WIEGO has produced a series of briefs to analyze the Social Protection Responses to COVID-19, drawing from WIEGO's database of social protection responses to the pandemic, as well as the trends and changes in the Social Protection for Informal Workers landscape, in order to support movements in their advocacy efforts to expand social protection to workers in informal employment.
These briefs comprise country cases of measures to protect workers from risks from lockdowns, from the pandemic itself, and more hazardous situations that may arise. These are not policy recommendations but are instead tools to share initiatives and policies implemented in different parts of the world.
Social Protection for Informal Workers: Trends and Changes
Issue #7: Challenges and strategies to increase social protection financing for workers in informal employment
English, Spanish and French
This briefing note reviews the current debates about strategies to increase financing for social protection, which is essentially to enable the extension of coverage to workers in informal employment. The social protection financing gap is described and different approaches to close the gap are discussed, including the role of taxation, social security contributions and international aid. Challenges that governments face in raising sufficient financing to expand social protection to workers in informal employment in contexts of high informality are explored. The brief also looks at innovative approaches resulting from the demands of worker movements to gain financial contributions from those who benefit from workers in informal employment.
Issue #6: Income floors: Understanding the different policy proposals
English, Spanish and French
The 2020 global pandemic catalyzed great interest in the potential of social protection to support incomes and livelihoods during times of crisis, with cash transfers getting particular attention. Also during this period, the debate around basic incomes, universal basic income (UBI) and other types of cash transfers gained traction. Progressive policymakers, workers’ movements and civil society organizations around the world saw a window of opportunity to demand more extensive income security programmes from minimum incomes to basic incomes to universal basic incomes. But what do all of these terms really mean? And what is the difference between them? In this brief, we provide an explanation of the different terms in use and then present three short snapshots of how and where policy discussions are happening in the Global South. We look at programmes and debates in Mexico City, South Africa and Brazil.
Issue #5: A regional approach to Universal Social Protection: The case of the African Union Protocol
English, Spanish and French
The AU Protocol is the culmination of a long process of struggle to extend universal social protection rights on the African continent. It recognizes social protection as an integral part of the development agenda. Civil society organizations, in particular the Africa Platform for Social Protection, played an important role in the formulation of and the effort to advocate for the adoption of the protocol by the African Union. The document is an important instrument to achieve universal social protection as it provides guiding principles for governments and sets the state’s obligations to guarantee the right to social protection and social security. The protocol was officially adopted by the African Union, but will only enter into force after 15 member states sign on to the document.
Issue #4: Extending social protection for informal workers in Togo
English, Spanish and French
In Togo, according to the ILO (International Labour Organization), 92.8% of the workforce is informal. This means that a large share of the Togolese population is vulnerable to shocks and risks that might impact their livelihoods. Over the past decade, however, the country has witnessed many positive developments in extending social protection to workers in informal employment. In this briefing note, we follow this struggle, looking at how worker organizations, international organizations and civil society have contributed to the recent advances in social protection for workers in Togo.
Issue #3: Bolsa Família: Past and future of the Brazilian cash-grant programme
English, Spanish and Portuguese
In this brief, we discuss the changes in Bolsa Família, the Brazilian cash-grant flagship programme, in light of the recent developments in social assistance stemming from the fallout of the COVID-19 crisis. The government has terminated the 18-year-old programme and replaced it with a new conditional transfer policy, Auxílio Brasil. The brief discusses the main problems of this new policy and the alternative paths that could have been followed to improve Bolsa Família to include workers in informal employment.
Issue #2: What do we mean by universal social protection?
English, French and Spanish
Many different organizations and specialists talk about universal social protection. But their vision of how to achieve universal social protection is very different. In this briefing note, we look at how two of the main actors in this debate, the World Bank and the ILO, look at the issue so that we better understand how the interpretations differ.
Issue #1: Registration mechanisms to expand social protection for informal workers: Lessons from Latin America
English, French and Spanish
Registration is an essential tool to expand social protection to workers in informal employment. Furthermore, the existence of robust and encompassing social registries provided some countries with a great advantage when the COVID-19 crisis hit and triggered new demands from social protection systems. In this brief, we look at experiences of registration mechanisms that have worked for informal workers in five countries: Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia and the Dominican Republic.
