IPC-IG Policy in Focus (Vol 19, Issue 2, 2021) What's next for social protection in light of COVID-19: challenges ahead

Summary

The wide-ranging consequences of the COVID-19 crisis have had a huge impact on the world of social protection. The importance of providing comprehensive and adequate social protection benefits to all has become more evident than ever. From 5 to 8 October 2020, the Socialprotection.org team organised a global e-conference titled ‘Turning the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity: What’s next for social protection?’. The conference functioned as a virtual live space for the global social protection community to share innovative ideas and practical insights, and brainstorm about the future of social protection in a post-pandemic world. 

Given the success of the e-conference and to further disseminate its key discussions, the socialprotection.org platform and the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) have developed two special issues of Policy in Focus.

The first issue focuses on experiences from countries in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the overall lessons for the future, including shock-responsive and universal social protection. This second issue provides a thematic focus, delving in more depth into the main topics discussed during the round tables, such as financing, universal basic income, linkages to food security and employment, as well as gender-, child- and disability-sensitive programmes, among others. All articles were written at the end of 2020 by panellists and/or organisers of the conference. For the recordings of all sessions and more information about the conference, see: https://is.gd/EyfPGn .

The articles in this Issue 2 are: 

Universal child benefits: The pathway to universality in COVID-19 times David Stewart, Atif Khurshid, and Aristide Kielem

Gender-responsive social protection in times of COVID-19 Clare McCrum

Bridging the disability inequality gap: Changes needed for an inclusive COVID-19 response and recovery Alexandre Cote

Older people’s income security and access to social protection during COVID-19 and beyond Florian Juergens, Usa Khiewrord and Aura Sevilla

Extending unemployment protection as a response to the COVID-19 crisis and as part of efforts to build back better Céline Peyron Bista, Quynh Anh Nguyen and Maya Stern-Plaza

Health protection and sickness benefits to face the COVID 19 pandemic in Asia Maya Stern-Plaza, Lou Tessier, Luis Frota, and Knut Lönnroth

Migrant-responsive social protection: Lessons from COVID-19 Gift Dafuleya, Marius Olivier, Jason Theede, Giulia Baldi and Teona Aslanishvili

Transitioning from emergency transfers: What is the future of universal basic income? Louise Haagh, Mansour Ndiaye and Claudia Vinay

Placing food security and nutrition at the heart of social protection policy and programming now and in the future Juan Gonzalo Jaramillo Mejia

Microsimulation analysis: A useful tool for the development of social policy in times of uncertainty Gerardo Escaroz and José Espinoza-Delgado

Financing universal social protection during COVID-19 and beyond: Investing more and better Mira Bierbaum, Markus Kaltenborn, Valérie Schmitt and Nicola Wiebe

Opportunities for strengthening the links between humanitarian cash transfers and social protection: Lessons from COVID-19 responses Roberta Brito, Patricia Velloso Cavallari and Lois Austin