June 2021
18Jun

Saudi Arabia to merge pension, unemployment insurance funds with $29b in holdings

Saudi Arabia will combine two state-run pension and unemployment insurance funds into an entity with almost $29 billion of local and foreign stocks. Read also PIC confirms it owns 30% of new SAA consortium partner The cabinet approved the combination of the Public Pension Agency and the General Organization of Social Insurance (also known as GOSI). It'll boost investment returns, reduce costs and help with their diversification, Finance Minister and GOSI Chairman Mohammed Al Jadaan said in a statement. Read also Saudi...

June 18, 2021
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April 2021
26Apr

Chile’s Pinera counters opposition pensions withdrawal bill with own initiative

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera on Sunday announced the government will launch its own bill to allow citizens to draw more from their private pensions in a last-ditch attempt to kill off a similar move led by the opposition. Pinera said his proposed rival bill would be subject to means-tested taxation and would allow for the withdrawn funds to be gradually repaid through state and employer contributions. The president said his initiative was a better option than the opposition's bill, which the...

April 26, 2021
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23Apr

Chile Pension Furor Grows Over Third Round of Withdrawals

Chile’s senate on Thursday approved legislation allowing early pension fund withdrawals, just days after President Sebastian Pinera challenged the bill’s legality in the Constitutional Court. Read also Chile begins debate on third pension withdrawal amid second wave of the pandemic Lawmakers including several Pinera allies backed the bill permitting workers to tap as much as 10% of their retirement savings for the third time since the pandemic started, with 31 votes in favor and 11 against. The proposal will return to...

April 23, 2021
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06Apr

The Post-Pandemic Safety Net

With the United States beset by the COVID-19 pandemic, a deep economic recession, and heightened racial tensions, many observers predicted – some in hope, others resignedly – that the 2020 elections would bring about a significant change in the country’s social contract. Fortunately, they appear to have been right. Proposals to strengthen the welfare state and social safety nets have gone mainstream – and not only in America. I argued back in May 2019 that America was ready for a...

April 6, 2021
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01Apr

Understanding Social Insurance: Risk and Value Pluralism in the Early British Welfare State

By Rachel Friedman This article seeks to make two contributions to the understanding of social insurance, a central policy tool of the modern welfare state. Focusing on Britain, it locates an important strand of theoretical support for early social insurance programs in antecedent developments in mathematical probability and statistics. While by no means the only source of support for social insurance, it argues that these philosophical developments were among the preconditions for the emergence of welfare policies. In addition, understanding...

April 1, 2021
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March 2021
31Mar

Thailand plans new retirement plan to support its aging population

Thailand aims to create a new retirement program to support an aging population that will add about 1 million new retirees annually starting in 2023. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha wants to ensure that Thais can receive income upon retirement, government spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek said Tuesday, after the cabinet approved in principle a new national retirement plan. The program will be mandatory for all employees who aren't participating in other retirement plans, she said. Read also South African retirement fund guidelines are...

March 31, 2021
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February 2021
11Feb

Opportunities for extending social security coverage in Jordan

By ILO The report aims to support Jordanian policymakers in the extension of social security to informal workers. It formulates typologies for informal workers outside the social security system, analyses the main constraints to coverage and outlines a range of policy approaches for the extension of coverage. The Jordanian government has been working to expand social security coverage of its workforce. In the context of the National Social Protection Strategy, the Cabinet has committed to developing an action plan to reduce...

February 11, 2021
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05Feb

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...

February 5, 2021
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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...

January 14, 2021
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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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