Toolkit on ILO Social Security Standards
The Toolkit on ILO Social Security Standards was developed with the aim of raising awareness about ILO social security standards and promoting their ratification as well as increasing their impact and application in national contexts. The toolkit provides very practical and useful insights as to the ratification procedure, model...
Read MoreUniversal 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 MorePerspectives on tax reform in Brazil
There is no question that the salience of tax reform in Brazil is high. It has become common to point out the country’s low quality of public services and high level of taxes, at least from the view of the country’s “middle class” and poorer income groups. In this...
Read MorePublic Good or Private Wealth? — Executive Summary
Our economy is broken, with hundreds of millions of people living in extreme poverty while huge rewards go to those at the very top. The number of billionaires has doubled since the financial crisis and their fortunes grow by $2.5bn a day, yet the super-rich and corporations are paying...
Read MorePublic Good or Private Wealth?
Our economy is broken, with hundreds of millions of people living in extreme poverty while huge rewards go to those at the very top. The number of billionaires has doubled since the financial crisis and their fortunes grow by $2.5bn a day, yet the super-rich and corporations are paying...
Read MoreFinancing the end of extreme poverty
In 2015, leaders of all countries committed to “eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere” by 2030. In the past 25 years, the world has managed to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty. Yet despite this progress, at least 400 million people will still be living on...
Read MoreSocial Outlook for Asia and the Pacific: Poorly Protected
The Social Outlook for Asia and the Pacific lays out new arguments and evidence for the critical and urgent need to increase investment in people, particularly in social protection. Developing countries in Asia and the Pacific only spend about 3.7 per cent of GDP on social protection, compared to...
Read MoreAre Human Rights Relevant to Economic Inequality? A response through the lens of social protection
In recent months, a debate has flared in academic and philanthropy circles around the extent to which the human rights framework can serve to challenge rising economic inequality. Naysayers can be found on different sides of the ideological spectrum. Some, such as Yale historian Samuel Moyn, argue that the...
Read MoreThe Reversal of Pension Privatization in Venezuela (ESS Working Paper No. 71)
This paper documents the reversal of pension privatization and the reforms that took place in the 1990s and 2000s in Venezuela. The report analyses the political economy of different reform proposals, and the characteristics of the new pension system, including laws enacted, governance and social security administration, social dialogue,...
Read MoreRepeal of the Privatization of the Pension System in Nicaragua (ESS Working Paper No. 70)
This paper documents the reversal of pension privatization and the reforms that took place in the 1990s and 2000s in Nicaragua. The report analyses the political economy of different reform proposals, and the characteristics of the new pension system, including laws enacted, governance and social security administration, social dialogue,...
Read MoreThe Reversal of Pension Privatization in Ecuador (ESS Working Paper No. 69)
This paper documents the reversal of pension privatization and the reforms that took place in the 1990s and 2000s in Ecuador. The report analyses the political economy of different reform proposals, and the characteristics of the new pension system, including laws enacted, coverage, benefit adequacy, financing and contribution rates,...
Read MoreReversing Pension Privatization: The Case of Polish Pension Reform and Re-Reforms (ESS Working Paper No. 68)
This paper documents the reversal of pension privatization and the reforms that took place in the 1990s and 2000s in Poland. The report analyses the political economy of different reform proposals, and the characteristics of the new pension system, including laws enacted, coverage, benefit adequacy, financing and contribution rates,...
Read MoreReversing Pension Privatization in Kazakhstan (ESS Working Paper No. 67)
This paper documents the reversal of pension privatization and the reforms that took place in the 1990s and 2000s in Kazakhstan. The report analyses the political economy of different reform proposals, and the characteristics of the new pension system, including laws enacted, coverage, benefit adequacy, financing and contribution rates,...
Read MoreReversing Privatization and Re-Nationalizing Pensions in Hungary (ESS Working Paper No. 66)
This paper documents the reversal of pension privatization and the reforms that took place in the 1990s and 2000s in Hungary. The report analyses the political economy of different reform proposals, and the characteristics of the new pension system, including laws enacted, coverage, benefit adequacy, financing and contribution rates,...
Read MoreReversing Pension Privatization in Bolivia (ESS Working Paper No. 65)
This paper documents the reversal of pension privatization and the reforms that took place in the 1990s and 2000s in Bolivia. The report analyses the political economy of different reform proposals, and the characteristics of the new pension system, including laws enacted, coverage, benefit adequacy, financing and contribution rates,...
Read MorePension Privatization and Reversal of Pension Reforms in Argentina (ESS Working Paper No. 64)
This paper documents the reversal of pension privatization and the reforms that took place in the 1990s and 2000s in Argentina. The report analyses the political economy of different reform proposals, and the characteristics of the new pension system, including laws enacted, coverage, benefit adequacy, financing and contribution rates,...
Read MoreReversing Pension Privatization: Rebuilding public pension systems in Eastern European and Latin American countries 2000-18 (ESS Working Paper No. 63)
From 1981 to 2014, thirty countries privatized fully or partially their public mandatory pensions; as of 2018, eighteen countries have reversed the privatization. This report: (i) analyses the failure of mandatory private pensions to improve old-age income security and their underperformance in terms of coverage, benefits, administrative costs, transition...
Read MoreReversing Pension Privatizations: Rebuilding public pension systems in Eastern Europe and Latin America
From 1981 to 2014, thirty countries privatized fully or partially their public mandatory pensions. Fourteen countries were in Latin America (by chronological order, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Bolivia, Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Dominican Republic and Panama), another fourteen countries in Eastern Europe and the...
Read MoreThe role of zakat in the provision of social protection: a comparison between Jordan, Palestine and Sudan
Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam and considered a religious duty for wealthy people to help those in need through financial or in-kind contributions. In Muslim-majority countries, it has a long tradition of being part of the provision of social welfare. Countries vary significantly in the...
Read MoreMalawi’s Social Cash Transfer Programme (One Pager 398)
Malawi has a population of over 17 million people, 50.5 per cent of whom are poor, and 25 per cent of whom are extremely poor. Some 10 per cent of the total population are thought to be living below the extreme poverty line in households with a high dependency...
Read MoreA brief history of Malawi’s Social Cash Transfer Programme (SCTP)
This paper presents some of the challenges the SCTP faced between 2006 and 2016. It starts by presenting the relevant features, actors and episodes of the social protection system for the reader to understand the SCTP and its main operational challenges. It then proceeds to describe the governance and...
Read MoreLabor Institutions and Development Under Globalization
Labor market regulation is a controversial area of public policy in both developed and developing countries. Mainstream economic analysis traditionally portrays legal interventions providing for minimum wages, unemployment insurance and (often only a modicum of) employment protection as ‘luxuries’ developing countries cannot afford. After decades of de-regulatory advice, international...
Read MoreThe architecture of digital labour platforms: Policy recommendations on platform design for worker well-being
Digital labour platforms connect workers with consumers of this work and provide the infrastructure and the governance conditions for the exchange of work and its compensation. Yet the architecture, or business model design, of digital labour platforms has important consequences for workers, affecting whether they are empowered or exploited...
Read MoreTowards the Urgent Elimination of Hazardous Child Labour
This report brings together and assesses new research on hazardous child labour, following the ILO’s last report on this subject in 2011. The report demonstrates that we have extensive experience and an ample evidence base to assist us in tackling hazardous child labour. Ce rapport rassemble et évalue de...
Read MoreParadigm Trap: The development establishment’s embrace of Myanmar and how to break loose
Is it possible for Myanmar to take a path to sustainable development that would avoid the pitfalls of the orthodox development paradigm? This report argues that this is not only necessary but...
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