Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

February 2021

Latin America needs a new social contract

In mexico city and Lima covid-19 patients are once again being turned away from hospitals with no beds to spare, while in Manaus, in northern Brazil, a new variant of the virus is killing a hundred people a day. The pandemic’s recession pushed 33m Latin Americans below the $5.50-a-day poverty line last year, according to the World Bank. Governments in the region are struggling to line up vaccines. So it may seem like a strange moment to be talking...

January 2021

Investing in People : Social Protection for Indonesia’s 2045 Vision

By Holmemo, Camilla Acosta, Pablo, George, Tina Palacios, Robert J. Pinxten, Juul Sen, Shonali, Tiwari, Sailesh The Government of Indonesia's Vision for 2045 sets an ambitious path that will require significant investments in human capital and social protection Indonesia continues to set ambitious goals for its growth and development. The Government of Indonesia's (GoI) vision for 2045—when the country celebrates 100 years of independence—is to achieve high income status and reduce poverty to nearly zero. In addition to sustained...

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...

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...

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...

December 2020

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...

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...

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...

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...

November 2020

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...