Social Protection Responses to COVID-19
Issue #8: Measures to tackle gender-based violence amid the global pandemic
English, French and Spanish
By Annie Devenish and Cyrus Afshar
In this brief, we look at three countries – Indonesia, New Zealand and South Africa – that have responded to the shadow pandemic of gender-based violence at home and in the workplace in timely and innovative ways, exploring which elements of their approach could offer best-practice lessons for other countries, and where they have fallen short. We also discuss other smaller measures from other countries to address gender-based violence amid the pandemic.
Issue #7: Expanding and upgrading social protection measures for informal workers
English, French and Spanish
By Annie Devenish and Cyrus Afshar
Initially no one knew the magnitude of the COVID-19 crisis or the extent of the interventions that would be required to respond, from health to production, finance and labour. In this brief, we look at cases where the sustainability of emergency government relief has been enhanced by extending the duration of initial short-term grants, as in the case of Colombia, Singapore and Brazil, or by thinking about making them permanent, as in South Africa, or by changing the nature of the relief offered (from a loan to a grant), as in the case of Sri Lanka, as well as how these movements have provided opportunities to push for further changes in policy.
Issue #6: Addressing the care burden challenges amid the pandemic
English, French and Spanish
By Annie Devenish and Cyrus Afshar
Women across the globe have found themselves at the frontline of COVID-19 responses and impacts. These risks are particularly acute for certain categories of workers in informal employment who lack job, income and social security, including domestic workers, agricultural workers and small traders, among whom women are over-represented, as well as migrant workers and refugees. In this brief, we analyze responses to COVID-19 regarding three aspects of the care burden: child-care, school feeding and income for older workers.
Issue #5: The role of digital technology in COVID social protection responses
English, French and Spanish
By Annie Devenish and Cyrus Afshar
In this brief, we look at how digital technology is being used in the delivery of government grants and cash transfers to workers in the informal economy, and assess the extent to which it has been able to bypass some of the traditional barriers the sector faces in terms of engagement with, and recognition by, the state and the formal sector. We also reflect on how it has created new barriers, and look at how the delivery of social protection through digital technology platforms can be made to work optimally for informal workers, what needs to be in place for this to happen, and how governments can best support this.
Issue #4: Multi-dimensional approach to protect informal workers
English, French and Spanish
By Annie Devenish and Cyrus Afshar
Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, worker-based organizations across the globe are advocating for a multidimensional policy response as part of their platform of demands. This must cover the various dimensions of a person’s needs; such as food security, accommodation, access to utilities, health, education, debt payments and income replacement. This issue focuses on three countries – Argentina, Burkina Faso and Indonesia – that have adopted multiple responses to tackle the impact of the pandemic, assessing the impact and appropriateness of these responses in meeting the needs of informal workers through the provision of cash transfers, food security measures, utilities subsidization and upskilling.
Issue #3 Informal workers and dialogue for social protection
English, French and Spanish
By Annie Devenish and Cyrus Afshar
This issue focuses on dialogue initiatives with informal workers in efforts to protect their livelihoods during the COVID-19 crisis. The cases selected were drawn from the WIEGO’s social protection responses to the crisis-tracking database. In this issue, we learn how informal worker organizations in South Africa and Argentina have sought to foster productive dialogue spaces for engagement with the government around the social protection needs of workers in informal employment.
Issue #2 Alternative ways to reach informal workers
English, French and Spanish
By Annie Devenish and Cyrus Afshar
The second issue focuses on alternative ways to reach informal workers, beyond social assistance (cash) support, drawing from WIEGO’s social protection responses to the COVID-19 crisis-tracking database. We turn first to Brazil, and the example of waste pickers and extended producer responsibility (EPR), looking at how alternative economic relations may be leveraged to finance further social protection for informal workers. Morocco, our second case study, provides an example of efforts to adapt social insurance to reach the informal economy. The COVID-19 crisis presents an opportunity to push for the inclusion of informal workers into social insurance schemes in the long term, and the adaptation of such schemes to meet workers' needs and budgets.
Issue #1 Government grants and cash transfers to informal workers
English, French and Spanish
By Annie Devenish and Cyrus Afshar
The first brief focuses on government grants and cash transfers. We assess the strengths and weaknesses of these social protection measures, looking at levels of coverage, eligibility criteria, appropriateness of targeting, accessibility and delivery methods. In the cases of Brazil and Cape Verde, critical to the ability to move quickly has been the presence of large databases through which many informal workers have already been registered under the social system. By drawing on these social assistance databases, these countries have been able to target vulnerable groups directly, including informal workers, and save valuable time in terms of collection and verification of recipient data.