Cash transfer programmes have been implemented in many countries as a key component of their national social protection floors and because these programmes provide a modest but regular income to poor households, they have the potential to reduce poverty and to enhance women’s economic empowerment. However, there have been...

The present report begins with an analysis of the confusing approaches to human rights taken by the World Bank in its legal policy, public relations, policy analysis, operations and safeguards. The Special Rapporteur then seeks to explain why the Bank has historically been averse to acknowledging and taking account...

This report examines a range of issues, from women and girls lack of access to sanitation and hygiene services to their strategies for dealing with menstrual hygiene management while playing their roles in families, communities, at work, at school, etc. The study also addresses the impact of perpetrated beliefs...

This policy brief is based on the working paper The Decade of Adjustment: A Review of Austerity Trends 2010-2020 in 187 Countries.  Read the working paper...

This paper: (i) examines the latest IMF government spending projections for 187 countries between 2005 and 2020; (ii) reviews 616 IMF country reports in 183 countries to identify the main adjustment measures considered by governments in both high-income and developing countries; (iii) applies the United Nations Global Policy Model...

This guide provides an overview of social protection concepts, approaches, issues, debates and the evidence. It primarily focuses on longer-term developmental social protection, rather than humanitarian responses, and on low-income countries, drawing on other contexts where appropriate. The aim is to provide an overview of issues, a selection of...

Watch human rights and policy specialists quit their silos and dialogue productively across disciplines in the third panel, entitled Making social policy work for women, of the research-advocacy-policy workshop Substantive Equality for Women: Connecting Human Rights and Public Policy organized by UNRISD, UNWomen and OHCHR on 15 June 2015....

The paper analyses the evolving politics of claims-making by women workers in the Global South in the context of a globalized economy. It addresses the following questions. What kinds of claims are prioritized in relation to women workers? Who is making these claims? To whom are they addressed? What...

The SDGs stand a chance of hitting the ground running. Even before they are put before the UN General Assembly, politicians, policy makers, civil society, business and the media have been reacting positively to the new sustainable development agenda. The agenda is indeed to be welcomed. It responds to...

The concept of social inclusion, also referred to as social integration or social cohesion, represents a vision for “a society for all”, in which every individual, each with rights and responsibilities, has an active role to play (Report of the World Summit for Social Development, 1995). While various definitions...

This paper examines prospects for enhanced regional migration governance and protection of migrants’ rights in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Migration in this region is substantial in scale and diverse in nature, incorporating economic, political and mixed migration flows. In addition to movements between countries within the region,...

It is argued that social protection can reduce the extent to which marginalized people and groups are socially excluded. This paper investigates this thesis by considering what causes marginalization in the first place and what is needed to change the dynamics of exclusion. Using examples from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India...

The expansion of social protection in low- and middle-income countries over the last two decades has been accompanied by a growing number of studies on the distributional impact of social protection spending. When such analyses consider social protection separately from tax policy, they provide a partial picture of the...

This background note focuses on the current discussion among actors in the humanitarian and social protection sectors regarding the use of existing social protection programmes to provide an emergency response. It outlines the overlaps between social protection and humanitarian responses, considers a range of recent examples from low- and...

This study examines the delivery and impact of Nepal’s Child Grant, so as to identify implementation barriers and recommend ways to improve effectiveness. The cash transfer is targeted at all households with children aged up to five years in the Karnali zone and at poor Dalit households in the...

Social protection has become an increasingly prominent public policy tool in Nepal over the past two decades. Since the insurgency’s end in 2006, the government, with the support of development partners, has explicitly integrated social protection programming into its broader post-conflict development and reconstruction agenda (Holmes and Uphadya, 2009;...

Patterns of marginalisation and exclusion are present all over the world, with stark and persisting inequalities in access to water and sanitation. Progress made in the water and sanitation sector does not always benefit those who are most in need of these services, in particular the poorest, people living...

In the present report, the Special Rapporteur, Catalina Devandas-Aguilar, provides a study focusing on disability-inclusive social protection as a prerequisite for the universalization of social protection. She stresses that social protection is fundamental for achieving the social inclusion and active participation of persons with disabilities, and promoting their active...

This paper examines the evidence on the political economy of “targeting.” It will begin by examining the history of social security in developed countries, focusing in particular on the evolution of Poor Relief in 19th Century Europe. It will then examine contemporary tax-financed old age pensions and Poor Relief...

This paper identifies conceptual synergies and dissonances between food security and income security. It considers the contribution of mainstream social protection instruments, such as cash transfers, to food security. The paper presents specific food security policies that would strengthen the ability of national social protection floors to address food...

This edition of The State of Food and Agriculture makes the case that social protection measures will help break the cycle of rural poverty and vulnerability, when combined with broader agricultural and rural development measures. This report’s key messages are: Social protection programmes reduce poverty and food insecurity. Effective...

Article 17: The Right to Social Security All older persons have the right to social security to protect them so that they can live in dignity. State Parties shall progressively promote, within available resources, the provision of income to ensure a dignified life for older persons through social security...

In 2000 the Member States of the United Nations signed the Millennium Declaration, which later gave rise to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Goal 7, to ensure environmental sustainability, included a target that challenged the global community to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to...

This brief describes key findings of a four-year research project, From  Protection to Production (PtoP), which is implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in collaboration with UNICEF. Oxford Policy Management partnered with FAO to design and implement the qualitative field research component. The PtoP project analyzed the...

El objetivo de este libro es discutir y difundir conocimiento sobre aquellas políticas públicas, programas y marcos regulatorios que, desde un enfoque de derechos, están permitiendo ampliar la cobertura y las prestaciones de la protección social en América Latina. Por un lado, se procura brindar al lector un panorama...