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Girls deserve better: countering violence against adolescents through social protection

Isabela Nunes Franciscon's picture
Submitted by Isabela Nunes Franciscon
on Mon, 22/05/2023 - 13:18
Girl holding a baby
The webinar “ Girls deserve better: countering violence against adolescents through social protection ”, held on April 11, 2023, approached the risks of GBV faced by adolescent girls and how to tailor social protection to respond to them. The speakers were Nontokozo Langwenya, PhD Student from the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, Universities of Oxford and Cape Town; Sergio de Marco, Country Director for Innovations for Poverty Action (Peru, Paraguay & Dominican Republic); and Christiana Gbedemah, Social Policy Specialist, and Miho Yoshikawa, Child Protection Specialist, both from UNICEF Ghana. The session was moderated by Lauren Whitehead, Social Protection and Gender Lead, UNICEF New York Headquarters. This is the first session of a joint webinar and podcast series...Read more

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Covering the informal economy to achieve universal social protection

Alix Machiels's picture
Submitted by Alix Machiels
on Fri, 12/05/2023 - 13:29
Woman holding her baby and showing an assistance card.
Written by Alix Machiels and Maria Aman, International Labour Organization (ILO). In April 2023, a technical exchange brought together experts and practitioners to share experiences and lessons learned from the extension of social protection to workers in the informal economy. Co-organized by the Global Partnership to achieve universal social protection (USP2030) and the EU funded Social Protection and Public Finance Management (SP&PFM) Programme , the event showcased country experiences on extension strategies to lift barriers to coverage. Discussions highlighted the need to promote transitions to formality, in alignment with key principles of solidarity and collective financing. Watch the recordings and access resources and materials here . The majority of those...Read more

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Exploring a fairer and more inclusive social protection paradigm for the world’s informal workers

Laura Alfers's picture
Submitted by Laura Alfers
on Fri, 12/05/2023 - 13:26
Garbage collector holding plastic bottles
Written by Laura Alfers and Florian Juergens-Grant, Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) Global frameworks and the widely recognized importance of social protection during the COVID-19 crisis have generated momentum toward the realization of Universal Social Protection (USP). At a global level, the Social Protection Floors (SPF) and USP frameworks, which are grounded in human rights principles, International Labour Standards and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), provide a key set of principles and actions that should underpin the extension of social protection to all, including workers in informal employment. They call for the development of social protection systems that are based on rights and provide protection for throughout the life...Read more

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Where are the social protection responses to COVID-19 now?

Marina Andrade's picture
Submitted by Marina Andrade
on Tue, 02/05/2023 - 13:46
Woman smiling
Written by Marina Andrade and Tomás Borges, socialprotection.org Since 2020, governments of countries in the Global South have implemented several different social protection responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to support the hardest-hit and most vulnerable groups. Three years later, the importance of these social protection measures in protecting people’s livelihoods and their positive implications for the development of national social protection systems and their adaptative capacities seems to have been far-reaching. That said, we can't help but wonder, where are these social protection responses now, and what are some of the innovations, adaptations or developments they encompassed and left behind? Are there any at all? The summarized findings of the IPC-IG and...Read more

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Weekly Social Protection Links: 28 April 2023

Ugo Gentilini's picture
Submitted by Ugo Gentilini
on Fri, 28/04/2023 - 14:03
Let’s begin with a recurrent conundrum: is it better to give less cash to more people or more cash to less people? As part of a collection of short essays, Kondylis and Loeser summarize the comparative cost-effectiveness of alternative cash transfers designs , including unconditional cash transfers of different size and “graduation” packages (TUPs) (see p.21-23). They found that smaller UCTs have larger impacts on consumption per unit of transfer than larger UCTs; and that the average UCT is between 5 and 43% more effective than TUPs in increasing consumption at the average evaluated year (1.5 years for UCTs and 2.6 years for TUPs). In her overview essay, Legovini put it forthright: “… the smaller the transfers are, the larger their cost-effectiveness is, suggesting that...Read more

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Kenya’s 2023 National Social Protection Conference: setting the bases for accelerating action

