e-GCSPF News #86 - May 2023

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.
English and Spanish

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

UNU-MERIT will host the virtual launch of the “Global Solidarity Funding For Social Protection” report.
Date: 08 November 2022 - Time: 14:00 - 15:30 CEST - Registration.
During the launch event, key stakeholders from FES, ILO, World Bank and UNU-MERIT will jointly discuss topics of financing and extending social protection floors. The exchange will focus on the opportunity and cost of implementing a global mechanism for cofinancing social protection floors. Read more

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!”. Today, the teams at ACT Church of Sweden, Development Pathways and Action Against Hunger show how, in actual fact, universality can be affordable.
Daisy Sibun will be launching a 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. Tuesday, November 22, 2022 - 2 PM - 3 PM CET - Register - Read more

Representatives from different CSOs, unions and workers’ organisations shared their perspectives on whether, and if so, how, IFIs have changed their position on social protection in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on newly published evidence, we discussed what is new regarding IFI’s engagement on social protection, what counts as progress, and what are areas where IFIs may continue to fall short on realising the right to social protection for all. Watch the recording

The Financing Working Group of the Global Partnership on Universal Social Protection (USP 2030) realeased a joint statement on key principles for financing social protection.
Universal social protection is an essential means to prevent and reduce poverty and inequality and is at core of the social contract that connects the state with the society, contributing to more inclusive, equitable, stable, and peaceful societies. With the ongoing economic effects of COVID-19, the unfolding cost of living crisis, and the ever-growing impacts of climate breakdown the need for social protection has never been greater. And yet large and entrenched coverage gaps remain, with a lack of available and accessible financing a major bottleneck in achieving universal social protection. In light of this challenge the USP2030 working group on financing has jointly agreed the following key principles to guide the international and national financing of social protection Read more

By Francine Mestrum, Global Social Justice (Brussels)
Today, inequality is high on the international agenda. After the hype on poverty – Millennium Development Goals -, U.N. organisations and the Bretton Woods institutions play a major role in producing and distributing knowledge on the different dimensions of inequality and on how it is shaping today’s world and its perspectives on development.
In this contribution, I want to examine what knowledge these institutions create and disseminate about ‘inequality’ and how this knowledge has evolved since their inception – the end of the Second World War and the start of a decolonisation process with an associated development project. Read more

By Lena Simet
The World Bank published their new Social Protection and Jobs sector strategy, also known as the SPJ Compass. The strategy makes a strong commitment to USP. However, its guidance on how countries can get there is problematic.
Human Rights Watch and others, including a recent study by the nongovernmental organization Development Pathways, have found that poverty targeted programs fall short in protecting human rights, are prone to mismanagement and corruption, and that they can stigmatize people in poverty. Everyone has the right to social security, which is key to securing other economic and social rights, in particular the right to an adequate standard of living, which includes the rights to food and to adequate housing. Read more

Read here the October 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

With the aim of strengthening the political incidence of civil society in favor of social protection in South America, a cycle of conferences with the participation of various organizations of civil society (e.g. feminists, trade unions, ecumenical, etc.) and experts in the field took place. It is necessary an official care policy which contemplate supports and complements care work and defends the recognition of the "right to care", gender equality and human development. Likewise, ways of financing social protection are explored, including the creation of a global fund. The following videos (in Spanish) of the conferences are on line.
1. “Thinking about social protection from care”. Speakers: MA.(Econ) Soledad Salvador (Uruguay), Licenciada en Ciencia Política Patricia Cossani Padilla (Uruguay), PhD. Hildete Pereira de Melo (Brazil) and PhD. Corina Rodríguez Enríquez (Argentina). Moderator: BA(Econ) Alma Espino (Uruguay).
2. “Community care in times of COVID-19”. Speakers: MA.(Soc) Norma Sanchís (Argentina), Mag Ec. Natalia Moreno (Uruguay), BSc. (Psych) Alma Colin Colin (Mexico) and Mag. Florencia Cascardo (Argentina). Moderator: BA(Econ) Alma Espino (Uruguay).
3. “When the State misses the appointment: the (un)sustainability of life”. Speakers: Mag. Graciela Rodríguez (Brazil), Soc. Rosario Aguirre (Uruguay), Dra Verónica Serafini (Paraguay) and Dra. Alison Vasconez (Ecuador). Moderator: Mag Soledad Salvador (Uruguay).
4. “What the pandemic left us: necessary transformations”. Speakers: Roberto Bissio (Uruguay), PhD Lucía Pérez (Mexico) and PhD Valeria Esquivel (Argentina). Moderator: BA (Econ) Soledad Salvador (Uruguay).
These activities were organized by Ciedur, Red de Género y Comercio, Social Watch and the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors.

