January 2021

12Jan

A game changer for social protection? Six reflections on COVID-19 and the future of cash transfers

By The World Bank There is little doubt that the magnitude of the social protection response to COVID-19 is of historical proportions. According to our research on measures taken by 215 countries and territories, at least $800 billion have been invested in social protection in the past nine months, a level 22% higher than during the great recession of 2008–09. This amounts to more than 1,400 social protection measures, of which about one-third took the form of cash transfers reaching over 1.1...

January 12, 2021
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08Jan

Malaysia. Better social protection needed for delivery riders, gig workers, says MP

Those in the informal sector, particularly delivery riders, need better social protection as they are among the hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. DAP’s Charles Santiago laments the plight of these frontliners whom he says have yet to be given the required support from the government. “Food delivery services gained prominence during the Covid-19 crisis. Young men and women on motorcycles deliver food and other household products to the doorsteps of our homes. They are frontliners of sorts. “They work under vulnerable...

January 8, 2021
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05Jan

Bulgaria. State Will Further Support Pensioners and Families with Children

In April, Bulgarian retirees with a pension ranging from BGN 300.01 up to BGN 369, which is392 000 people, will receive additional BGN 120 for food. That would cost the state budget about BGN 47 million. With this BGN 120 they will have the opportunity to buy whatever they need, the money is targeted specifically for food products. This is what Minister of Labor and Social Policy Denitsa Sacheva told The Monitor daily. "We chose this group of people because they...

January 5, 2021
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December 2020

18Dec

Perspectives and Theories of Social Innovation for Ageing Population

By Andrzej Klimczuk, Łukasz Tomczyk In recent years we may observe increasing interest in the development of social innovation both regarding theory as well as the practice of responding to social problems and challenges. One of the crucial challenges at the beginning of the 21st century is population ageing. Various new and innovative initiatives, programs, schemes, and projects to respond to negative consequences of this demographic process are emerging around the world. However, social theories related to ageing are...

December 18, 2020
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14Dec

COVID-19 crisis, a wake-up call on social protection for workers

The need for universal social protection in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has been underlined at a virtual conference of trade union leaders from national trade union confederations across continents. Workers’ representatives at the Fourth meeting of the “Social Protection, Freedom and Justice for Workers Network” on 9 December, explained how their organizations’ have contributed to the formulation of national social protection responses to the COVID-19 crisis. They discussed trade union advocacy strategies for social protection at the...

December 14, 2020
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03Dec

Good Economics for Hard Times

By Abhijit V Banerjee, Esther Duflo The winners of the Nobel Prize show how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social and political problems of our day. Figuring out how to deal with today's critical economic problems is perhaps the great challenge of our time. Much greater than space travel or perhaps even the next revolutionary medical breakthrough, what is at stake is the whole idea of the good life as we have known...

December 3, 2020
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03Dec

Long-Term Effects of the Targeting the Ultra Poor Program

By Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Garima Sharma This paper studies the long-run effects of a “big-push” program providing a large asset transfer to the poorest Indian households. In a randomized controlled trial that follows these households over 10 years, we find positive effects on consumption (1 SD), food security (0.1 SD), income (0.3 SD), and health (0.2 SD). These effects grow for the first seven years following the transfer and persist until year 10, consistent with the alleviation...

December 3, 2020
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November 2020

27Nov

Pension and Health Services Utilization: Evidence from Social Pension Expansion in China

By Shanquan Chen, Xi Chen, Stephen Law, Henry Lucas, Shenlan Tang, Qian Long, Lei Xue and Zheng Wang The proportion of people aged 60 years or over is growing faster than other age groups. The well-being older adults depend heavily on their state of health. This study evaluates the effects of pensions on older adults' health service utilization, and estimates the size of pension required to influence such utilization. Using a nationally representative survey, the China Health and Retirement...

November 27, 2020
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06Nov

COVID-19 in Latin America: a humanitarian crisis

Latin America has some of the highest COVID-19 death rates in the world. Why? For outsiders, much of the discussion of COVID-19 in Latin America has focused on Brazil and the errors of President Jair Bolsonaro. But the region as a whole is facing a humanitarian crisis borne out of political instability, corruption, social unrest, fragile health systems, and perhaps most importantly, longstanding and pervasive inequality—in income, health care, and education—which has been woven into the social and...

November 6, 2020
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October 2020

19Oct

UK. Covid-19 has exposed the catastrophic impact of privatising vital services

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the catastrophic fallout of decades of global privatisation and market competition. When the pandemic hit, we saw hospitals being overwhelmed, caregivers forced to work with virtually no protective equipment, nursing homes turned into morgues, long queues to access tests, and schools struggling to connect with children confined to their homes. People were being urged to stay at home when many had no decent roof over their heads, no access to water and sanitation, and...

October 19, 2020
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