January 2017: Social Protection and Resilience

Welcome to the new edition of socialprotection.org’s newsletter!

We dedicate our first newsletter of 2017 to the theme of social protection and resilience. On this topic, two new publications shared by the members of the platform address the findings of social protection programmes in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda, as well as ideas for strengthening resilience for food security and nutrition in the Sahel and West Africa. We also bring news and events on social protection. 

Our team begin 2017 with renewed energy, dedication and collective commitment to the continuous improvement of the socialprotection.org, by enriching knowledge sharing activities on social protection cutting-edge themes to and among our members through the platform.

We find motivation at the start of this new year in some facts and figures. Since its launch, the platform has gathered more than 1,700 members and 600 stakeholders worldwide and amassed over 2,300 publications in different languages. It has organized 24 webinars in cooperation with a wide range of partners, and currently hosts 24 multi-language Online Communities. Our monthly newsletters reach 1,500 subscribers (and counting!). 

In 2017, we will keep working to bring together all the themes that are of interest to the community of social protection practitioners worldwide into a single virtual space. We hope you continue with us. 

Enjoy your reading!

AfDB hosts the first edition of the Africa Resilience Forum
The African Development Bank (AfDB) hosted the first edition of the Africa Resilience Forum in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, on 10 and 11 January. Focused on the theme “Delivering the High 5s in a Resilient Africa”, the event presented six plenary sessions and multiple parallel breakout sessions delving deeper into fragility issues affecting the continent. Some priority areas of the Forum included:  Light Up and Power Africa, Feed Africa (An Action Plan for Transforming Agriculture in Africa), Industrialize Africa, Integrate Africa and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa.

Finland introduces basic income for unemployed
Finland has become the first country in the world to pay a basic income to randomly picked citizens on a national level in an experiment aiming at dismissing  poverty, motivating people to join the workforce and decreasing unemployment. The experiment is conducted with 2,000 randomly picked unemployed participants between the ages of 25 and 58. For two years, participants from different parts of the country will receive an unconditional monthly tax-free basic income of 560 euros ($586). Read full article by AlJazeera here. 

Pan-India expansion of Maternity Benefit Programme to benefit pregnant and lactating mothers 
The India's Ministry of Women and Child Development has designed the conditional cash transfer programme "Maternity Benefit Programme (MBP)", which provides cash incentives to pregnant and lactating women for compensating the wage loss so that they can take adequate rest before and after delivery. It also aims at improving women's health and nutrition during the period of pregnancy and lactation, among other issues, the Business Standard newspaper reported. Read full article here. 

Virtual Campus

In case you missed it, under the theme of resilience and social protection, we invite you to watch the recording of the webinar "Shock-responsive social protection in practice: perspectives from Kenya and Mozambique", which was the 2nd of the Webinar Series Shock-Responsive Social Protection Systems, organised by Oxford Policy Management (OPM) in partnership with Kenya’s Hunger Safety Net Programme. It was held in August 2016.

 

Social protection and resilience in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda 
Ms. Martina Ulrichs, research officer in the Social Protection Programme at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), shared the Working Pager “How can social protection build resilience? Insights from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda”. Published by ODI and authored by Ms.UIrichs and Ms. Rachel Slater, a research fellow at  the Institute, the study presents a synthesis of findings from Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda on the role of social protection programmes in contributing to people’s capacity to absorb, anticipate and adapt to climate-related shocks and stresses. Read the full study here. 

Social Protection and Food Security in the Sahel and West Africa 
Mr. Isaac Chinyoka, socialprotection.org’s ambassador in South Africa, shared the publication “Social protection in the Sahel and West Africa: Strengthening resilience for food security and nutrition”, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The Sahel and West Africa is one of the world’s poorest, least developed and most food insecure regions, with the fastest growing population. Read the publication here. 
 

Surveys

We invite you to take part in the following surveys 
 

ISPA webinar series and you!
The Inter Agency Social Protection Assessments (ISPA) tools coordination team would like to hear  your interests for future webinars. So we invite you to participate in a quick survey. It will take less than 60 seconds. Participate here
 

WWP Survey
The Brazil Learning Initiative for a World Without Poverty (WWP) launched a quick survey to learn more about  how to improve its knowledge products and focus. Please take a moment and join this initiative before 17 January. Participate here. 
 

Call for papers ahead of the EADI NORDIC Conference 2017
The 2017 edition of the EADI NORDIC Conference will be held in Bergen, Norway, from 21 to 23 August. In the meantime, a call for papers has been announced by the organizers. The deadline to submit abstracts is 31 January. Under the theme "Globalisation at the crossroads: Rethinking inequalities and boundaries", the conference aims to address this series of challenges in development (policy, research, practices) in a multi-polar world. It targets scholars, students, practitioners and policy-makers within the broad field of development research. 
 

Presentation on Key Steps for Nutrition-Sensitive Social Protection
SecureNutrition and the World Bank Safety Nets Global Solution Group are organizing a presentation, online and in-person event hosted by Harold Alderman, a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and  co-author of the consequential 2013 Lancet article,” Nutrition-sensitive interventions and programmes: how can they help to accelerate progress in improving maternal and child nutrition?”. Mr. Alderman will outline the logic for prioritizing nutrition-sensitive programs in the current development landscape, and discuss how safety nets—which support some 1.9 billion people worldwide—can help achieve global nutrition and poverty targets. The event will be held on 26 January, at the World Bank Headquarters, in Washington DC. More information here. 
 

Looking for a new gig in 2017? In the Discussion Forum area, under the Connect tab, we have a forum titled "Institutions and Networking" where you can explore job opportunities and calls for papers announced by our partners.  Likewise, we also invite you to post your own job opportunities and calls for papers in the field of social protection, to share with our specialised community!