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The official online side event on “Transforming sustainable growth through the lens of people-centred investment with Universal Social Protection” brought together government officials, UN experts, trade unions and civil society to make the case that universal social protection (USP) is a central pillar — not a side issue — of sustainable development. The discussion was framed around a stark figure: more than half the world's population has no access to any form of social protection.
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The official virtual side event, “After the World Social Summit: Universal Social Protection Floors (USPF) as a Framework for a Sustainable Future,” brought together 128 participants including representatives from the United Nations, civil society organisations, development practitioners, grassroots communities and academia to discuss how the commitments made at the Second World Summit for Social Development (WSSD2) and the Doha Declaration can be translated into concrete national action. The side event highlights Universal Social Protection Floors as the foundation for reducing inequality and building resilient societies. Speakers emphasized that Universal Social Protection Floors (USPF) must move from being a policy aspiration to becoming a central pillar of sustainable development.
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WSF2026 Activities Series on: “Social Protection Under Fire: Grassroots Voices and Collective Resilience,” under Theme 6: Health, Wellbeing and Social Protection. This event is collectively organized by 20 civil society organizations across Asia, Africa, and beyond.
Dates: 5th–6th August 2026 Location: Potocou, Benin Register here for online participation
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A new report by ActionAid, Education International and the Tax and Education Alliance, supported by 19 partners, has revealed how the International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) rigid, one-size-fits-all approach to public spending continues to harm people living in poverty around the world.
The report reveals staggering double standards and calls out the empty rhetoric of change within the institution. The IMF is still essentially a debt enforcer that serves the interests of wealthy creditors over people's lives, human rights, public services, and gender equality. Read more
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The ASEAN CSO Dialogue (June 29–30, 2026) with 234 participants from nine Southeast Asian countries. Attendees included trade unions, NGOs, employer association, and organizations of informal workers such as home‑based, domestic, migrant, and youth groups.
The dialogue enriched the regional social protection policy paper, updating country snapshots for Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Participants identified gaps between policy and practice, raised emerging issues, and proposed concrete actions for governments and ASEAN. Good national initiatives were highlighted to mark progress since the ASEAN Social Protection Declaration.
This session set the stage for the physical dialogue in the Philippines (July 2026), where CSOs presented the voices of informal economy workers directly to ASEAN representatives. Read the presentations here
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A journal published by the Social Protection Civil Society Network, Buddhanagar, Kathmandu, Nepal. Read more
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By Barry Herman (Social Justice in Global Development and Global Coalition for Social Protection Floor)
Nepal has long maintained social protection programmes and has been quite sympathetic with the encouragement of social protection in various international agreements adopted over the past 15 years. Most notable has been the recommendation of the ILO in 2012 on social protection floors, followed by the inclusion of social protection as an agreed target for eradicating poverty in the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development. Since then, increasing international impatience with the inadequate financing of social protection in many countries has led to expanded support by the World Bank and other development institutions, and reform of policy guidance on how the IMF should engage with its member countries on social spending. As a result, when Nepal undertook a huge sum of loan from IMF in 2021, one agreed condition was to expand the coverage of Nepal’s child grant to all children of 0-5 years of age across the country. Nepal fulfilled all the policy conditions for the loan through its four-year period except for the one on expansion of the child grant. To help understand this outcome, this paper, based on secondary information and discussions with key staff of selected relevant organisations, examines past and contemporary official texts that raised expectations about expanding the child grant and then documented their disappointment. The main message from Nepal’s experience is that there is a long way from the political adoption of shared principles to the realisation of country programmes, and that politics within the government, ultimately drive national policies whatever their international pedigree. Read more
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Nearly half of the world’s population lives without any form of social protection.
Meanwhile, the richest 10%: Own three‑quarters of global wealth. Cause over 75% of carbon emissions linked to private capital ownership. Pay far less than their fair share in taxes
Our Call: Expand social protection — health coverage, maternity protection, child support, pensions, disability support, and more — for ALL citizens, including informal workers, migrant workers, children, youth, older persons, persons with disabilities, LGBTQA+, Dalit, indigenous, ethnic, and religious minorities.
It’s time to demand fairness: TAX THE RICH, NOT THE POOR.
Add your voice to the movement for 1 Million Signatures to secure financing for universal social protection. Sign the petition
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Inequalities are the theme of the recently released Global Justice Report, presented by Thomas Piketty (Paris School of Economics) at UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)’s webinar on 22 July.
As wealth and power become increasingly concentrated in the hands of the few and climate risks intensify, the Report sets out a new vision for global progress in the 21st century, combining two key goals: socioeconomic equality and planetary habitability. It explores the conditions under which the world could move toward this horizon and traces an economically and ecologically consistent transition path from 2026 to 2100. Watch the recording
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