There is no denying the fact that, for a developing country like Bangladesh, the economic consequences of lockdown for containing COVID-19 pandemic can be far reaching affecting livelihoods of ...millions of households. Given that the share of food consumption expenditure to total expenditure is higher in the lower income groups of Bangladesh, this shock is expected to directly affect affordability of consumption of basic food items of these households. Using nationally representative household survey data of Bangladesh, and while following the Feasible Generalized Least Square method, this paper attempts to examine food poverty, food consumption inequality along with vulnerability to food poverty of households and explores the importance of different socio-demographic and environmental factors in this connection. Our estimation reflects that, greater percentage of households with young children or with elderly people are found to suffer high food vulnerability. In addition, households in environmentally endangered regions e.g. drought prone areas or river erosion affected places are more food vulnerable than those in other parts of the country. Certain occupation groups e.g. day labourer and self-employed are found to be highly vulnerable to food poverty while according to our decomposition analysis of food consumption inequality, area of residence (urban vs. rural) is expected to cause sizable inequality in food consumption. This study can therefore, help in identifying food vulnerable households for government’s social protection programs and COVID-19 incentive packages, and thereby can contribute towards designing effective poverty reduction strategies.
•Land requisition decisions made by administrative bureaucracies are independent of the observed household and individual characteristics.•Land loss due to government requisition increases individual ...migration propensity by 4.5 to 6.8 percentage points.•Land requisition has no impact on local off-farm engagement.
Land requisition has been an important way for local Chinese governments to generate revenue and promote urbanization, but little is known how the land-losing farmers cope. This study investigates the impact of land requisition on farmers’ off-farm labor participation. We provide evidence that rural-urban migration is one way that land-losing farmers now adapt to land requisition. Using data from the China Household Finance Survey, we first show that village characteristics, not household characteristics, are the key determining factors for how likely a household is to lose land. With a traditional difference-in-differences (DD) model and a DD model with individual fixed effects, we show that land loss due to government requisition has a significant migration effect in the total sample: it increases individual migration rates by 4.5–6.8 percentage points. Land requisition has no impact on local off-farm engagement. These findings are robust to using different samples, to correction for sample attrition, and to a falsification test. We also find that the migration effect is experienced in particular by younger and older farmers, by women, and by the better educated. From a policy perspective, the labor allocation response to land requisition identified in this paper suggests that providing job training and social protection to land-losing farmers, and facilitating their migration to cities, could help them to cope with the experience of land loss.
The article describes the content and relationship between the concepts of «social protection», «social insurance» and «sustainable development». It is determined that improving the social well-being ...of citizens, ensuring social equality and increasing social security are the main goals of implementing the concept of sustainable development in the social sphere. It is established that the basic component of the social policy of state is the social protection of the population, which acts as a human right on the one hand, and as a socio-economic necessity on the other. The role of social insurance as an organizational and legal form of social security of the population, which creates conditions for the reproduction of the workforce and the protection of citizens in the event of certain insurance cases, is substantiated. A comparative analysis of the security function of social insurance and the function of social development was carried out in terms of its types: social insurance for temporary disability; social insurance in connection with accidents at work and occupational diseases; social insurance in case of unemployment; pension insurance. All types of social insurance have an impact on the quality of life of citizens and public welfare. The general directions and principles of modernization of the social insurance system in Ukraine, taking into account the priorities of sustainable development, are determined. The main problems on the way to improving the effectiveness of the social insurance system of the population, such as the crisis of the pension system and the underdevelopment of medical insurance, are considered. It is substantiated that the solution of the mentioned problems lies in the plane of the economic and social policy of Ukraine and requires a comprehensive approach.
