Invitation to the event at the Global People’s Assembly 2023
The Global People’s Assembly 2023 (GPA) will be on 17 (Sunday) and 18 September (Monday) in New York – at the UN SDG Summit and the UN General Assembly. The assembly will be hybrid - in-person in the Church Centre of the UN (opposite the UN) and participants can also join online.
The aim of the GPA is to bring people’s representatives together and create a strong voice at the SDG Summit for the midpoint of Agenda 2030. One of the priorities of the Global Assembly is to promote the right of all to universal social protection.
The GCSPF is coorganizer of the Global People's Assembly 2023. Sylvia Beales Gelber is also part of the drafting committee for the Declaration which will be no more than two pages and will be finalised on Sunday 17th and shared with the Secretary General of the UN at the start of the Summit.
The Global Coalition together with Africa Japan Forum, the People’s Vaccine, GCAP Africa and GCAP Asia is coorganizing the first session which is “Social Justice: Social Protection and Health, People’s Vaccine” that will take place on Sunday 17th, 2023 from 11.15 am - 12.45 pm New York time (If you will join us online you can confirm your local time here).
The objective of this session will be to articulate the key barriers and solutions to universal health coverage, social protection and achieving social justice for all with key asks to be included in the Declaration and to form the basis of a campaign plan.
Videos and messages will be shared in the session. We want the session to be as interactive as possible. We would really appreciate your in person presence for this in New York and for you to come to the session on line. As we will be developing key messages in the session as well as a campaign plan we therefore invite you to share your videos and messages. Please contact Sylvia (sylvia.bealesgelber AT gmail.com) to coordinate your contribution to this session.
This publication by Markus Kaltenborn, member of the Global Coalition, on the relevance of social protection systems for the adaption to climate change has been submitted to the Transitional Committee (TC) whose task is to prepare the COP28. Read more
A month of free learning sessions, featuring experienced speakers teaching about how international
financial institutions (IFIs) impact women’s rights, plus advocacy and mobilizing tactics to rise up against them.
The summer school is free to any activist, scholar and advocate interested in learning about economic justice
and IFI influencing – especially women’s rights groups!
The Gender IFI collective, a group of economic justice, women’s rights and IFI advocacy groups. Read more
Public sector trade unions have welcomed an announcement from the Philippines Government that recently approved social protection floors (SPFs) will cover precarious public services workers including community health workers, known as barangay health workers (BHWs). Read more
The Phenix Center for Economics and Informatics Studies held a panel discussion on improving working conditions for digital labor platform workers in Jordan and around the world. The panel discussion featured renowned experts from the global team of the Fairwork project, alongside experts from Jordan and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It looked into the role of digital labor platforms in the global economy, and overviewed strategies to promote sustainable and fair work environments in the MENA region and around the world. Experts also provided insights on how to best address pressing labor issues within the sector, including the inclusion of platform workers in social security schemes, and improving the “weak” regulatory framework of the sector. Read more
Lessons from relief for comprehensive social protection This paper by Laura Alfers and Florian Juergens-Grant considers the implications of COVID-19 relief measures for the building and extension of comprehensive and universal social protection systems. It highlights three key areas emerging from the crisis, which are likely to affect the shape of social protection systems moving forward.