A new Human Rights Watch report on Targeted Social Assistance (TSA) in Kazakhstan finds that the country's main social assistance program has very rigid eligibility criteria and means tests that exclude many people in need of support. The report calls on the government to make changes in the program to eliminate errors in determining eligibility and arbitrary barriers that leave out qualified people and increase the benefits amount to ensure that people have adequate protection of their basic economic rights. Read more

The Third Virtual OECD Policy Dialogue on Social Protection and Development on Social protection in times of growing vulnerability and poverty crises will take place via the Zoom videoconferencing platform, on 29 & 30 November 2022 from 13:00PM to 16:30PM (Paris time).

With the aim of strengthening the political incidence of civil society in favor of social protection in South America, a cycle of conferences with the participation of various organizations of civil society (e.g. feminists, trade unions, ecumenical, etc.) and experts in the field is taking place online. It is necessary an official care policy which contemplate supports and complements care work and defends the recognition of the "right to care", gender equality and human development. Likewise, ways of financing social protection are explored, including the creation of a global fund.
The videoconference “What the pandemic left us: necessary transformations” will take place online on Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. GMT-3. This conference will be in Spanish.
These activities are organized by Ciedur, Red de Género y Comercio, Social Watch and the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors.

Representatives from different CSOs, unions and workers’ organisations will share their perspectives on whether, and if so, how, IFIs have changed their position on social protection in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on newly published evidence, we will discuss what is new regarding IFI’s engagement on social protection, what counts as progress, and what are areas where IFIs may continue to fall short on realising the right to social protection for all.
Thursday, October 20, 2022 2 PM GMT+1
Register - Read more

The Joint World Conference on Social Work, Education and Social Development 2022, under the theme “Redefining Social Policy and Social Work Practice in A Post-Pandemic Society: Social Welfare Programs and Social Work Education at A Crossroads” will be held from October 26 (Wed) to October 28 (Fri), 2022 in Seoul, South Korea. Hosted internationally by International Council on Social Welfare, and International Association of Schools of Social Work and hosted locally by Korea National Council on Social Welfare, Korean Council on Social Welfare Education, Korea Association of Social Workers, and Seoul Welfare Foundation. Read more
Event “Delivering on the commitment to universal social protection: the quest for innovative solutions” co-organized by the Global Coalition. Date and time to be confirmed.

Apologies, this webinar has been postponed. We will reschedule this event to a later date, and we will be in touch soon with more details.
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!”. Today, the teams at ACT Church of Sweden, Development Pathways and Action Against Hunger show how, in actual fact, universality can be affordable.
Daisy Sibun will be launching a 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. Friday, October 7, 2022 - 2 PM - 3 PM CEST - Register - Read more

The Global People's Assembly is a self organised space during the United Nations General Assembly high level wee with the aim of bringing the voices of the people to the forefront, at a time where decision makers engage in high level debate without people's involvement.
This year's Global People's Assembly took place online from Tuesday 20th September - Thursday 22nd September 2022. Read the Declaration and the recordings of the sessions
The Global Coalition is co-organizer of the Global People’s Assembly and several members participated in the sessions.
Isabel Ortiz (Global Social Justice Switzerland) participated in the opening session.
Sylvia Beales Gelber (APSP and member of the coalition core group) participated in the African Assembly and spoke on the right to universal social protection in Africa and the call for the global fund.
Florian Juergens-Grant (WIEGO) participated on behalf of the GCSPF at the session Leave No Woman Behind on Wednesday 21st September.

A new report titled “End Austerity: A global report on budget cuts and harmful social reforms”, shows that 85 percent of the world’s population will live in the grip of austerity measures by 2023. This trend is likely to continue until at least 2025, when 75 percent of the global population (129 countries) could still be living under these conditions.
Austerity measures include scaling down social protection programs for women, children, the elderly and other vulnerable people, leaving only a small safety net for a fraction of the poorest. They also include cutting or capping the wages and number of teachers and healthcare workers, eliminating subsidies, privatizing or commercializing public services such as energy, water and public transportation, and reducing pensions and workers’ rights.
The report is co-authored by Isabel Ortiz and Matthew Cummins and co-published by ActionAid, Arab Watch Coalition (AWC), Eurodad, Financial Transparency Coalition (FTC), Global Social Justice, Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD), International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Latindadd, Public Services International (PSI), The Bretton Woods Project, Third World Network (TWN) and Wemos. Read more

The ITUC has welcomed a much-anticipated publication by the World Bank “Charting a Course Towards Universal Social Protection : Resilience, Equity, and Opportunity for All” but has a number of considerable reservations to some of the policy messages, as well as the rigor of the analysis underpinning some of the policies proposed. Read more

Meryame Kitir, Belgian Minister for Development Cooperation; Jutta Urpilainen, European commissioner for international partnerships ; Shahra Razavi Director of the Social Protection Department of the International Labour Organisation (ILO); Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights; Sharon Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and many other partners in international cooperation participated in the Conference “Universal Social Protection, How to make it happen?”. The report of the Belgian dialogue USP2030 is now available in French. Read more