For Malaysia, a nation highly dependent on migrant labour, the large non-citizen workforce presents a unique health system challenge. Although documented migrant workers are covered by mandatory ...healthcare insurance (SPIKPA), financial constraints remain a major barrier for non-citizen healthcare access. Malaysia recently extended protection for migrant workers under the national social security scheme (SOCSO), previously exclusive to citizens. This study aims to evaluate healthcare financing and social security policies for migrant workers to identify policy gaps and opportunities for intervention.
A total of 37 in-depth interviews were conducted of 44 stakeholders from July 2018 to July 2019. A mixed-methods analysis combining major themes from qualitative interviews with policy document reviews was conducted. Descriptive analysis of publicly available secondary data, namely revenues collected at government healthcare facilities, was conducted to contextualise the policy review and qualitative findings.
We found that migrant workers and employers were unaware of SPIKPA enrolment and entitlements. Higher fees for non-citizens result in delayed care-seeking. While the Malaysian government nearly doubled non-citizen healthcare fees revenues from RM 104 to 182 million (USD 26 to 45 million) between 2014 to 2018, outstanding revenues tripled from RM 16 to 50 million (USD 4 to 12 million) in the same period. SPIKPA coverage is likely inadequate in providing financial risk protection to migrant workers, especially with increased non-citizens fees at public hospitals. Undocumented workers and other migrant populations excluded from SPIKPA contribution to unpaid fees revenues are unknown. Problems described with the previous Foreign Workers Compensation Scheme (FWCS), could be partially addressed by SOCSO, in theory. Nevertheless, questions remain on the feasibility of implementing elements of SOCSO, such as recurring payments to workers and next-of-kin overseas.
Malaysia is moving towards migrant inclusion with the provision of SOCSO for documented migrant workers, but more needs to be done. Here we suggest the expansion of the SPIKPA insurance scheme to include all migrant populations, while broadening its scope towards more comprehensive coverage, including essential primary care.
Inequalities in health are pervasive and durable, but they are not uniform. To date, however, the drivers of these between-country patters in health inequalities remain largely unknown. In this ...analysis, we draw on data from 17 European countries to explore whether inequalities in political participation, that is, inequalities in voting by educational attainment, are correlated with health inequalities. Over and above a range of relevant confounders, such as GDP, income inequality, health spending, social protection spending, poverty rates, and smoking, greater inequalities in political participation remain correlated with higher health inequalities. If ‘politicians and officials are under no compulsion to pay much heed to classes and groups of citizens that do not vote’ then political inequalities could indirectly affect health through its impact on policy choices that determine who has access to the resources necessary for a healthy life. Inequalities in political participation, then, may well be one of the ‘causes of the causes’ of ill-health.
•Inequalities in voting are correlated with inequalities in mortality.•This association is not explained by macroeconomic confounders.•Political inequalities may affect the social determinants of health.
Purpose
This research was conducted as part of a PhD study. The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors taken into consideration when multi-agency practitioners were considering financial ...harm in the context of adult protection and how this influenced their decision-making processes.
Design/methodology/approach
An adapted q sort methodology initially established the areas of financial harm considered to have additional factors, which led to complexity in adult protection decision making. These factors were further explored in individual interviews or focus groups.
Findings
The data identified that the decision-making process varied between thorough analysis, rationality and heuristics with evidence of cue recognition, factor weighting and causal thinking. This highlighted the relevance of Kahneman’s (2011) dual processing model in social work practice. Errors that occurred through an over reliance on System 1 thinking can be identified and rectified through the use of System 2 thinking and strengthen social work decision-making.
Originality/value
This paper considers the practice of multi-agency adult protection work in relation to financial harm and identifies the influences on decisions.
Disability policy is often characterized as comprising three different components: citizenship rights, labor market integration and social protection. In this study, we present a fourth component - ...disability-related innovation. Specifically we analyze two critical interrelated questions: what governments do to guide innovation in this area; and do patterns of greater government disability policy involvement in social-democratic welfare states apply in the case of innovation? Utilizing a qualitative comparison of Germany, Israel, Sweden and the United States, we find that while policy across all countries is at first glance decisively similar, the important differences that exist cannot be satisfactorily explained within the classical welfare state typology framework. Countries that are leaders in terms of social support for disabled people - Germany and Sweden - are not necessarily leaders in disability-related innovation. This is particularly noticeable in the case of programs for support of Assistive Technology development.