These include the contested meaning of universality, the digitization of social protection systems, and the possibilities for informal worker participation in building a more inclusive social protection. In doing so the paper argues that the terrain of the social protection debate is shifting—it is increasingly uncontroversial that universal social protection is needed and that the state must play a role. Read more
The right to health ranked first among fundamental rights these past few years after COVID-19 caused severe economic and social repercussions worldwide. These repercussions affected the right to work and education. They highlighted the core deficiencies of health, education, and social protection systems and governments' inability to provide for their citizens basic services that are proper and fair. Hence, The Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) took a significant interest in the right to health, adopting it as the topic for the 6th edition of its Arab Watch Report in an attempt to critically analyze health policies, or rather health systems, in both their institutional and structural dimensions on the one hand and their policy dimensions on the other. Read more
Podcast. International labour standards - Conventions, Recommendations and Protocols - are at the heart of the ILO’s mandate. They play an essential role in creating a level playing field for business and combatting the exploitation of workers. But the global economy is changing faster than ever, and changes in technology, migration and demographics are constantly creating new challenges for regulators. In addition, different countries, with different levels of development, economic systems and cultures, have a wide range of priorities and requirements. So how are international labour standards created and kept fit for purpose. What topics might they need to address next? Listen to the podcast
A centrepiece of this year’s International Labour Conference (ILC) at the ILO was the World of Work Summit: Social Justice for All, led by the ILO Director General Gilbert F. Houngbo, where governments, as well as union and employer representatives, expressed strong support to establish a Global Coalition for Social Justice. Read more
This question-and-answer document by Development Pathways and Human Rights Watch examines the human right to social security, and how universal social security can help protect people from economic shocks and other emerging threats, including climate-related hazards, while building just societies where all rights are realized. It also explains why policymakers should orient their policies toward establishing universal social security systems and avoid narrowly means-tested programs. Read more
Eight Organizations of People with Disabilities (OPDs) in Lebanon, in partnership with the ILO, joined forces to call on national and international, governmental and non-governmental stakeholders to proactively involve OPDs in policymaking and programming related to Social Protection. Read more
The report by Human Rights Watch details how an algorithm developed by the Jordanian government and the World Bank profiles and ranks the income and well-being of Jordanian families to determine who should receive cash assistance. The research funds that this form of algorithmic decision-making is depriving many people of their right to social security even as they go hungry, fall behind on rent, and take on crippling debt. Despite the exclusionary effects of this approach, the World Bank is financing similarly automated systems in seven other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Sixty countries in total have adopted this technology, in part because of the Bank’s promotion of poverty targeting. Read more
Amnesty International is today calling for social security to be made available to everyone worldwide after a series of crises exposed huge gaps in state support and protection systems, leaving hundreds of millions facing hunger or trapped in a cycle of poverty and deprivation.
To guarantee the right to social security, Amnesty International supports the establishment of an internationally administered Global Fund for Social Protection, a concept supported by UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, the UN Secretary-General and the ILO.
The creation of a fund would offer states technical and financial support to provide social security and would aim to build the capacity of national social protection systems to scale up their responses in times of crisis. Read more
By Sarina D. Kidd
This working paper highlights how the international financial institutions (IFIs) shape social security policy in the MENA region.
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are two of the most significant IFIs in the MENA region. They have played a critical role in influencing social security policy. Read more
As part of the Human Rights 75 Initiative, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has launched a call for submissions for short stories on social protection.
How has your life, or the lives of those you know, been positively changed by social security laws, policies, measures or practices? Share your experience and be part of our Short Stories on Social Protection call!
Send a brief description by 31 July 2023 to ohchr-socialprotectionHR75@un.org. Your contribution, if selected, will be included as part of the Human Rights 75 spotlight in September. Read more
The International symposium "Improving synergies between social protection & public finance management" co-hosted by the ILO, UNICEF, the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors, and the European Union brought together policymakers, social partners, civil society, and development partners from 24 countries to discuss innovative practices and strategies for building sustainable and rights-based social protection.
Many members of the GCSPF participated in the Symposium online, whereas Uzziel Twagilimana (WSM) and Beatrice Di Padua (ITUC) attended physically. As representatives of the GCSPF, Uzziel Twagilimana moderated the Opening and Panel 1: “Extending social protection to all” and Beatrice di Padua spoke at Panel 5: “Joining forces for universal and sustainable social protection and closing remarks”. Read more
Virtual event at the HLPF. The Age-Friendly Cities approach offers a framework to provide adequate and affordable housing, basic services as well as to upgrade slums. Spearheaded by the World Health Organization, approximately 1500 cities and communities already use these principles. The right to live in safety and dignity is at the heart of Age-Friendly Cities.
July 13, 2023 - 13 - 14:30 NY Time. Register here. Read more
This hybrid event at the HLPF will address the role of consciousness in establishing our post pandemic world and in SDG fulfillment with expert speakers and interactive processes that will explore actionable operationalization of the emergent unitive perspective.
Friday, July 14, 11:30am-12:30pm EDT Register here
Virtual event at the HLPF Halfway there, nowhere near in the ECE Region. Taking stock at the mid-term of the 2030 Agenda.
July 17, 2023 - 8 - 9:30 am EST. Register here
Austerity has made millions vulnerable. How can we fund social protection? Listen to international experts in this webinar.
