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 MoreWelfare Conditionality: Sanctions, Support and Behaviour Change
This overview summarises the final findings of the Welfare Conditionality project (2013-2018). It presents analysis on the effectiveness, impacts and ethics of welfare conditionality, and the sanctions and mandatory support that underpin this approach. Discussion draws on analyses of qualitative data generated in interviews with 52 policy stakeholders, 27...
Read MorePro-poor or anti-poor? The World Bank and IMF’s approach to social protection
In recent years, the World Bank and IMF have played an influential role in shaping national social protection policies. Social protection comprises a significant share of World Bank loans, reaching almost 10 per cent of lending to low-income countries in 2017, while around 10 per cent of IMF loans...
Read MoreFrom Protection to Production (PtoP)
The From Protection to Production (PtoP) project is a multi-country impact evaluation of cash transfers in sub-Saharan Africa. The project is a collaborative effort between the FAO, the UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office and the governments of Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. PtoP activities are mainly...
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 MoreConditional Cash Transfer Programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean: Coverage and investment trends
This document analyses the evolution of the population coverage and investment of conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes, which are poverty reduction initiatives, in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean over the past 20 years. The analysis is based on up-to-date, detailed information from the database on non-contributory...
Read MoreGender and Cash Transfers: A human rights-based approach
This Issue Brief explores some key gender dimensions of conditional cash transfers through the lens of the human rights-based approach to social protection. In many cash transfer programmes around the world, women are the principal beneficiaries on the assumption that this not only improves the nutrition, health and education...
Read MoreEvaluation of the Uganda Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment Programme (One Pager 354)
Exclusion by Design: an assessment of the effectiveness of the proxy means test poverty targeting mechanism (ESS Working Paper No. 56)
This paper assesses the effectiveness of the proxy means test (PMT) targeting methodology. It brings together international evidence to show that it is both inaccurate and arbitrary. The mechanism suffers from high in-built design errors, additional errors introduced during implementation, and infrequent surveys, meaning that it cannot respond to...
Read MoreCash transfers: what does the evidence say? A rigorous review of programme impact and of the role of design and implementation features
Cash transfers have been increasingly adopted by countries worldwide as central elements of their social protection and poverty reduction strategies. A growing number of studies provide rigorous evidence on the impact of cash transfers, and the role of specific cash transfer design and implementation features in shaping outcomes. This...
Read MoreGender Aware Beneficiary Analysis Of Saint Lucia’s Public Assistance Programme
Informed by the results of several investigative efforts, St Lucia is now at an advanced stage in developing and implementing an integrated social protection system. The Ministry of Social Transformation, Local Government and Community Empowerment has made major strides in establishing a social protection platform for St Lucia with...
Read MoreCase Study On The St. Lucia National Eligibility Test
Establishing gender and child responsive social protection schemes that ensure universal access to health care including maternity care, and basic income security, will protect women and their families from the effects of economic shocks and crises that may result in job and wage losses. UN Women and UNICEF through...
Read MoreConditional Cash Transfers: Learning from the literature
Eastern Caribbean countries are currently developing and implementing substantial social safety net reforms. Governments of six Eastern Caribbean countries conducted social safety net assessments in 2009 – 2010, with the support of UN Women and UNICEF in partnership with the World Bank. These reforms, which have been ongoing for...
Read MoreConditional Cash Transfer: A policy brief
Eastern Caribbean countries are currently developing and implementing substantial social safety net reforms. In 2009 – 2010, UNICEF and UN Women in partnership with the World Bank supported the governments of six countries in the OECS sub-region to conduct national social safety net assessments. A striking feature of the...
Read MoreConsiderations in Using Proxy Means Tests in Eastern Caribbean States: A Policy Brief
The social safety net assessments conducted in Eastern Caribbean states in and around 2009 recommended that countries should develop a proxy means test (PMT) to replace the diverse approaches they were using to target poverty-related benefits. Proxy mean tests were argued to be an objective and transparent alternative mechanism,...
Read MoreConsiderations in Using Proxy Means Tests in Eastern Caribbean States
The social safety net assessments conducted in Eastern Caribbean states in and around 2009 recommended that countries should develop a proxy means test (PMT) to replace the diverse approaches they were using to target poverty-related benefits. Proxy mean tests were argued to be an objective and transparent alternative mechanism,...
Read MoreTo Condition or Not to Condition: What is the evidence?
Development Pathways undertook a series of experiments which aimed to compare conditional and unconditional transfers. This brief outlines the results of these...
Read MoreFrom Protection to Production: The Role of Cash Transfer Programmes in Fostering Broad-Based Economic Development in sub-Saharan Africa
Making Social Policy Work for Women
Social policy is fundamental to the quest for social justice, women’s rights and gender equality. Defined broadly as a set of public interventions that affect the welfare and well-being of citizens, social policy is typically understood to cover issues such as income security, health, housing and education. It is...
Read MoreSocial Security Act 1991
Social transfers and poverty in middle- and high- income countries – A global perspective
This study investigates an old question that has re-emerged in social policy making and in analyses of global social development: to what extent does targeting and size of social transfers matter for poverty? Using multilevel logistic regression and Cross- National Data Center in Luxembourg (LIS) income data for 40...
Read MoreHow can Social Protection Provide Social Justice for Women?
A feminist social protection programme recognises and enhances women’s identity as citizens and enables them to assume the roles they choose and fulfil the obligations they value. It is an approach that defines, targets and alleviates poverty in accordance with the views, priorities and experiences of the women beneficiaries...
Read MoreCoherent Constitutions and the Right to Social Protection for Adopted Children in Taiwan
The Judicial Yuan, a body responsible for interpreting the Constitution, examined the constitutionality of provisions in the Statute for Labor Insurance preventing children adopted within less than six months of the death of their adoptive parents from collecting social insurance benefits as survivors. The Court held that despite the...
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 MoreSocial Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102)
A reference for the development of social security systems, Convention No. 102 is the flagship of the up-to-date social security Conventions since it is deemed to embody the internationally accepted definition of the very principle of social security. Convention No. 102 is unique for both its conceptual formulation of social security,...
Read More