1 - 8 of 8
Number of results to display per page
Search Results
2. COVID-19 and the battle against poverty in the Southern Cone
- Author:
- International Institute for Strategic Studies
- Publication Date:
- 11-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Institute for Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- In the third in a series analysing the ways COVID-19 is affecting stability across the world, this paper explores how governments in the Southern Cone of Latin America have responded to the devastating impact of the pandemic on poverty and social indicators in the region. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a huge human, economic and social toll in Latin America − and the Southern Cone in particular − against a backdrop of high levels of informality and urbanisation, underdeveloped social-security nets, and fragmented and underfunded healthcare systems. Despite fiscal constraints, most countries in the Southern Cone have been quick to adopt fiscal-stimulus packages to mitigate the impact of the economic downturn on the most vulnerable. Countries with pre-existing, effective social-safety nets have proven more successful at fighting pandemic-induced poverty. Looking beyond the immediate measures, the pandemic has highlighted the need to address poverty in a durable way in the region. This can be achieved in part by establishing more sustainable development models that emphasise inclusivity.
- Topic:
- Poverty, Social Services, Public Health, Pandemic, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- South America, Latin America, and North America
3. Cash Transfers in Palestine: Building Blocks of Social Protection
- Author:
- Munk School of Global Affairs
- Publication Date:
- 02-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto
- Abstract:
- The Reach Project is a research initiative based in the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and supported by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. They examine the successful delivery of social services to those who are hardest to reach. This case study examines how the Ministry of Social Development in Palestine designed, implemented, and continues to refine the Palestinian National Cash Transfer Program (PNCTP) to specifically reach those who are hard to reach.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Development, Poverty, Inequality, and Social Services
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Israel, and Palestine
4. Social Protection as a Tool to Address Slow Onset Climate Events: Emerging Issues for Research and Policy
- Author:
- Mariya Aleksandrova
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- German Development Institute (DIE)
- Abstract:
- This discussion paper aims to further awareness of opportunities to address loss and damage caused by climate change-related slow onset events (SOEs) through social protection. The analysis is based on a review of interdisciplinary theoretical and empirical literature. The findings suggest that designing comprehensive, climate-responsive social protection strategies can strongly support proactive measures to avoid, minimise and address the complex, long-term impacts of SOEs on human health, livelihoods, poverty and inequality. This entails improving the effectiveness and extending the coverage of existing social protection systems; mainstreaming climate concerns, including risks associated with SOEs, into national social protection frameworks; integrating social protection with broader climate and development policies and strategies; and developing innovative and transformational approaches to social protection. To this end, several issues for research and policy are discussed. Overall, the paper attempts to set the groundwork for an advanced research and policy agenda on social protection and climate change as well as emphasise the need for wider consideration of social protection in global climate change debates. In addition, the study aims to inform the future work of the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts in the working areas of SOEs and comprehensive risk management approaches.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Health, Poverty, Inequality, and Social Services
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
5. Canadian Dilemma: Is There a Path from Systemic Racism Toward Employment Equity for Indigenous People in the Canadian Forces?
- Author:
- Carol Agocs
- Publication Date:
- 02-2019
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
- Institution:
- Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- Indigenous peoples continue to be oppressed by racial discrimination enacted through legislation, policies and practices of the Canadian state, including the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). Systemic racism, practiced through institutionalized policies and customary behaviour affecting people working in organizations, results in inequality for some groups and privileges for others. Since 2002 the CAF has been covered by the federal Employment Equity Act whose purpose is to address systemic discrimination by requiring employers to remove and prevent systemic barriers to equality for Indigenous people, women and “visible minorities” and to maintain a workforce that reflects the diversity of the Canadian population. Aside from its legal obligation, it is in the interest of the CAF to recruit and retain Indigenous People because they are an essential part of Canada’s labour supply. However Indigenous members of the CAF comprise a small and marginalized minority within a rigid, bureaucratic and culturally foreign organization. Implementing the Employment Equity Act could assist the CAF to address the Canadian state’s promise of reconciliation, fairness and equality for Indigenous people. This chapter reviews available evidence bearing on the CAF’s employment equity record, which presents a pattern of resistance to the Act’s requirements and failure to progress toward a representative workforce. In the absence of effective action to implement change, the CAF has yet to find a path from systemic racism toward employment equity for Indigenous People.
- Topic:
- Race, Culture, Military Affairs, Discrimination, Social Services, and Indigenous
- Political Geography:
- Canada and North America
6. The Legal Nature of Social Insurance in Kosovo in the Spirit of EU Integration
- Author:
- Avdullah Robaj
- Publication Date:
- 05-2019
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Liberty and International Affairs
- Institution:
- Institute for Research and European Studies (IRES)
- Abstract:
- Benefits, according to social insurance funds, have the nature of compensation for lost profits. Hence, the social insurance function has to meet the most important subjective requirements, provide for bare needs, and fulfill the minimum standard of living. Contemporary states undertake a series of economic, social, cultural, health, and legal measures to ensure the protection of individuals and families. Various authors define the level of satisfying the needs as the social minimum. Thus, a special law provides the right to material benefit for those in need. Therefore, Kosovo pays special attention to family, mothers, children, martyrs, invalids, veterans, and KLA members. The social insurance scheme in the Republic of Kosovo is not defined by a special law but is defined by a set of laws. Thus, Kosovo has currently legal infrastructure necessary for beneficiaries of the social insurance scheme, though not in the desired form and capacity.
- Topic:
- European Union, Regional Integration, and Social Services
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Kosovo
7. Towards a Fair and Just Fiscal Policy in Pakistan
- Author:
- Vaqar Ahmed, Mustafa Talpur, and Sadaf Liaqa
- Publication Date:
- 06-2016
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- Pakistan does not currently mobilize sufficient tax revenue to finance essential public services, including healthcare and education, on which the poor rely the most. Consequently, these services remain inadequate, hampering efforts to reduce poverty and address extreme inequalities. Furthermore, the current tax system in Pakistan is seen by many as unfair and inequitable. Two-thirds of tax revenue is mobilized through indirect taxes, which are regressive in nature and unfairly burden those least able to pay them. Against this backdrop, this paper explains the four basic elements necessary for a fair and just tax regime, which, if implemented, would strengthen the domestic revenue base, increase equity and improve overall development outcomes, as the public sector will have more resources at its disposal to spend on human and social well-being.
- Topic:
- Education, Tax Systems, Fiscal Policy, and Social Services
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan and Middle East
8. On Love and Metamorphosis
- Author:
- Meg Murphy
- Publication Date:
- 04-2016
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Andrea Ortiz went down to the Charles River on the afternoon that she—victoriously—submitted her senior thesis. There she was, a girl born in Mexico City, an immigrant raised in Miami, a bright light, the first in her family line to get to Harvard. Yet she felt a wave of sadness, and that, she reasoned, made no sense. So she sat by the river to think until it came to her: this was yearning. “You never accomplish anything alone. I was feeling the absence of the people who were most influential in getting me to this point,” she said later. “I wished they could be here too.” Her grandmother is one of those people. She is a woman who created her own philosophy and humanities class in Mexico City for people, like herself at the time, without access to a college education. Later in rural Comitán de Dominguez, where Ortiz spent childhood summers, her grandmother mail-ordered hundreds of books. The family home became an informal library for rural housewives.
- Topic:
- Poverty, Social Services, Community, and Housing
- Political Geography:
- United States and North America