e-Newsletter # 62 – December 2021

In November 2021 the ad hoc group on IDA20 of the GCSPF submitted Comments on the social protection elements in the IDA20 draft Deputies Report in which it criticises the fact that the World Bank continues to promote targeted social safety nets rather than social protection floors in line with ILO standards.
The World Bank launched an early twentieth replenishment process of the International Development Association (IDA), its fund for the world’s poorest countries, aiming to support countries in their recovery from the COVID-19 crisis and transition to green, resilient, and inclusive development. The IDA20 replenishment will conclude in December 2021 with a policy and financial package to support 74 countries between July 2022 and June 2025. Read more

Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan designed emergency interventions to cover children at the height of Covid-19 infections, a study has revealed.
The Africa Platform for Social Protection (APSP), in collaboration with Save the Children, conducted a study on social protection interventions targeting children in East Africa during Covid-19, with the goal of generating evidence for child-sensitive social protection programmes in the region, during the pandemic.
The research provided an understanding of the nature of the Covid-19 emergency interventions and the challenges in implementing them. It found that governments in the region, with the support of their development partners, offered alternatives to in-person learning during the school closures. Read more

By Florian Juergens, Laura Alfers
‘Informal economy’ - this strange term, which sounds a bit like we are describing the weekend-version of The Real and Very Formal Economy (black-tie, gowns), somehow captures the economic lives of about two billion people worldwide. Rather than being an aberration, it is very much the norm: 61 per cent of all working people in the world and 70 per cent of those working in middle- and low-income countries do so in the informal economy.
Informal workers are mostly excluded from social protection systems — with dire consequences during COVID-19. Read more Spanish version is here

Informal work accounts for over 60% of all global employment and 90% of employment in developing countries, the International Labour Organization reported in 2018. In the first wave of the pandemic, the ILO projected that informal workers would be among those most severely affected, predicting sharp growth in relative poverty levels. Over a year on, labour experts now warn that workers are not recovering as quickly as first expected. They warn of a “great divergence” in recovery: between developed and developing countries. Date: December 8, 2021 Register here

The Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Mr. Olivier De Schutter, intends to dedicate his report to the 50th session of the Human Rights Council, to be presented in June 2022, to the gap between legal coverage and effective coverage in the area of social protection as well as to situation of informal workers. The report will seek to identify the obstacles individuals and households face in seeking to access social protection and to propose recommendations for how to overcome them.
The Special Rapporteur invites all interested governments, civil society organizations, academics, international organizations, activists, corporations and others, to provide written input for his thematic report. Deadline: 20 December 2021 Read more

The report by Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) aims to explore current subsidies offered by Arab States to their citizens and basic goods subsidized. The report also attempts to identify recent shifts in subsidies and, more specifically, to answer the following questions: which subsidy reforms were recently adopted by Arab governments?, what are the factors influencing the adoption of said reforms, and to which extent are they aligned with the particularities of Arab societies?, what role do the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and IMF strategy play in the adoption of subsidy reduction reforms, and what are the relevant rationale and arguments? and is subsidy reduction economically and socially viable? Read more

The social and solidarity economy (SSE) is receiving increased attention for its role in addressing a variety of economic and social challenges, ranging from the future of work to the provision of social services. The social and economic problems around the global COVID-19 pandemic have brought into focus the need to strengthen the SSE to support the recovery process, along with the public and private sector.
Five national reports present the analysis conducted in Ecuador, Italy, Morocco, Republic of Korea, Quebec (Canada). Read more