Date: 13 July, Thursday - Time: 11am CET
Speakers: Isabel Ortiz (Director, Global Social Justice Program at Joseph Stiglitz's Initiative for Policy Dialogue) and Professor Ravi Srivastava (Director center for Employment IHD, Delhi) and Rekson Silaban (Employment BPJS Supervisory Board, Indonesia)
Moderators: Tabitha Spence and Chandan Kumar - Organized by AEPF Social Justice cluster Register here
As part of the Human Rights 75 Initiative, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has launched a call for submissions for short stories on social protection.
How has your life, or the lives of those you know, been positively changed by social security laws, policies, measures or practices? Share your experience and be part of our Short Stories on Social Protection call!
Send a brief description by 31 July 2023 to ohchr-socialprotectionHR75@un.org. Your contribution, if selected, will be included as part of the Human Rights 75 spotlight in September. Read more
The International Symposium on Improving Synergies between Social Protection and Public Finance Management, convened by the ILO, UNICEF, the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (GCSPF) and the European Union, brought together policymakers, social partners, civil society, and development partners to discuss the innovative practices and strategies for building sustainable and rights-based social protection systems resulting from the Social Protection & Public Finance Management Programme (SP&PFM).
Launched in 2019, the EU-funded Programme on 'Improving synergies between social protection and public finance management' (SP&PFM Programme) supports 24 countries in achieving gender-responsive, disability-inclusive, and shock-responsive social protection. It also contributes to strengthening the sustainability of social protection financing through advocacy and technical work for increased fiscal space and improved public finance management.
The international symposium reviewed achievements, exchanged country experiences and innovations, and highlighted key research findings. It also looked ahead to how countries can maintain their momentum towards realizing universal social protection.
Information about the “International Symposium on Improving Synergies between Social Protection and Public Finance Management” is available here. The International Symposium was held in Geneva on 27 - 28 June, 2023.
The “Global Forum on Adaptive Social Protection. Protecting lives and livelihoods in times of crisis” provided an opportunity for policymakers, practitioners and social protection experts to jointly examine and discuss the scope and potential of Adaptive Social Protection (ASP) to foster resilience and promote adaptation.
The “Global Forum on Adaptive Social Protection” was hosted by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the World Bank (WB) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in cooperation with partners and with support from socialprotection.org. The Global Forum took place in Berlin from 13 to 15 June 2023. Further information is available here.
Winifred Doherty, Main NGO Representative, made an oral statement at the General Assembly: Informal Consultations on the High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development, mandated by the Addis Ababa Action, on May 22, 2023 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
The International symposium "Improving synergies between social protection & public finance management" co-hosted by the ILO, UNICEF, the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors, and the European Union will take place on 27 - 28 June, 2023 - 13.30 – 17.30 CEST at the ILO Headquarters, Geneva and Online. Interpretation will be provided in English, French and Spanish. Read more
By Laura Alfers and Florian Juergens-Grant, WIEGO
Global frameworks and the widely recognized importance of social protection during the COVID-19 crisis have generated momentum toward the realization of Universal Social Protection (USP). Despite these frameworks and important improvements over the last few years, substantive coverage gaps remain, especially for the world’s two billion workers in informal employment who remain largely excluded from social protection. Read more
Protecting lives and livelihoods in times of crisis. The Global Forum will provide an opportunity for policymakers, practitioners and social protection experts to jointly examine and discuss the scope and potential of Adaptive Social Protection (ASP) to foster resilience and promote adaptation. Focused on ASP’s four building blocks – programmes, data and information systems, finances and partnerships – the Forum aims to strengthen alliances for the expansion of social protection to more people around the globe.
13-15 June 2023 in Berlin. OnlineRead more
Özlem Onaran* and Cem Oyvat, ITUC.
The paper demonstrates the employmentcreation potential of renewable energy, public transport, other infrastructure, and the care economy. In doing so, it highlights the potential of strengthened policies to facilitate a just transition to a zero-carbon economy. In addition, the gendered employment effects of the three types of public spending are considered, and the importance of a policy mix to ensure that a just transition is gender equitable is highlighted. The paper further calculates the associated fiscal multipliers of public spending in care, the green economy, and infrastructure based on the estimated effects on GDP. Read more
As part of the Human Rights 75 Initiative, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has launched a call for submissions for short stories on social protection.