Gala Dahlet's picture
Submitted by Gala Dahlet
on Fri, 28/04/2023 - 11:14
Written by Gala Dahlet (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO), Gaby Guerrero (United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF), Luke Harman (UNICEF), George Kinyanjui (UNICEF), Marco Knowles (FAO) and Keetie Roelen (Centre for the Study of Global Development, The Open University) Last month, Kenya hosted its third edition of the National Social Protection Conference. Hundreds of primarily local, regional and national-level policymakers, frontline workers, civil society representatives and researchers took part in the four-day event in early April to mark Kenya’s progress in social protection and discuss ways forward. Kenya has long been a champion of the social protection agenda in Eastern Africa, being one of the first to implement cash transfers such as the Cash...Read more

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Food Security and Nutrition: Five Challenges for Social Protection in 2023

Food Systems Summit Coalition and USP2030 Working Group on Social Protection and Food Systems Transformation's picture
Submitted by Food Systems Summit Coalition and USP2030 Working Group on Social Protection and Food Systems Transformation
on Fri, 14/04/2023 - 17:18
With contributions from Caitlin Mahoney (WFP), Andrea Moreschi (WFP), Adhvik Shetty (WFP), Saskia DePee (WFP), Lindsey Wise (WFP), Rodrigo Rivera (FAO), Richard Morgan (Nutrition International), Saul Morris (GAIN), and Anthony Wendt (GAIN). The past few years saw the emergence of numerous threats to global food security and nutrition, which have presented opportunities for social protection to expand in its response. Among the many lessons learnt, is the importance of preparing for the unexpected and building our defences now in anticipation of unforeseen shocks. The following five challenges are among the most urgent and relevant, representing important directions for social protection systems to grow stronger and more effectively promote the food security and nutrition of...Read more

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Financing adaptive social protection for drought in Malawi to protect the vulnerable

Evie Calcutt's picture
Submitted by Evie Calcutt
on Wed, 05/04/2023 - 12:14
Written by Mulder Mkutumula (Scalable Coordinator, Government of Malawi), Evie Calcutt (Financial Sector Specialist, World Bank), Chipo Msowoya (Senior Social Protection Specialist, World Bank), Alejandra Campero Peredo (Risk Finance Consultant, World Bank) With an economy that relies heavily on rain-fed agriculture, Malawi is increasingly vulnerable to climate shocks . In recent history, Malawi has seen increases in the frequency and severity of droughts, which cause the poorest and most vulnerable communities the most suffering. Making their social protection programs adaptive to these climate risks is a key pillar of the government’s national strategies on disaster risk financing (DRF) and social protection . By mobilizing finance ahead of a shock, evidence...Read more

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COVID-19 responses and digital solutions

João Pedro Bregolin Dytz's picture
Submitted by João Pedro Bregolin Dytz
on Fri, 31/03/2023 - 16:42
Woman wearing a face mask.
Written by Rim Antoun and João Pedro Bregolin Dytz, socialprotection.org. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed governments around the world to quickly mobilize resources and invest in developing social protection programmes, in parallel with public health measures to prevent the spread of the virus. These efforts aimed at expanding coverage, better and quickly identifying beneficiaries, and delivering programmes efficiently while maintaining social distancing and barriers. This blog’s main goal is to investigate digital solutions during the pandemic, and the usage of digital tools in the multiple steps for the delivery of social protection programmes – e.g. outreach and registration, enrolment, and benefit delivery, among others (Burattini et al, 2022). Some examples of these...Read more

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Where do we go from here? Forward frontiers in family-friendly policies and care

Lauren Whitehead's picture
Submitted by Lauren Whitehead
on Thu, 09/03/2023 - 13:02
Written by Lauren Whitehead, Chemba Raghavan, Alexandre Cote, Ruth Graham Goulder, Christopher Kip, Caleb Segun Lean, and Louisa Lippi (UNICEF) In honor of International Women's Day on March 8, we reflect on the growing movement to recognize, reduce, and redistribute unpaid care work and to reward and represent paid care work in the global economy. The rise in unpaid care and the underpaid care economy has notably impacted women and girls more than any other group in society. Social protection has a pivotal role to play in reducing the detrimental effects of gender inequality exacerbated by unpaid and underpaid care work while increasing access to safe, affordable, and quality care for all children and persons in need of care. Women and girls as caregivers...Read more

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