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This working aid aims to provide concrete guidance for the SDC staff to engage in social protection programmes and policies. Providing concrete case studies and reflection questions, the tool aims at supporting management and programme officers in identifying potential entry points in their country or regional context to implement social protection and engage in a policy dialogue with national and global partners. It shall support the SDC staff working in a range of sectors in making strategic use of social protection as a cross-sectorial instrument to foster and enhance sectoral outcomes and contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The document is the direct result of the SDC’s learning journey on social protection, which took place from 2021 to 2022 and included 10 webinars on various aspects of social protection. Find out more»
Stephanie Guha / July 2023
The online training from 3 May to 7 June 2023 will discuss the practical application of LNOB in five modules. The main focus of the training will be on peer learning, concrete tools and good practices. Participants are invited to bring in their own challenges from their working context. The training will be conducted on behalf of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Academy for International Cooperation of GIZ (AIZ). Registration is now open until the 5th of March 2023. For detailed information on the training, see here»
Stephanie Guha / February 2023
The year 2022 is coming to an end. The much-needed recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic has been hampered by other crises, new and ongoing: wars, droughts, a resulting surge in food prices. The human development index has fallen two years in a row and global poverty levels have increased! Have a look at our December newsletter»
Stephanie Guha / December 2022
Global progress in reducing extreme poverty has virtually come to a halt. The 2022 edition of the World Bank’s Poverty and Shared Prosperity series provides the latest estimates and trends in global poverty, and – after a series of shocks to the global economy – they are not good. While the multiple crises driving this halt are known, the report also analyses the ways in which governments have reacted to support the most vulnerable groups. As the title suggests, a major course correction is called for. Focusing on fiscal policy mainly, a key priority action identified is that government spending should move away from subsidies toward a support that is directly targeted to poor and vulnerable groups. Read full report»
Alex Sieber / December 2022
The UN’s Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) has published its 2022 Flagship report entitled Crises of Inequality: Shifting Power for a New Eco-Social Contract. Inequalities and crises reinforce and compound each other. This was devastatingly illustrated by the global pandemic during which the wealth of the 10 richest people has doubled while more than 120 million people were pushed into extreme poverty. The UNRISD report explores these connections and argues that such inequalities are in fact built into the system and the result of policy choices. As a way out, the report proposes the creation of a new eco-social contract based on alternative economies, transformative social policies, and reimagined multilateralism and strengthened solidarities. Read more»
Alex Sieber / December 2022
How does the quality of governance institutions affect progress on the reduction of poverty and inequality? The UNDP’s Oslo Governance Centre and the German Development Institute (DIE) have investigated this question by systematically reviewing 58 articles published on the topic. As written in the foreword, the complexity of the current crises requires tackling multiple issues at the same time – and knowing how action on one impacts the other.
The review found clear evidence that the institutional qualities of accountability, transparency and inclusion enable the reduction of key aspects of poverty and inequality. This effect is most pronounced for the ‘enablers’ of transparency and inclusion. While it is valuable to have a consolidated analysis of these relationships, the general finding does hardly come as a surprise. Indeed, it is part of the reason why the SDC considers governance a transversal theme across all its projects and programmes. Within the newly founded Peace, Governance and Equality Section (PGE), the topics of poverty and inequality reduction and governance are now also institutionally closer. Read more»
Alex Sieber / December 2022