How has your life, or the lives of those you know, been positively changed by social security laws, policies, measures or practices? Share your experience and be part of our Short Stories on Social Protection call!
Send a brief description by 31 July 2023 to ohchr-socialprotectionHR75@un.org. Your contribution, if selected, will be included as part of the Human Rights 75 spotlight in September. Read more
The Centre for Social Sciences Research & Action (CeSSRA, Cyprus, Lebanon) is an action-oriented research centre, with the motto "social sciences for change". It is a multidisciplinary space creating synergies and bridging between the scientific, practitioner, and policy spheres. The Centre aims to foster social change through innovative uses of social sciences digital technologies, and publication and exchange of knowledge. The CeSSRA has published extensively on social protection in the region, notably several reports, papers, infographics, and timelines focusing on Jordan, Tunisia, and Lebanon, and regularly organizes webinars and round table discussions, as well as participates to various fora to discuss these issues. Read more
L’AFEMA-RDC c'est une organisation chrétienne pour le développement et la défense des droits de la femme et de l’enfant en RDC. L’idée fondamentale de l’AFEMA-RDC c’est le développement est très complexe, car on n’est peut pas développer un pays sur base de discriminations des genres, et pourtant aux yeux de nos cultures, coutumes voir même nos lois traitent la femme et l’enfant avec beaucoup de méfiance. Read more
Launched in October 2019, the EU-funded programme on 'Improving synergies between social protection and public finance management' (SP&PFM Programme) has been supporting 24 countries in their efforts towards achieving universal social protection, ensuring they are gender-responsive, disability-inclusive and shock-responsive. The Programme has contributed to strengthen the sustainability of social protection financing through strong advocacy for increased fiscal space for social protection and improved public finance management.
The international symposium offers the chance to take stock of the results achieved, exchange country experiences and innovations, and highlight key research findings of the SP&PFM Programme. It will also look ahead to how countries can maintain their momentum towards realizing universal social protection.
Interpretation will be provided in English, French and Spanish.
The GCSPF acknowledges recent initiatives taken by the ILO, World Bank, and other development cooperation partners to direct greater international financing towards supporting social protection programs in the context of the ILO Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection.
Such efforts could be a first step towards the creation of an international financing mechanism on social protection, or Global Social Protection Fund, long-promoted by the GCSPF as necessary in order to mobilise and coordinate international financial assistance in order to truly support the development of universal social protection systems, particularly in the global south.
The GCSPF wishes to underline some key specific criteria that need to be met by any kind of international financing mechanism that would be developed. Read more
The Social Policy Initiative (SPI) Virtual Webinar "Global Social Security and its Links to Active Labour Market Policies in a Post-COVID World" will take place on May 23, 2023 at 11:00am – 12:30pm (SAST).
SPI is launching an international comparision of social security initiatives and measures developed by countries in response to Covid-19. Speakers: Nicola Yon (NSSA), Laura Alfers (WIEGO), Gunnel Axelsson Nyacander (ACT Church of Sweden).
The SP&PFM Programme and the Global Partnership for Universal Social Protection to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (USP2030) hosted an online technical exchange on extending social protection to workers in the informal economy.
The event featured interactions between practitioners and experts on policy orientations, lessons learned and country experiences in designing strategies and lifting barriers to extend coverage to the 2 billion workers currently in informal employment. Read more - Watch the video
Underinvestment and structural exclusions in social protection have never been more evident than during the COVID-19 pandemic. A challenge is the belief that employer contributions to the financing of social protection are not possible in the informal economy.
Taking inspiration from India’s long experience with welfare boards, which provide social protection for self-employed workers and are generally financed by economic actors who benefit from their labour, informal workers’ organizations in Pune are exploring innovative approaches to forging relationships with entities outside the typical frameworks of employment to gain additional financing for social protection.
