In China, there are big efforts to combat deforestation, with logging and other restrictions placed on large swaths of land. Nearly a million workers in state-owned forest enterprises lost their jobs, but got help with job training and placement services. Other rural residents received cash to perform conservation activities....

Brazil’s invaluable rainforests have dwindled in recent decades, as agriculture and other development have moved in. Development opportunities are crucial for many rural populations who continue to live in poverty. Now, the Government is attempting to address poverty and threats to the environment together through a new social protection...

Cities are rising as powerful agents in the world of food, says a new report from the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), and they are finding innovative ways to put in place policies that take on challenges in global food systems. The report shows that...

While the SDGs are a significant improvement over the Millennium Development Goals, including in their commitments to gender equality and women’s rights, there is no major advance when it comes to accountability: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides only for a weak and voluntary process of “follow-up and...

This briefing considers the extent to which international labour migrants are covered by social protection, and the implications this has for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda). More specifically, this brief shows that social protection coverage of international labour migrants varies considerably, and outlines how this has...

Achieving universal health coverage is integral to the central pledge of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to “leave no one behind”. Meeting this target is about more than just having enough resources to incrementally expand health coverage to the entire population. This Brief provides policy makers with evidence-based...

This working paper: (i) examines migrants access to social protection under Bilateral Labour Agreements (BLAs) with a view to providing policy makers with guidelines for extending social protection to migrants and designing better migration policies; (ii) presents the results of a mapping of bilateral and multilateral social security agreements...

It is often argued that social protection is not affordable or that government expenditure cuts are inevitable during adjustment periods. But there are alternatives, even in the poorest countries. This working paper offers eight options that should be explored to expand fiscal space and generate resources to achieve the...

Turkey’s Roma population and similar social groups such as Abdal have long been among the country’s most marginalized communities. Despite being guaranteed in both domestic and international law, in practice for many Roma the right to education and housing remain out of reach: however, limited data on the disparities...

In the 2030 Agenda governments committed to a revitalized Global Partnership between States and declared that public finance has to play a vital role in achieving the SDGs. But in recent decades, the combination of neoliberal ideology, corporate lobbying, business-friendly fiscal policies, tax avoidance and tax evasion has led...

This review discusses two issues: maternal health care in Mozambique and adequate housing in...

La política fiscal tiene un rol central en la superación de las desigualdades socio-económicas y el cumplimiento de los derechos humanos. Su potencial rol redistributivo convierte a esta política en una herramienta única para lograr un modelo de desarrollo que tenga como ejes centrales la igualdad, los derechos humanos...

FAO Social Protection Framework presents the Organization’s vision and approach to social protection. FAO recognizes the critical role social protection plays in furthering and accelerating progress around food security and nutrition, agriculture development, rural poverty and resilience building. Link to French version Link to Spanish...

The South African social protection system is one of the most comprehensive within the region. Its statutory and effective coverage rates are above the region’s average and comparable or even beyond those of other BRICS countries. The comprehensive nature of the system lies in contributory and non-contributory cash and...

The adoption of the 1988 constitution marked a landmark in the history of the Brazilian social security system by introducing a universal social security model grounded in citizenship rights. The Constitution sets out the State’s responsibility in organizing and legislating social security. This should be done according to principles...

Recent debates of basic income (BI) proposals shine a useful spotlight on the challenges that traditional forms of income support are facing, and highlight gaps in social provisions that largely depend on income or employment status. A universal “no questions asked” public transfer would be simple and have the...

The World Economic Situation and Prospects report is the UN’s flagship publication on expected trends in the global...

This report builds on the findings of the Open Budget Survey 2015, by taking a closer look at the 31 African countries included in the survey. It seeks to promote transparency and accountability in the use of government budgets in Africa. The rationale for this report is twofold. First,...

Increasing public investment in emerging economies would boost employment and contribute to economic growth and, depending on the form and location of the investment, contribute to enhancing human development and realizing some of the Sustainable Development Goals. This report makes a case for public investment in social as well...

Increasing public investment would stimulate employment and economic growth and provide a more effective means of moving out of recession than current austerity policies. This report makes such a case for public investment that is in social as well as physical infrastructure. By social infrastructure we mean education, care...

This Spotlight Report 2016 produced by an international alliance of CSOs and networks, intends to contribute to this objective. It analyses and assesses the extent to which policies are framed by the ambitious principles of the 2030 Agenda, particularly the human rights framework. It highlights particularly the role of...

Asia’s growing labor force needs innovative solutions to reduce risks and ensure social protection of workers in vulnerable employment with informal arrangements. This book examines the need to expand social protection coverage of the informal sector to support working age productivity, reduce vulnerability, and improve economic opportunity. Case studies...

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...

The 2016 Human Development Report focuses on how human development can be ensured for everyone — now and in the future. It starts with an account of the achievements, challenges and hopes for human progress, envisioning where humanity wants to go. Its vision draws from and builds on the...

Social protection has become prominent in the global development agenda over recent decades, with social protection systems now being included as a target under Sustainable Development Goal 1: “End poverty in all its forms everywhere”. In developing countries, these policies have played an important role in alleviating extreme poverty,...