting inclusive and sustainable growth, enhancing resilience, and achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs), the GCSPF promotes the right of all people to social security and universal Social Protection Floors (SPF). Read more

The Covid-19 pandemic and its related shocks have revealed the value of public services and social protection floors. Institutions tasked with ending poverty like the World Bank are increasingly under pressure to support vital public services and play a key role in wider universal social protection (USP) discussions.
The World Bank recently released its latest commitment to social protection: A Social Protection and Jobs Compass to “chart a course towards USP,” which provides guidance to Bank staff on jobs and social protection issues.
Following a limited consultation process, civil society were eager to respond to the Compass. Read more

A brief for the case of Nepal and Uganda
To support the global debate on the Global Fund and extend its factual base, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) commissioned this study, by Zina Nimeh, Giulio Bordon, Mitja Del Bono and Guido Heins, whose objective is to support global discussions on the feasibility and necessity of a Global Fund for Social Protection through providing two country-based analyses that demonstrate the potential effects of a global social protection funding mechanism.
The study established (i) the cost of the Global Fund; (ii) the redistributive impact of the supported SPF benefits in terms of poverty reduction and the reduction of inequality; (iii) the effects of fund support on the achievability of the social protection-related SDG targets by the sample countries; and (iv) the effects of Global Fund support on countries’ resilience in the event of future crises. Read more

By ECLAC and UN-Women.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, care has gradually been placed at the centre of public agendas, as a result of growing political commitments, as well as the work of women’s movements and feminist economic studies.
These contributions have focused on the need to reorganize and redistribute care work as a key factor in more egalitarian and inclusive societies. The right to care is among the human rights already recognized in international covenants and treaties, to be enjoyed by all human beings, regardless of their situation of vulnerability, fragility or dependence.
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This ILO flagship report examines the evolution of real wages, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region. The 2022-23 edition also includes evidence on how wages have evolved through the COVID-19 crisis as well as how the current inflationary context is biting into real wage growth in most regions in the world. The report shows that for the first time in the twenty-first century real wage growth has fallen to negative values while, at the same time, the gap between real productivity growth and real wage growth continues to widen.
The report analysis the evolution of the real total wage bill from 2019 to 2022 to show how its different components – employment, nominal wages and inflation – have changed during the COVID-19 crisis and, more recently, during the cost-of-living crisis.
The report also looks at changes in wage inequality and the gender pay gap to reveal how COVID-19 may have contributed to increasing income inequality in different regions of the world. Together, the empirical evidence in the report becomes the backbone of a policy discussion that could play a key role in a human-centred recovery from the different ongoing crises. Read more

People in poverty contribute least to climate change yet also benefit least from policies that either try to mitigate climate change or help people adapt to it. It’s a double injustice that needs fixing. Social protection, and cash transfers in particular, can help people to adopt strategies that help them withstand the consequences of severe weather events, such as floods or droughts. With COP27 to be held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt next week, it’s an issue of utmost importance.
In this episode, Keetie Roelen is joined by two colleagues from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome. Nicholas Sitko is Senior Economist and Marco Knowles is Senior Social Protection Officer, both at FAO’s the Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division. In their work, they especially focus on reducing poverty and vulnerability of rural populations, including small-scale producers such as farmers. Together we discuss why people in poverty are more vulnerable to climate change, and how they can be supported to be better able to withstand negative effects of climate shocks. Listen here

Read here the November SP&PFM e-News! This newsletter communicates about ongoing activities and results from the Improving Synergies Between Social Protection and Public Finance Management programme (SP&PFM). SP&PFM is a joint collaboration between the EU, ILO, UNICEF and the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (GCSPF), which provides medium and shorter-term support to 24 countries aiming to strengthen their social protection systems and ensure their sustainable financing. Read more