GCSPF e-Newsletter # 74 – August 2022

The HLPF virtual side event: How to achieve the SDGs despite the worsening hunger and poverty crisis? took place on Wednesday, 6 July, during the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) 2022.
The side event was focused on the discussion on “Building forward better” around four interlinked themes – vaccines, hunger, debt and social protection, and livelihood while discussing it in context of the achievement of the SDGs, especially SDG 5 using the gender lens. This event is considered as a part of the series of actions and discussions hosted by GCAP and the wider civil society coalitions in the build-up to the Global Week of Action (GWA) culminating in September 25, the day of adoption of the Agenda 2030. One flagship programme of GCAP is the People’s Assemblies – done during the Global Week of Action – at the national, regional and global levels with people from the marginalized groups coming together to discuss their issues and preparing a charter of demands for advocacy.
Gunnel Axelsson Nycander participated on behalf of the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (GCSPF). Download here her presentation. Watch the video

This toolkit, by the Asian Roundtable on Social Protection (AROSP), focuses on best practices for social protection advocacy. Its fundamental starting point is the assertion that social protection is a human right. Social protection is defined as a set of policies to help women, men and children reach or maintain an adequate standard of living and good health. Building social protection systems (including social protection floors) is at the forefront of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, because these systems reduce and prevent poverty while also levelling out inequalities. Read more

The International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW) is pleased to announce that our book Digital Transformation and Social Well-Being: Promoting an Inclusive Society has just been sent to press with a projected print date of 16 September 2022. It is published by Routledge Publishers and edited by Antonio López Peláez, Sang-Mok Suh and Sergei Zelenev.
With this book, ICSW contributes to one of its founding objectives: to put the basic features affecting social welfare on the current public agendas. The authors of this book have made an effort to explore how social inclusion could be promoted in a better way, how people could move rapidly along the road towards the cherished goal of creating a “society for all”, using the new tools offered by digitalisation.
Highlighting the complexities of digitalization, the book provides theoretical and practical insights, including case-studies from several countries aimed at demonstrating how overcoming disparities across social groups using contemporary digitalisation models will have lasting consequences on social well-being and human welfare.
This book can also be seen as an awareness-raising effort with regard to numerous sensitive, or potentially sensitive points, and a plea for the reconsideration of some policies or even policy priorities that are seen as detrimental nationally or globally. Many of the authors make quite concrete proposals for improving the policies and practice of social work, and social policy seen large. Read more

This ILO flagship report examines the role of collective bargaining in mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on employment and earnings, helping to cushion inequality while reinforcing the resilience of enterprises and labour markets. The tailoring of public health measures and strengthening of occupational safety and health at the workplace, together with the paid sick leave and healthcare benefits provided for in many collective agreements, protected workers and supported the continuity of economic activity.
Looking to the future, the report considers the contribution of collective bargaining to a human-centred recovery. It highlights the need for democratic principles and rights that give employers and all workers a voice in the governance of work ‒ freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining ‒ essential for strong and representative workers’ and employers’ organizations, and a recovery that is inclusive, sustainable and resilient. Read more

Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) defends and promotes human rights, gender justice, social justice, climate justice and the security needed for the dignity and peace of all.

GCAP is a network of over 11,000 civil society organisations (CSOs) organized in 58 National Coalitions and in constituency groups of women, youth and socially-excluded people, among others.

The strengths of GCAP are: Strong political leadership from the Global South, A focus on the structural aspects of inequalities, Proven ability to mobilise millions of people in support of rights-based advocacy, A solid grassroots foundation, consisting of thousands of small & mid-sized civil society organisations and, A real bottom-up process led by marginalized groups and women’s organisations.

Contact information: Ingo Ritz (Director - ingo.ritz@gcap.global)
Further information can be found here. Facebook: GlobalCalltoActionAgainstPoverty / Twitter: @whiteband

Global Social Justice (Switzerland) was established in 2016 and is a civil society assocation registered under Swiss law.
The mission of Global Social Justice is to advance human rights and equality, generate debate on the distributional impacts of public policy support policy alternatives based on the rights of all peoples to benefit from economic, environmental and social progress.

Contact information
Odile Frank (Executive Director, odile.mc.frank@gmail.com), Isabel Ortiz (President, iortiz@globalsocialjustice.org)