GCSPF Newsletter #33 – March 2020

Over 60 civil society organisations, including members of the Global Coalition, have written a letter to IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva. The letter calls on the IMF to focus on the harmful aspects of its own policy advice on women's rights and gender equality. Read more

In the Arab region, social protection systems have for many years suffered from a number of severe shortcomings. Contributory social and health insurance regimes tend to be undermined by low coverage, a high degree of fragmentation and financial unsustainability. Non-contributory social protection has for a long time predominantly consisted of universal subsidies, whereas other forms of social assistance have been marginal. Overall, a lack of coherence and coordination has undermined the effectiveness and efficiency of social protection systems.
The 2019 report illustrates the considerable reforms underway in the region to overcome those problems. Throughout, it considers social protection reform from a ‘systems perspective’, addressing, for example, the prevalence of pluralistic financing arrangements which in practice often blur the traditional distinction between contributory and non-contributory mechanisms. Read more

This issue of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) Informs presents a discussion on the state of social protection in the Global South and the new (and not so new) challenges to overcoming its gender gaps.
Recognizing that in the countries of the Global South, the development of social protection systems has presented features of segmentation, insufficiency, exclusion, and inequality, the articles gathered here review the situation in the various regions (Asia, Pacific, Africa, and Latin America), taking into consideration their nuances and differences.
The authors discuss central problematic nodes such as the social protection situation of migrant populations, female rural workers and those engaged in platform jobs. They also review experiences of resistance against the increase in precariousness in various workspaces. Read more

High individual and household debt, which accounts for a significant portion of private debt in most countries, has been associated with inequality, macroeconomic instability, unsustainable sovereign debt and financial crises.
This is one of the main conclusions highlighted by Mr Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, the Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of human rights, in his report to the UN Human Rights Council, that is holding its forty-third regular session from 24 February to 20 March 2020. Read more

Event Private Debt and Human Rights. The Report will be presented to the Human Rights Council on March 2 in Geneva, Swizerland. Download the flyer here.

The Uganda Reach the Aged Association (URAA) is a national voluntary not-for-profit, non-government organization whose vision is a dignified, self-fulfilled poverty free ageing Uganda and a mission is to champion the realization and preservation of a dignified quality of life for older persons in Uganda. URAA was founded in 1991 by a group of older persons (OP) themselves and is affiliated to HelpAge International. URAA has a membership of over 480,000 older persons in the 80 district associations (230,000 Male and 250,000 Female) were it operates.
The aim of URAA is to provide a platform for fellowship, mutual support, hope and a voice to Ops. Specifically, the organization focuses on advocacy to raise awareness on Op’s issues and fight stigma to Ops through the rights-based approach aimed at promoting dignified living by advocating and promoting equitable access economic empowerment, social welfare, treatment, care and support, and wellbeing of OPs. Read more