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Social Protection Systems (social + protection_system)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences100%

Selected Abstracts

The emergence of social assistance in China

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Issue 3 2006
Joe C.B. Leung
This article outlines the development of China's social assistance programme, including its design, implementation and trends. The Chinese government has given high priority to the establishment and institutionalisation of this programme. To have an effective social assistance programme in the context of an increasingly pluralistic society, China is facing the profoundly challenging task of designing a coherent and over-arching social protection system that would cover retirement, medical care, unemployment and poverty alleviation. [source]

The legal construction of the social security system of the Republic of Kosovo

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 1 2009
Ma Lourdes Arastey Sahún
Abstract Following the international community's unsuccessful attempts to broker an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo, the territory of Kosovo controversially declared independence on 17 February 2008. This article provides a description and analysis of the social protection system immediately after the declaration of independence. In the aftermath of conflict, and faced by enormous economic difficulties, Kosovo's society could not expect a complete restoration of the social security system. To date, the United Nations Mission has committed itself to building a minimum legal framework, seeking to give answers to main and essential challenges. But the core structure of the social security system is yet to be laid. Nonetheless, in a complex situation such as that of Kosovo, the realization of a social protection framework must be seen as an essential mechanism for reconstruction and peacekeeping. [source]

Social protection and poverty in Azerbaijan, a low-income country in transition: Implications of a household survey

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 4 2007
Nazim Habibov
Using a nationally representative survey, this study examines the performance of social protection in Azerbaijan from the perspective of poverty reduction. Empirical evidence presented suggests that social protection programmes have an important impact on poverty alleviation. However, poverty is still widespread. The findings demonstrate that the current system of social protection has several important limitations. First, a significant proportion of the poor population is not covered by the social protection system. Second, the poor typically receive a smaller share of total benefits than the non-poor. Finally, most social transfers are too small to lift households out of poverty. The current system of social protection in Azerbaijan requires further strengthening. In particular, the government should develop and implement new social assistance programmes specifically directed towards poverty reduction. [source]

Introduction: Overcoming Barriers to the Extension of Social Protection: Lessons from the Asia Region

IDS BULLETIN, Issue 4 2010
Naila Kabeer
The contributions to this IDS Bulletin report on some of the findings from research undertaken under the Social Protection in Asia programme. This is a three-year policy-oriented research and network building programme, funded by the Ford Foundation and IDRC, with project partners in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The research focuses on examining interventions aimed at extending social protection to those sections of the population, the majority in many Asian countries, who are excluded from formal social security systems. It has sought to identify and address barriers to the establishment of more comprehensive social protection systems that could address such difficult-to-reach groups. This issue of the IDS Bulletin brings together some initial reflections on the findings from this research. These relate to advocacy efforts to draw attention to those groups that have been largely invisible in the social protection agenda; to the importance of civil society and grassroots mobilisation in creating access to state provision and to lessons from social protection efforts to go to scale. These reflections are intended to feed into current debates about the design of appropriate social protection schemes that effectively meet identified needs. [source]

New avenues to be opened for social protection in the Arab world: the case of Egypt,

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WELFARE, Issue 1 2004
Markus Loewe
This article looks at social protection in the Arab world. Giving the example of Egypt, it asks why poverty is so widespread and why , despite the country's numerous social protection systems , social risks are a major contributing factor to it. It concludes that reforms are due. The existing systems are well funded but inefficient and more to the benefit of the better-off than the poor. A reform approach is proposed which builds on both conventional and more innovative strategies: campaigns should be launched to raise public awareness of social risks; social assistance spending should be increased; and the operating public pension schemes should be reformed. At the same time, new avenues have to be opened to meet the specific needs of informal sector workers who have extreme difficulty in being covered by social insurance or social assistance. To this purpose, micro-insurance is a promising approach for the Arab-world region. [source]

The decommodified security ratio: A tool for assessing European social protection systems

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 4 2007
Georges Menahem
With a view to better assessment of the roles played by social security and social policy in determining well-being, this article introduces the "decommodified security ratio" (DSR), an instrument for evaluating an important duty of the social State, namely to maintain and improve people's economic security. To that end we describe the conventions for its use, analyse its main components in 20 European countries in 2002 and simulate the changes in it produced by ten variations in those components. From an analysis of the sensitivities of economic security we then demonstrate three different rationales. [source]

Ageing and the changing role of the family and the community: An African perspective

INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY REVIEW, Issue 1 2002
Nana Araba Apt
Global ageing, the major social issue of the twenty-first century, will have greater social repercussions for developing countries. The fastest increase of older persons in terms of ratio in relation to younger people is happening in developing countries, and in Africa segregation of older people in rural areas will become manifest. While beneficial changes for women have accompanied modernization in many of the developing countries, the situation of older women appears to be particularly precarious. Social changes brought about by modernization are also profoundly affecting the traditional systems of care for older people. Even though most older people requiring care are still looked after within the informal structures of the family, this can no longer be taken for granted as we move into the new century. This paper critically reviews social protection systems and the resource constraints which characterize developing countries and warns against blind development of social security systems based on those of the industrialized countries. The paper argues for the design of intergenerational support back into mainstream social relations so that older persons are not marginalized and put at risk through social protection programmes which reinforce physical vulnerability stereotypes and stress welfare needs over and above older people's social and economic contributions to society [source]