South Korea's social protection system has undergone a profound transformation from a developmental welfare state, in which social protection policies were subordinated to the economic development goal, to a universal welfare state. This study traces this trajectory by examining six key...

The paper examines the European Union's efforts to promote economic and social integration. Despite significant convergence across EU member states, regional inequalities persist, particularly between urban centers and lagging rural areas, fueling Euroscepticism and political polarization. To...

The Philippines aspires to become a predominantly middle-class society by 2040. Significant strides have been achieved in the reduction of extreme poverty. However, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of recent gains and the vulnerability of many households to economic shocks. This study...

Colombia has a complex legal framework meant to protect the population against basic risks through a combination of contributory and non-contributory social insurance. The population is almost perfectly split between them, with eligibility to participate in the latter determined by poverty....

The main objective of this review is to provide a comprehensive assessment of the trust funded Rapid Social Response - Adaptive and Dynamic Social Protection (RSR-ADSP) Gender Window Round 21 grants. Particularly, the review focuses on evaluating the achievements and results of the grants,...

South Africa has a relatively well-developed social protection system for a middle-income country. Despite its roots in the country's racially discriminatory past, the system has been repurposed post-apartheid to address deep poverty and severe inequality. This paper explores key characteristics...

The current report presents findings of a research project that explored attitudes towards welfare and redistributive policies among Irish residents. Public support for the welfare state is an important foundation for democratic governments to pursue the policies needed to alleviate poverty in...

Chile combines high income levels and strong human development outcomes with persistent inequality. This paper examines the country's social protection matrix, focusing on its institutional configuration, financial structure, and main outcomes. The analysis distinguishes three core components-...

The paper examines the structure of the social protection system in Egypt including its contributory and non-contributory components. It begins by examining the historical evolution of the system, its scale and reach, and its sources of financing. The book then assesses the de jure and de facto...

This article examines labour market transitions towards green employment in Viet Nam and their relationship to social protection. Using a task-based approach and longitudinal labour force survey data, we find that green jobs remain limited, accounting for only 15 per cent of total employment....

Deutschland steht angesichts steigender Sozialausgaben und wachsender struktureller Herausforderungen unter zunehmendem finanzpolitischem Druck: Schon heute bewegen sich die Sozialausgaben auf einem Rekordniveau. Im Zuge der voranschreitenden Bevölkerungsalterung wird sich der...

Deutschland steht angesichts steigender Sozialausgaben und wachsender struktureller Herausforderungen unter zunehmendem finanzpolitischem Druck: Schon heute bewegen sich die Sozialausgaben auf einem Rekordniveau. Im Zuge der voranschreitenden Bevölkerungsalterung wird sich der...

This study evaluates the incidence of food and non-food social programs in function of income inequality in households in Peru during 2022-2024 in a context of persistent distributive gaps, despite social interventions aimed at promoting equity. Data from the National Household Survey (ENAHO)...

Das Working Paper zeigt anhand von zwei Fallbeispielen, wie die sogenannte Neue Rechte linke und sozialpolitische Ansätze rezipiert: Die selektive und rhetorische Übernahme einiger solcher Ideen dient der Provokation, der Reduktion von Angriffsflächen und der scheinbaren Bearbeitung der...

Zu den wichtigsten Sicherheitsversprechen der Sozialpolitik gehört eine auskömmliche Rente. Doch schon heute erleben viele Menschen beim Übergang in die Rente erhebliche Einschränkungen ihres Lebensstandards, und die zukünftige Finanzierung des Sicherheitsversprechens wird kontrovers...

Parallel zum Ausbau des Sozialstaates in den zurückliegenden Jahrzehnten wuchsen die finanziellen Belastungen der Bürgerinnen und Bürger durch Steuern und Sozialversicherungsbeiträge. Da ein beträchtlicher Teil der staatlichen Sozialleistungen altersabhängig ist, wird die...

Investitionen in Bildung sind sowohl auf individueller als auch auf gesamtwirtschaftlicher Ebene ein höchst lohnendes Unterfangen. Bildung wirkt sich nicht nur in hohem Maße positiv auf die individuellen Arbeitsmarktchancen und das durchschnittliche Lebenseinkommen aus, sondern ist auch einer...

The reform of the European fiscal rules came into force on 30 April 2024. The new rules, like the former ones, impose a depressive bias on domestic fiscal policies, leaving Member States' no fiscal room for manoeuvre. At the same time, the European Pillar of Social Rights sets ambitious targets...

There are at least three existential challenges to contemporary societies, as we know them, namely, first, the complete rupture of the social pact, which characterized Glorious Decades after WWII in most of Western societies; and second, the deepening of the patterns of informatization and...

This paper examines the political consequences of introducing the welfare state targeted at blue-collar workers in 19th-century Germany. I conceptualize Bismarck's reform as an accommodation strategy to combat the socialist party as an emerging challenger party. The result of a...

We develop a framework to assess when social programmes should prioritize expanding coverage versus improving targeting accuracy. Rather than treating universalism and targeting as a binary choice, we derive a practical rule-of-thumb based on observed eligibility rates and programme quotas to...

This appendix describes the methodology established by the SPC Indicators' sub-group (ISG) to identify each Member States' KSCs and GSOs, which had been adapted in 2021 to follow a more policy-based approach. The methodology has been further discussed and confirmed by the ISG in its meeting of...

The attached Country Profiles sheets provide for all Member States a snapshot of progress towards the national 2030 poverty and social exclusion target, trends in the main social indicators for each country, and the main, priority social challenges and good social outcomes identified for each...

L’économie tunisienne a connu une reprise modérée en 2025, avec une croissance atteignant 2,4 % au cours des neuf premiers mois, tirée par un rebond de l’agriculture, de la construction et du tourisme, malgré la contraction des hydrocarbures et des services financiers. L’inflation a...

For the 2025 Second World Summit for Social Development (WSSD2), the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), as the only institution within the UN system with a dedicated mandate to research the social dimensions for development, launched a global consultation to...

This study aims to explore whether there is evidence supporting that the State Welfare Card causes the reduction of the poverty rate in Thailand. With data limitations, we rely on the 2019 household socio-economic survey to compare the consumption expenditure of those who received the card...

Our study analyzes the essential role of social innovation in reducing social exclusion and unemployment while improving citizens' well-being through targeted public policies that enhance GDP allocations to social protection. Using Eurostat data and European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) from 2019...

Despite crowdfunding platforms' growing involvement in financing welfare, related ethical issues have received little scholarly attention. To address this gap, we focus on GoFundMe, the leading welfare crowdfunding platform in the US, to examine whether it facilitates the establishment of a just...

This Guidebook provides practical operational guidance for designing, delivering, and implementing World Bank-supported social safety nets in contexts affected by fragility, conflict and violence (FCV). It identifies the unique challenges faced in these environments and presents a set of...

Shocks and crises pose significant threats to human development, disproportionately affecting poor and vulnerable households. These shocks, whether natural disasters, economic crises, or political upheavals, often force households to resort to negative coping strategies, such as pulling children...