A compilation of universal social security schemes in low- and middle-income countries.
By Daisy Sibun & Holly Seglah. February 2024
In this paper, the authors compile information about existing social security programmes for children, elderly, and persons with disability. We find that universal programmes are not only feasible in theory, but that they do exist. We have identified 88 such social programmes in 52 low- and middle-income countries that are universal or benefit-tested. This compilation does not prove that low- and middle-income countries can afford universal programmes but shows that it should not be assumed that they cannot do so.
By Barry Herman, Social Justice in global Development
Four years have passed since the IMF adopted a new Strategy for Engagement on Social Spending that was meant to increase the support that IMF gives to national policies on social protection, health and education. The Fund interprets this as instructing its staff to focus on the adequacy, efficiency and sustainability of social programs when they can affect macroeconomic conditions in member countries.
Results so far have not been encouraging, although it is still early. The IMF has published two interim guidance papers that give insight into the strengths and weaknesses of IMF thinking on how to implement its strategy.
Guide on which vocabulary and arguments to use while advocating for universal social security
With examples from Uganda, Ghana, India and Vietnam, it shows how universal child benefits, pensions and benefits for persons with disability is affordable, if introduced gradually.
A critical analysis of how the World Bank’s tries to reconcile its overall support of “universal social protection” with its continued promotion of poverty targeted programs
Evidence of extremely high exclusion and inclusion errors in poverty targeted social assistance programs
By promoting austerity, shrinking fiscal spaces, imposing the "cascade approach", and shaping development paradigms, IFIs undermine social protection and exacerbate gender inequalities.
Research and Policy Design Challenges.
This paper by the Arab Reform Initiative looks into financing mechanisms for more inclusive, effective, and sustainable social protection systems in the Arab region. It focuses on the role of the IMF in shrinking fiscal spaces, thus limiting public and especially social spending. It demonstrates how the Fund is promoting austerity, imposing conditionalities that hinder alternatives, driving countries into a debt trap, and enforcing detrimental credit risk management. The paper proposes alternatives to this prevalent model, ranging from key fiscal reforms and solidarity financing instruments to utilizing climate finance as an opportunity for funding universal social security.
This paper by the Arab Reform Initiative discusses how conditionaliality might be turned into an opportunity in countries with nefarious political economy and corrupt political regimes, covering the case of Egypt amid current IMF negotiations.
The paper shows how so-called “social registries” – targeting databases – exacerbate targeting errors, are extremely costly and violate the integrity of people.
This paper, by Stephen Kidd, Gunnel Axelsson Nycander, Anh Tran and Madeleine Cretne published on November 2020, consideres another aspect of the debate on targeting and universality: the role that social protection can play in strengthening or weakening social contracts, which depends on the design of the programmes. Throughout the paper, the authors underscore that the design question is not purely a technical issue for social protection experts to solve or discuss. Rather, it should consider both recipients’ and non-recipients’ reactions to different forms of targeting, which are closely linked to issues around surrounding trust, fairness and political choices.
From 1981 to 2014, thirty countries privatized fully or partially their public mandatory pensions; as of 2018, eighteen countries have reversed the privatization.
This is a short synthesis of the book with the same name, documenting the failures of pension privatization and how countries reversed to a public social security system
This book is a compendium of 50 country good practices in building universal social security systems including floors.
This paper presents cost of universal social protection floors in the poorest countries and discusses financing and affordability
This ILO database offers the latest official data to monitor progress towards universal social protection (SDG 1.3)
This handbook shows that financing universal social security is feasible even in the poorest countries.
Legal depository of international human rights instruments and standards on social security
This paper sets out a post-Covid needs and affordability of a universal basic income in South Africa
An initial analysis of how universal basic income could be part of the just transition agenda in South Africa.
A study showing that stepping up public investments can have significant positive impacts on employment and overall economic growth.
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The report found that financing social protection through progressive forms of taxation – such as progressive income tax, corporate tax, and capital tax – generates positive social and economic outcomes, debunking the myth that such forms of taxation are a drag on employment and growth.
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This study shows that there is a strong economic, as well as moral and public health, case for governments to introduce universal social protection.
Because decisions to introduce flat-rate taxes, reform social contributions and/or privatise pensions are not backed by strong evidence of a positive impact on economic growth, and given that these policies disproportionately favour the wealthy within a society, this paper argues that they are largely political and ideological decisions.
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.
Analysis of all 17 IMF loan programmes for low- and middle-income countries during the first two years of the pandemic shows that these floors are deeply inadequate, inconsistent, opaque and failing.
Development finance institutions owned by European governments and the World Bank Group are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on expensive for-profit hospitals in the Global South that block patients from getting care, or bankrupt them, with some even imprisoning patients who cannot afford their bills.
Oxfam is calling on rich European governments and the World Bank Group to immediately halt their spending on for-profit private healthcare
Decades of social policy focused on tiny levels of means-tested support have left most countries completely unprepared for the COVID-19 economic crisis. Yet, countries such as South Africa and Bolivia have shown that a universal approach to social protection is affordable, and that it has a profound impact on reducing inequality and protecting those who need it most.
The findings in this briefing paper show that the IMF is systematically encouraging countries to adopt austerity measures once the pandemic subsides, risking a severe spike in already increased inequality levels. A variety of studies have revealed the uneven distribution of the burden of austerity, which is more likely to be shouldered by women, low-income households and vulnerable groups, while the wealth of the richest people increases.
We need to transform our economies to deliver universal health, education and other public services. To make this possible, the richest people and corporations should pay their fair share of tax. This will drive a dramatic reduction in the gap between rich and poor and between women and men.
In this Q&A doc, Development Pathways and HRW explain the human rights obligations and responsibilities of governments and entities that influence social spending, and the importance of universal social security to meeting them. They also explain the basics of universal social security, how it can reduce and prevent poverty and inequality and protect human rights, including in times of crisis, and how governments can overcome impediments to providing it.
101 explainer video about the right to social security
Nepal’s social protection system fails to effectively protect children from poverty and reinforces inequalities between informal and formal workers.
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.