This study characterizes and compares innovation policy as it applies to disabled people in Germany, Israel, Sweden and the United States.
Innovation policy's two main components are regulation that requires Universal Design, which requires that new technologies are designed to be usable by disabled people as well as others, and financial and institutional support for the development of Assistive Technologies.
Cross-country ideological and political differences fail to explain differences in disability-related innovation because innovation policymaking tends to be apolitical.
Only Israel and the United States created government programs dedicated to the support of Assistive Technology development.
To better serve disabled people, policymakers should formalize and fully support the development of Assistive Technology, as well as expand Universal Design regulation and enforcement.
Across diverse contexts, emerging evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic is increasing levels of anxiety and stress. In calling for greater attention to people’s psychosocial and emotional ...well-being, global actors have paid insufficient attention to the realities of the pandemic in low- and middle-income countries, where millions of people are already exposed to intersecting vulnerabilities. Chronic poverty, protracted violence, conflict and displacement, coupled with weak health, education and protection systems, provide the backdrop of many adolescents’ lives. Drawing on qualitative in-country telephone interviews with over 500 adolescents in Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire and Lebanon, this article unpacks the age and gendered dimensions of COVID-19 and its response. We conclude by discussing the implications for COVID-19 recovery efforts, arguing that embedding adolescent-centred, inclusive approaches in education, community-based health and social protection responses, has the potential to mitigate the psycho-emotional toll of the pandemic on young people and promote resilience.
Socioeconomic conditions are strongly associated with breast and cervical cancer incidence and mortality patterns; therefore, social protection programmes (SPPs) might impact these cancers. This ...study aimed to evaluate the effect of SPPs on breast and cervical cancer outcomes and their risk/protective factors.
Five databases were searched for articles that assessed participation in PPS and the incidence, survival, mortality (primary outcomes), screening, staging at diagnosis and risk/protective factors (secondary outcomes) for these cancers. Only peer-reviewed quantitative studies of women receiving SPPs compared to eligible women not receiving benefits were included. Independent reviewers selected articles, assessed eligibility, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias. A harvest plot represents the included studies and shows the direction of effect, sample size and risk of bias.
Of 17,080 documents retrieved, 43 studies were included in the review. No studies evaluated the primary outcomes. They all examined the relationship between SPPs and screening, as well as risk and protective factors. The harvest plot showed that in lower risk of bias studies, participants of SPPs had lower weight and fertility, were older at sexual debut, and breastfed their infants for longer.
No studies have yet assessed the effect of SPPs on breast and cervical cancer incidence, survival, or mortality; nevertheless, the existing evidence suggests positive impacts on risk and protective factors.
Poverty and climate change: introduction Hallegatte, Stephane; Fay, Marianne; Barbier, Edward B.
Environment and development economics,
06/2018, Letnik:
23, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Because their assets and income represent such a small share of national wealth, the impacts of climate change on poor people, even if dramatic, will be largely invisible in aggregate economic ...statistics such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Assessing and managing future impacts of climate change on poverty requires different metrics, and specific studies focusing on the vulnerability of poor people. This special issue provides a set of such studies, looking at the exposure and vulnerability of people living in poverty to shocks and stressors that are expected to increase in frequency or intensity due to climate change, such as floods, droughts, heat waves, and impacts on agricultural production and ecosystem services. This introduction summarizes their approach and findings, which support the idea that the link between poverty and climate vulnerability goes both ways: poverty is one major driver of people's vulnerability to climate-related shocks and stressors, and this vulnerability is keeping people in poverty. The paper concludes by identifying priorities for future research.
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