This report by Poornima Chikarmane was published by WIEGO. Read more
The Southern African Social Protection Experts' Network in collaboration with the University of Mauritius and the Ministry of Social Integration, Social Security and National Solidarity and other cooperating partners, will be hosting the 2023 International Annual SASPEN Conference themed, "A Decade of Social Protection with SASPEN: Taking Stock to Inform Social Protection Systems' Strengthening in the SADC. The conference will be held in Mauritius from 24 - 26 October, 2023. SASPEN invites abstract submissions and the deadline is 30 June, 2023. Read more
Aid targeted at supporting social protection has historically captured a very small fraction (about 2 per cent) of total global aid budgets, although in absolute terms they increased by approximately 60 per cent between 1995–99 and 2015–19. This EBA Report (by Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, Ana Horigoshi, Alma Santillán Hernández and Ernesto Tiburcio) demonstrates that, while international aid has contributed to the expansion of social safety net programmes in poor countries, the share of aid that is targeted towards social protection has decreased globally. Furthermore, it has not always been allocated to countries with the greatest needs. Read more
The IEJ is a progressive think tank based in South Africa that provides rigorous economic analysis designed to arm policy-makers and the public with progressive policy options to combat the scourge of poverty, underdevelopment, and inequality in South Africa, the region and the continent. Read more
LUNACOP aims to create a more just society in which the rights of children and young people are fully respected. It works through community sensitization, advocacy, capacity-building and socio-economic support to reach its objectives. LUNACOP was founded in 2005 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Read more
The International Monetary Fund has said that it protects spending on education, health and social protection from cuts in its loan programmes through social spending floors. These measures are a welcome step forward, but are they effective?
New analysis by Oxfam finds that the IMF’s ‘Social Spending Floors’ —targets designed to help borrowing governments protect minimum levels of social spending— are proving largely powerless against its own austerity policies that instead force countries to cut public funding.
They are little more than a fig leaf for harmful austerity, which is driving inequality, poverty and suffering. Read more
In 2021, WIEGO has launched the project “Challenging the global orthodoxies which undermine Universal Social Protection”. In a nutshell, the project aimed to examine some of the dominant ideas in the field of social protection that were hindering the concrete inclusion of informal workers in these schemes. And now Florian Juergens-Grant, the coordinator of this project, talks about the main findings of this project, to unpack how these dominant ideas operate and to bring some cases where alternatives have emerged to challenge the premises of these ideas. Listen to the Podcast
The learning journey consisted of an introductory Sub-regional conference; two Workshops for an in-depth discussion on social protection issues relevant to the sub-region; a Training course on Advocacy and communication for social protection; and Individual e-coaching sessions. The March 23, 2023 Closing conference aimed to re-connect representatives from governments, employers, workers and civil society organizations, within and between countries, thus stimulating peer-to-peer learning and provided highlights from the participants’ experiences during the learning journey. The final conference of the 22/23 East Africa Journey on Social Protection organised by the ILO/ITC for USP 2030 was held in March, and featured excellent panellists - including Priscilla Gavi, chair of the Africa Platform on the Africa Union Protocol of Social Protection. Watch the recording
Argentina’s draft Packaging Bill requires packaging-producing companies to directly contribute to the financing of inclusive recycling systems, which should ensure improved working conditions and access to some social protections for informal waste pickers. The principle of packaging-producing companies directly financing improved working conditions and social protection for self-employed informal waste pickers can set an important precedent in the recognition of firms’ responsibility to ensure decent working conditions and social protection for workers in their value chain, even in the absence of formal employment relationships. This case study is a collaboration among WIEGO, the Federación Argentina de Cartoneros, Carreros y Recicladores (FACCyR) of the Unión de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de la Economía Popular (UTEP), and the Observatorio de Coyuntura Económica y Políticas Públicas, an Argentinian think tank. Read more
On 23 January 2023, the ITUC and WSM’s INSP!R Network organised a meeting that brought together trade unions and civil society organisations to discuss their priorities and campaign strategies for financing universal social protection at the domestic, regional, and international levels. Read more
The ILO will publish the next issue of the World Social Protection Report (WSPR) in 2024. Your feedback on previous issues of the report will help them to improve it further, promote a deeper understanding of developments and trends and better support the needs of #socialprotection practitioners and advocates.
Please take their survey and helps them improve the report at http://bit.ly/3K3OiAn
Civil Society Call for a Global Fund for Social Protection
Over 200 civil society organizations and trade unions unite to call for a Global Fund for Social Protection to protect the most vulnerable during COVID-19 and beyond.
The programme Improving Synergies Between Social Protection and Public Finance Management provides medium-term support to multiple countries aiming to strengthen their social protection systems at a national level and ensure sustainable financing. The programme aims to support countries in their efforts towards achieving universal social protection coverage.
This initiative is implemented jointly by the ILO, Unicef, and the GCSPF.