Over the past decade the world has seen a sea change in the role of evidence informing social policy design and implementation. In the social protection sector in particular, rigorous quantitative impact assessments have changed how policy analysts and implementers measure success. Mainstream...

Social transfers, a non-contributory form of social protection, present a great potential to tackle poverty and inequality, and support inclusive socioeconomic development. Yet, they also represent a long-term financial commitment, and in environments where they are most needed, national...

Fossil fuel subsidies reform has been intensively debated and promoted as a concrete step towards sustainable development, with anticipated benefits of reduced carbon emissions, saved public spending, and improved social distribution. But does this "triple-win" policy deliver what it promises?...

Healthcare in Russia has gone through many transformative stages, from a Soviet-era model of public provision to an emphasis on privatization under economic liberalization during the 1990s. Both have legacies that survive to the present, and now a mix of both public and private healthcare...

With a new development framework under way and an increasingly urgent need to address political, socioeconomic and environmental issues on a global scale, this is a critical moment for the international development agenda. Almost 15 years after the Millennium Declaration, a new phase for...

The paper reviews paradigms of welfare, principally the industrialization thesis, the three worlds of welfare and social investment states and shows how these link to wider public policies and underlying assumptions. It locates explanations in historical and contemporary contexts. The literature...

This paper examines the adequacy, quality and relevance of existing evidence on migrant health in China as a guide to future research and policy. It uses a systematic review to identify publications on migrant health issues in China between 1985 and 2010 from selected databases. It also assesses...

This paper examines the impact of universal health security in Thailand and probes the impacts of the 30 Baht health policy objectives, poverty and inequality. The paper begins with an understanding of health policy as couched in the broader perspective of social protection. An understanding of...

This paper is the first of a series of papers exploring the political and institutional contexts of resource mobilization and social spending for social development in Uganda. We provide the historical context of, and trends in, resource mobilization (domestic and external revenue) and social...

To address problems of inadequate public health services, escalating private healthcare costs and widening health inequalities, the South African government has launched a radical new proposal to introduce a universal health system for all South Africans; National Health Insurance (NHI). While...