ESCWA puts out an newsletter, Social Development Bulletin, which discusses current development issues in the Western Asia region. This edition covers social protection as a method to achieve just and sustainable development.   Link to Arabic...

This document was prepared in October 2012 and revised in July 2015. It contains, for the constitutions of 48 European countries, a compendium of their provisions that affirm the right to social security, social protection, or social assistance; obligations of the State to protect individuals against specific social risks...

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...

Twenty years after the landmark Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, and at a time when the global community is defining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the post-2015 era, the international consensus on the need to achieve gender equality seems stronger than ever before. Empowering women and...

This paper examines policies for the support of families with children, in particular child-related financial transfers and early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. The analysis is mainly focused on countries with institutionalized welfare states – primarily Western European and other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries...

This paper documents the pervasiveness of women’s lack of income security in old age across a large number of countries, but also points to a number of important policy measures that can be taken to address gender pension gaps. It focuses on how pension systems interact with other social...

The UN Women discussion paper series is a new initiative led by the Research and Data section of UN Women, to provide grounded, fresh and robust perspectives on some of the contemporary challenges to achieving gender equality and women’s rights, and offer insights into policy innovations that are making...

Despite Fiji’s status as a middle-income country, a high proportion of children live in poor and income-insecure families. The Department of Social Welfare administers several social transfer schemes for low-income and vulnerable individuals and families, including the Care and Protection Allowance for children. This report examines levels of child...

The aim of this report is to provide these policy constituents with a comprehensive mapping and analysis of the key issues which can be used to identify the most important social and economic issues that need to be addressed and act as a guide for the development of social...

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 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...

The Social Protection Platform is the International Labour Office’s global knowledge sharing tool to extend social protection. The platform aims to facilitate the exchange of information and ideas, capture and document experiences, identify knowledge gaps and facilitate the creation of knowledge through the promotion of innovation. To achieve this goal, the...

Nature of the Case The case was brought on behalf of a pregnant woman who died in a hospital while awaiting obstetric care. It considers whether the hospital failed to provide appropriate obstetric care and management, thereby violating her rights as well as those of her surviving children. Summary...

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...

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...

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...

This Recommendation recognizes the lack of protection of workers in the informal economy, and provides guidance for improving their protection and facilitating transitions to the formal economy. It also recognizes that decent work deficits – the denial of rights at work, the absence of sufficient opportunities for quality employment,...

Various processes have swept over Southeast Asia in the last four decades, producing pressures not only in the economic but also in the political and social milieus. When these processes congealed, transnational social movements (TSMs), which earlier had not paid much attention to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations...

A comprehensive approach to social policy that combines universal access to social services with social protection through contributory and noncontributory transfer systems is the best way to realize economic and social rights for all without discrimination. Currently, only 27 per cent of the world’s population enjoys full access to...

This policy paper: (i) provides a global overview of the organization of maternity cash benefits and maternity care in 188 countries; (ii) analyses trends and recent policies, e.g. extension of maternity protection coverage in a large number of low- and middle-income countries; (iii) describes the negative impacts of fiscal...

The Government of Rwanda requested the ILO to carry out a feasibility study on the introduction of a new maternity benefit scheme in Rwanda. For the moment, public and private sector employers in Rwanda provide 12 weeks of paid maternity leave to female employees based on labour laws. Women on maternity...

This report has been prepared to support Ghana to rationalize its social protection expenditure. The report analyses expenditure in terms of its sustainability, robustness, efficiency and effectiveness in preventing or reducing poverty, social exclusion and ill health. It includes an analysis of the current structure of social expenditure and...

This paper presents global estimates on rural/urban disparities in access to health-care services. The report uses proxy indicators to assess key dimensions of coverage and access involving the core principles of universality and equity. Based on the results of the estimates, policy options are discussed to close the gaps...

The informal economy is significantly impacting the world of work, with as much as 40–80 per cent of the labour force in developing countries working within it. Increasingly, transition to formality has emerged as a priority policy agenda in developed and developing countries, and new policy initiatives and approaches...

This document, published by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), examines the concept of care from a rights perspective. It presents care policies in Latin America and analyzes in particular experiences of social organization of care in four countries: Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador and...