Universal social protection for human dignity, social justice and sustainable development: General Survey concerning the Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202)
The ILO’s General Survey 2019 , compiled by the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR). The Survey (published under the title Universal social protection for human dignity, social justice and sustainable development) focuses on the ILO’s Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), which calls for...
Read MoreBuilding Shock-Responsive National Social Protection Systems in the Middle East and North Africa Region
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is confronted by significant challenges resulting from multiple shocks and complex emergencies: countries in the region face various risks in terms of natural disasters, including earthquakes, floods and drought; violent conflicts, such as in Syria, pose unprecedented challenges related to the...
Read MoreToward more inclusive measures of economic well-being: Debates and practices
This paper reviews debates and practice around the conventional and alternative measures of economic well-being. It presents alternative aggregate indicators, broadly referred to as “Beyond GDP”, that track non-market contributions to well-being, including household production and ecosystem services. Evaluating the major contending measures–Genuine Progress Indicator, Human Development Index, Happiness/lifeevaluation...
Read MoreReport of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights (A/HRC/38/33)
The Secretariat has the honour to transmit to the Human Rights Council the report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, prepared pursuant to Council resolution 35/19, focusing on the International Monetary Fund and its impact on social protection. Link to report (Arabic, Chinese,...
Read MoreHuman Rights in an Age of Austerity: casualty or compass?
Ten years since the global economic crisis, social and human rights protections have fallen victim to austerity measures in countries across the globe. Preventing another “lost decade” will require us to see human rights values not as merely collateral damage of economic policy, but as cogent and universal norms...
Read MoreThe Case for a Progressive Tax: From Basic Research to Policy Recommendations
This paper presents the case for tax progressivity based on recent results in optimal tax theory. We consider the optimal progressivity of earnings taxation and whether capital income should be taxed. We critically discuss the academic research on these topics and when and how the results can be used...
Read MoreAssessing Austerity: Monitoring the human rights impacts of fiscal consolidation
In the decade since the 2008 global economic crisis, fiscal austerity has become the new normal. In the name of fiscal discipline, governments in more than two-thirds of countries throughout the world have enacted drastic austerity measures like severe public expenditure cuts, regressive tax changes, and labor market and...
Read MoreJobs, FDI and Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from firm-level data
Using a unique sample of foreign-owned and domestic firms in Sub-Saharan Africa, we study the differences in the quantity and quality of jobs that they offer, and identify how these differences are determined by country-level institutional factors. After controlling for numerous firm-level characteristics, we find that foreign-owned firms offer...
Read MoreHuman Rights in Times of Austerity (Brazil)
One year into Brazil’s 20-year constitutional cap on public spending, the Center for Social and Economic Rights, the Instituto de Estudos Socioeconômicos (INESC) and Oxfam Brazil have presented new empirical findings to the Brazilian Congress that illustrate austerity’s already severe impact on basic social and economic rights in the...
Read MoreProtected Against Climate Damage? The opportunities and limitations of climate risk insurance for the protection of vulnerable populations
Climate change is not a problem of a distant future; it is already a bitter reality for millions of people around the world today. Bread for the World (Brot für die Welt) and ACT Alliance’s partner organisations report that the regions in which they operate are increasingly experiencing the...
Read MoreAssessing Fiscal Policies from a Human Rights Perspective: Methodological case study on the use of available resources to realize economic, social and cultural rights in Guatemala
In 2009 the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) and the Instituto Centroamericano de Estudios Fiscales (ICEFI) produced a report titled Rights or Privileges? Fiscal commitment to the rights to health, education and food in Guatemala. A collaboration between an international human rights organization and a Central American...
Read MoreFrom Expansion to Austerity: challenges and risks of the radical fiscal policy turn in Brazil (One Pager 360)
Brazil, in the period after the great financial crisis of 2007–2008, presents a compelling case study of the interactions between fiscal policy and business cycles. The country is noteworthy not only for being one of the very few that dealt relatively well with the most acute stage of the...
Read MoreBrazilian Fiscal Policy in Perspective: from expansion to austerity
This paper analyses the changes in orientation and composition of Brazilian fiscal policy, focusing on three recent periods and seeking to explore their relationship with economic performance. The first period (2005–2010) was characterised by fiscal expansion, with public investment and redistributive transfers as its main drivers. Economic performance was...
Read MoreIMF Conditionality and Development Policy Space, 1985-2014
In recent years, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has re-emerged as a central actor in global economic governance. Its rhetoric and policies suggest that the organization has radically changed the ways in which it offers financial assistance to countries in economic trouble. We revisit two long-standing controversies: Has the...
Read MoreWHO QualityRights Guidance and Training Tools
As part of the QualityRights Initiative, WHO has developed a comprehensive package of training and guidance modules. The modules can be used to build capacity among mental health practitioners, people with psychosocial, intellectual and cognitive disabilities, people using mental health services, families, care partners and other supporters, NGOs, DPOs...
Read MoreHIV and Social Protection Assessment Tool
The HIV and social protection assessment tool is used for a quick scan of existing social protection programmes and their sensitivity (or lack of) to the HIV response in a given country and location. Additional follow-up and research that engages the different critical actors, including HIV programme managers, social...
Read MoreWHO QualityRights Guidance and Training tools
As part of the QualityRights Initiative, WHO has developed a comprehensive package of training and guidance modules. The modules can be used to build capacity among mental health practitioners, people with psychosocial, intellectual and cognitive disabilities, people using mental health services, families, care partners and other supporters, NGOs, DPOs...
Read MoreMultidimensional progress: well-being beyond income
The report focuses on the increasingly pressing challenges facing the region. In times of global economic fragility, eradicating poverty and reducing inequalities in all their dimensions require a twofold strategy: protecting the achievements of the last decade to prevent millions from falling back into poverty while promoting comprehensive policies...
Read MoreMaking Social Protection Work for Children in Central and Eastern Europe, The Caucasus and Central Asia: Findings and Recommendations
This brief, which is based on the UNICEF report Social Monitor: Social Protection for Child Rights and Well-Being in Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, provides key findings and recommendations related to social protection for children in the...
Read MoreA One-Stop Shop for Accessible, Transparent and Efficient Public Service Delivery
Eliminating Unacceptable Forms of Work: A global challenge
An increasing proportion of the world’s labour force is working in conditions of insecurity, low pay and inadequate social protection. In the wake of the global economic crisis, precarious jobs have proliferated in advanced industrialized countries. In settings where informal work has long been widespread, many jobs are of...
Read MoreUnacceptable Forms of Work: A global and comparative study
Unacceptable forms of work (UFW) have been identified by the International Labour Organization as work in conditions that deny fundamental principles and rights at work, put at risk the lives, health, freedom, human dignity and security of workers or keep households in conditions of poverty. This study contends that...
Read MoreThe Human Rights Approach to Social Protection
This report sets out to elaborate and promote a human rights framework for social protection, identifying best practices and disseminating lessons learned. It provides an in-depth analysis of the application of central human rights principles of the human rights framework – equality and non-discrimination (including accessibility, acceptability, affordability and the incorporation...
Read MoreHealth care, long-term care and sickness benefits
Health coverage, and particularly access to health care when it is needed, is crucial for human well-being. In addition, of all the elements of social protection, health care is most essential to the economy as a whole and to economic recovery in particular. Against this background, health protection schemes...
Read MoreStandards of Accessibility, Adaptability and Acceptability
The principle of equality and non-discrimination requires States to ensure that social protection programmes meet the standards of accessibility, adaptability, acceptability and adequacy for all rights holders. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has recommended these standards through several General Comments including 13, 14 and 19....
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