1. Newsletters
  2. March 2016: International Women’s Day: Pledge for Parity

March 2016: International Women’s Day: Pledge for Parity
International Women’s Day: Pledge for Parity

8 March 2016: The World Economic Forum estimated in 2015 that there has been a global slowdown in progress in closing the gender gap. Thus on 8 March 2016, International Women’s Day calls for a global Pledge for Parity!

We invite you to pledge to take a concrete step towards purposeful action, to help achieve gender parity more quickly. We believe that social protection provides pragmatic mechanisms for realising gender parity by supporting women and girls achieve their ambitions, respecting differences and developing more inclusive and flexible policies that protect and promote the inclusion of poor and vulnerable women. Therefore, we invite you to learn more about the potential for social protection to impact the lives of women in this month’s newsletter.

Furthermore, next month, socialprotection.org will commence its Gender-Sensitive Social Protection Webinar Series! Each webinar will include follow-up discussions in its own dedicated Online Community, with the cooperation of FAO and the IPC-IG. Stay posted on the Series via our social media sites.
This month, socialprotection.org celebrates its 6 month anniversary! In celebration, this Thursday, 10 March, 11am (Brasilia), socialprotection.org will present the webinar: Towards universal social protection: Latin American pathways and policy tools, promoting the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) publication of the same title. Register for the webinar!

Over the past 6 months, socialprotection.org has gathered 760 members from 108 countries, affiliated to more than 60 institutions. The platform also features a Publications Search that directs access to over 1500 of the latest and most relevant publications related to social protection.

On 23 February, socialprotection.org was presented to delegates from the Uganda Study Tour, organised by the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth's (IPC-IG). ‪

On 29 March, 2pm (UTC +3, Nairobi, Kenya), socialprotection.org will host the webinar Kenya’s Single Registry: A tool for planning, coordination and monitoring. Register for the webinar!

In the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) flagship report, Progress of the World’s Women 2015-2016: Transforming Economies, Realizing Rights, the social and economic status quo of women today is exposed. This evidence-based report offers a view to transform the current situation with women’s rights as the driving force, providing the key elements for a far-reaching new policy agenda.

This Overseas Development Institute (ODI) case study, titled Gendered risks, poverty and vulnerability in India, addresses poverty in rural India, where the poor are mostly landless and reliant on daily wage, agricultural labour. The case study specifically examines the gendered dimensions and impacts of the Indian public works programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
 

socialprotection.org’s Stakeholder Search holds a directory of stakeholders related to the field of social protection, including stakeholders dedicated to gender parity. We invite you to include your institution in this directory by accessing the Share tab. 

You can now download resources on the Discussion Forum to support the management and dissemination of Online Communities. This includes email templates to support discussions as well as guidelines catering to Online Community members and administrators. Simply access Platform Administration and then click on the Online Community Resources: Email Templates and Guidelines discussion.
 

Check out our Events database for a calendar of upcoming events related to social protection in 2016! If you know about an upcoming event, include it in the database by accessing the Share tab.
 
The UK Department for International Development (DFID) has posted an Open Call: ‘The Role of Social Accountability in the Delivery of Social Protection’. They are looking for a small team of experienced senior and junior researchers to undertake a study to bring together existing evidence, and generate new evidence, on the effectiveness of social accountability mechanisms on the service delivery of social protection programmes, and on precipitating state society relational change. The deadline for submitting tenders is 18 March 2016.

The Brazil Learning Initiative for a World without Poverty (WWP) and the Global Development Learning Network in Brazil (GDLN Brasil) will present the webinar Sharing knowledge on social development policies: the Brazilian experience, on 11 March at 9am (Washington DC) in English and on 15 March at 9am (Washington DC - daylight saving time) in Spanish. The event will explore the WWP's work in identifying, documenting and disseminating the Brazilian experience in the design and implementation of policies and programmes to promote social development and poverty reduction.
 

We invite you to participate in the socialprotection.org Member Feedback and Suggestions Survey. Your input will ensure that the development of the platform meets your needs!

We are pleased to announce that we will be hosting a webinar titled Towards universal social protection: Latin American pathways and policy tools, on 10 March at 11am (UTC-3, Brasilia), supported by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea) and the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG). The webinar will explore the content of the book by the same title, published by ECLAC.

Simone Cecchini (Social Affairs Officer, Social Development Division, ECLAC) will present, highlighting some of the main topics it addresses. Sergei Soares (Senior Researcher, Ipea) will discuss his presentation. The IPC-IG is in charge of the webinar’s moderation. Register for the webinar!

On 29 March, 2pm (UTC +3, Nairobi, Kenya), socialprotection.org will host the webinar, Kenya’s Single Registry: A tool for planning, coordination and monitoring, supported by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Oxford Policy Management and Development Pathways.

Kenya’s ‘Single Registry for Social Protection’ was recently created as an electronic solution for social accountability. The webinar will discuss how its introduction came about, its evolution and benefits, challenges and limitations during implementation as well as future plans.

Winnie Mwasiaji (Coordinator, Social Protection Secretariat, Kenya), Evelyn Gathecha (Single Registry Specialist, Social Protection Secretariat, Kenya) and Richard Chirchir (Senior MIS Specialist, Development Pathways) will present, while Valentina Barca (Consultant, Oxford Policy Management) will serve as the moderator. Register for the webinar!
 

This Overseas Development Institute (ODI) toolkit addresses How to design and implement gender-sensitive social protection programmes. It aims to support policymakers, programme designers, and programme implementers to apply a much-needed gender lens to debates around social protection.

Also, see this UN Women briefing kit, Domestic Workers Count Too: Implementing Protections for Domestic Workers, added by socialprotection.org Ambassador, M. Thanga Darwin. It makes a compelling normative and development case for protecting domestic workers, based on interviews with governments, workers and employers, by drawing on promising national practice worldwide.

See definitions of social protection and comment on them in our Glossary! For example, the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) definition of Maternity benefits: “Maternity protection offers numerous benefits. It contributes to the health and well-being of mothers and their babies and thus to the achievement of major development goals (…) By safeguarding women’s employment and income security during and after maternity, maternity protection also promotes and achieves effective gender equality at work. (…)”

Have a look at our News section, where you can find up-to-date information on social protection programmes from around the world. Read about how Mobile money in Bangladesh has the potential to revolutionise banking for poor women, in the Dhaka Tribune.

This month’s featured Ambassador is Sacha Harris (Researcher), who shared this European University Institute (EUI) publication, Community Responsive Social Protection: Monitoring Shifting Vulnerabilities for Women and Children in Zambia.

You can find out more information about socialprotection.org’s Ambassador Programme here.

Top retweeter

Thank you to PAN: Children for being the top retweeter of socialprotection.org’s Twitter account this month!