Reducing Poverty and Investing in People: The new role of safety nets in Africa
Over the past two decades, Africa’s strong economic growth has paved the way for poverty reduction. Between 1995 and 2008, the percentage of the African population living in poverty fell from 58 percent to 48 percent (World Bank 2011). Nevertheless, high poverty levels persist, especially in rural areas, and...
Read MoreSocial 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 MoreIndigenous peoples’ access to decent work and social protection
This paper was prepared in the context of the United Nations Inter-Agency Support Group (IASG) on Indigenous Issues, which aims to strengthen cooperation and coordination among UN agencies, funds, entities and programmes on indigenous peoples’ issues and to support the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and to promote...
Read MoreReport on extreme poverty and human rights (A/HRC/29/31), submitted by the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights focuses on the relationship between extreme poverty and extreme inequality and argues that a human rights framework is critical in addressing extreme inequality. In the report, the Special Rapporteur provides an overview of the widening economic...
Read MoreGeneral Comment No. 5 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Persons with disabilities
This general comment was adopted by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1995. With regard to social security, it sets out the following: 28. Social security and income‑maintenance schemes are of particular importance for persons with disabilities. As stated in the Standard Rules, “States should ensure the...
Read MoreWomen’s Rights to Social Security and Social Protection (First Edition)
This collection examines the human rights to social security and social protection from a women’s rights perspective. The contributors stress the need to address women’s poverty and exclusion within a human rights framework that takes account of gender. The chapters unpack the rights to social security and protection and...
Read MoreTracing Shadows: how gendered power relations shape the impacts of maternal death on living children in sub-Saharan Africa
Driven by the need to better understand the full and intergenerational toll of maternal mortality (MM), a mixed-methods study was conducted in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa to investigate the impacts of maternal death on families and children. The present analysis identifies gender as a fundamental driver not only...
Read MoreWomen’s sexual and reproductive rights in the Philippines
Summary In 1991, the Philippines delegated responsibility for “people’s health and safety” to the local level. In exercise of this power, an executive order 003 (“EO 003”) was issued in Manila, in 2000 which declared that the city would take an “affirmative stand on pro-life issues”. In response to...
Read MoreGeneral Comment No. 6 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of Older Persons
Social Cash Transfer Programme in Malawi
A programme run by the Government of Malawi is providing cash transfers to more than 26,000 of the country’s poorest households. FAO’s ‘From Protection to Production’ project (PtoP), run in collaboration with Unicef with funding from DFID and the EU, is evaluating the impact of these cash transfers on...
Read MoreHuman Development Report 2014 – Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience
The 2014 Human Development Report – Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience provides a fresh perspective on vulnerability and proposes ways to strengthen resilience. According to income-based measures of poverty, 1.2 billion people live with $1.25 or less a day. However, according to the UNDP Multidimensional Poverty Index,...
Read MoreCombating Poverty and Inequality: Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics
Chapter 5 of Combating Poverty and Inequality: Structural Change, Social Policy and Politics, argues that universal social protection – that which covers the entire population with adequate benefits and is grounded in claimable entitlements, whether derived from rights or payments by institutions and individuals – can contribute to...
Read MoreSocial Protection in Fragile States: Lessons learned
How can social protection best be achieved in situations of fragility? This paper argues that while the objectives for social protection in fragile states are essentially the same as in development contexts, social protection instruments, financing and delivery need to be adapted. In order to scale up social protection...
Read MoreGeneral Comment No. 12 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: The right to adequate food
The human right to adequate food is recognized in several instruments under international law. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights deals more comprehensively than any other instrument with this right. Pursuant to article 11.1 of the Covenant, States parties recognize “the right of everyone to an...
Read MoreEvaluating Outside the Box: Mixing Methods in Analysing Social Protection Programmes
This paper reflects on the methodological implications of operationalising an expanded framework for evaluating social protection programmes. It specifically discusses the combination and integration of methods as part of the expanded evaluation framework, and does so by using an ongoing evaluation of a cash transfer pilot programme in Tigray, Ethiopia as...
Read MoreEquity in financing and use of health care in Ghana, South Africa, and Tanzania: implications for paths to universal coverage
Universal coverage of health care is now receiving substantial worldwide and national attention, but debate continues on the best mix of financing mechanisms, especially to protect people outside the formal employment sector. Crucial issues are the equity implications of different financing mechanisms, and patterns of service use. This report provides...
Read MoreHow Many Stops in a One-Stop Shop? A Review of Recent Developments in Business Registration
Many governments have introduced one-stop shops as part of their reform of the business registration process. But what is a one-stop shop? Is it like any other shop? Can it really involve just one stop? The International Finance Corporation has commissioned this study to provide some background and possibly...
Read MoreGood practices on Single Window Services: Research on existing Single Window Services around the world (India, Chile, Brazil, South Africa, Pakistan) and key lessons to be learned for Cambodia
The aim of this research is to identify good and bad practices of Single Window Services around the world, by looking at the experiences of countries where these services are already in place. Link to Word...
Read MoreBuilding Decent Societies: Rethinking the Role of Social Security in Development
This book, edited by Peter Townsend, makes the case for a comprehensive social security system to be developed in all countries, including the poorest ones, in order to eliminate desperate conditions of poverty, to reverse growing inequality and to sustain economic growth. The establishment of universal social security systems...
Read MoreEqual access to health and family planning information for all women in Hungary
The communication was filed with regards to the alleged forced sterilization of an ethnic Roma woman by medical staff pursuant to an emergency caesarian section that was required to remove a deceased fetus. The Committee found that previous medical care, the poor medical condition of the victim, A.S., upon...
Read MorePoverty and shame: global experiences
Poverty and Shame: Global Experiences, edited by Elaine Chase and Grace Bantebya-Kyomuhendo, explores Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s contention that shame lies at the absolutist core of poverty. It draws on a wealth of empirical evidence to demonstrate how paying greater attention to the psychological and social consequences of poverty...
Read MoreAccess to abortion for poor, disabled woman amid conscientious objection in Argentina
Summary: The communication was filed by the mother of a woman with a mental impairment amounting to a legal age of a child, concerning the response of public health and judicial institutions to her pregnancy resulting from rape. After being refused by one hospital, a second hospital scheduled an...
Read MoreThe shame of poverty: global perspectives
The Shame of Poverty, edited by Robert Walker, presents comparable evidence from the seven countries, challenges the conventional thinking that separates discussion of poverty found in the Global North from that prevalent in the Global South. It demonstrates that the emotional experience of poverty, with its attendant social and...
Read MoreInclusion of Vulnerable Groups
As a human right that is intrinsic to all, the international community recognizes the need to design and implement social protection systems according to the principle of social inclusion, underlying the particular need to include persons in the informal economy (Recommendation No. 202, para 3e). Delivery systems should therefore...
Read MoreReport on taxation and human rights (A/HRC/26/28), submitted by the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights presents fiscal policy, and particularly taxation policies, as a major determinant in the enjoyment of human rights. Taxation is a key tool when tackling inequality and for generating the resources necessary for poverty reduction and the...
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