oecd (23.01.2024) Health systems are under intense pressure to adapt to evolving needs and megatrends driven by population ageing, digitalisation, and climate change. They also need to be better prepared to withstand sudden, large-scale shocks such as pandemics, financial crises, natural disasters, or cyberattacks. This shifting policy context and emerging challenges called for a revision in how OECD countries assess health system performance, to help ensure that health systems meet people’s health needs and preferences while providing quality healthcare for all. This document presents the OECD’s renewed health system performance assessment framework. It incorporates new performance dimensions, notably people-centredness, resilience, and environmental sustainability, and places increased emphasis on addressing inequalities, including those related to gender. This framework expands on existing OECD efforts in these domains and integrates the most recent advancements in health system performance assessment. By offering common definitions and fostering a shared understanding among policy makers, stakeholders and organisations, the updated framework will enhance international collaboration. Furthermore, it lays the foundation for developing future indicators, facilitating data collection, policy analysis, and the integration of knowledge.

ilo.org (28.11.2023) Challenges of extending social protection to migrant workers are particularly evident in the countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC), where migrants comprise between 76 per cent (Saudi Arabia) and 95 per cent (Qatar) of the workforce. Such a large share implies a need to better understand the current state of social protection coverage for migrant workers, and the factors that determine the level of coverage afforded to them. This report explores the de jure (according to the law) and the de facto (actual) access of migrant workers to nine areas of social protection across the GCC countries, and the factors that have facilitated or hindered the extension of such coverage. The report is the first of its kind to assess this topic in a structured and systematic manner, and includes a review of the relevant literature in both English and Arabic, a review of applicable legislation and regulations by country, and an analysis of 51 key informant interviews.

ilo.org (06.10.2023) This study aims to understand the experiences of setting up global funds across the health, climate and agriculture sectors and identify lessons to be learned from them that can guide further thinking about the implementation of a prospective global fund for social protection.

worldbank.org (02.01.2024) The Sahel region of Africa faces multiple crises, which further compound structural economic and human development challenges. The Sahel is one of the world’s poorest regions and displays some of the lowest levels of human capital globally. Violence and insecurity in the Sahel have significantly increased in the past decade, with several countries experiencing active armed conflict and unrest. The impacts of climate change compound existing vulnerabilities and risks. Finally, the external shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have impacted the Sahel, eroding purchasing power and aggravating poverty. Adaptive Social Protection (ASP) plays a critical role in preventing or mitigating the negative impacts of shocks and boosting resilience for long-term development. ASP has emerged as a flexible and dynamic approach to social protection during the past decade. It combines and exploits synergies between social protection, disaster risk management (DRM), and climate change adaptation. Adaptive Social Protection (ASP) plays a critical role in preventing or mitigating the negative impacts of shocks and boosting resilience for long-term development. The Sahel’s vulnerability and exposure to shocks and crises is set to increase with accelerating climate change, calling for a shift from often externally funded, ad hoc responses toward building sustainable, government-led system. Over the past decade, ASP has been on a remarkable trajectory in the Sahel, and this is an appropriate time to take stock of the situation. This report provides an overview of the state of ASP across six Sahelian countries - Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal - as well as a set of recommendations for actions to strengthen the adaptiveness and responsiveness of existing systems to shocks.

World Economic Forum (17.01.2024) A new analysis from the World Economic Forum and the McKinsey Health Institute shows how improving women's health can significantly boost GDP. Enhancing women’s health benefits individual women and helps families, communities, organizations and the global economy. In recognition of the importance of addressing the gender health gap, the World Economic Forum is launching the Global Alliance for Women's Health.

imf.org (14.01.2024) AI will affect almost 40 percent of jobs around the world, replacing some and complementing others. We need a careful balance of policies to tap its potential.

In a new analysis, IMF staff examine the potential impact of AI on the global labor market. Many studies have predicted the likelihood that jobs will be replaced by AI. Yet we know that in many cases AI is likely to complement human work. The IMF analysis captures both these forces.

The findings are striking: almost 40 percent of global employment is exposed to AI. Historically, automation and information technology have tended to affect routine tasks, but one of the things that sets AI apart is its ability to impact high-skilled jobs. As a result, advanced economies face greater risks from AI—but also more opportunities to leverage its benefits—compared with emerging market and developing economies.

imf.org(14.01.2024)  Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to reshape the global economy, especially in the realm of labor markets. Advanced economies will experience the benefits and pitfalls of AI sooner than emerging market and developing economies, largely due to their employment structure focused on cognitive-intensive roles. There are some consistent patterns concerning AI exposure, with women and college-educated individuals more exposed but also better poised to reap AI benefits, and older workers potentially less able to adapt to the new technology. Labor income inequality may increase if the complementarity between AI and high-income workers is strong, while capital returns will increase wealth inequality. However, if productivity gains are sufficiently large, income levels could surge for most workers. In this evolving landscape, advanced economies and more developed emerging markets need to focus on upgrading regulatory frameworks and supporting labor reallocation, while safeguarding those adversely affected. Emerging market and developing economies should prioritize developing digital infrastructure and digital skills

OECD (11.01.2024) Finding sufficient funds to pay for more resilient health systems is challenging in the current economic context. COVID-19 has shown the need for additional targeted spending on public health interventions, the digital transformation of health systems, and bolstering the health workforce. Rising incomes, technological innovation and changing demographics put further upward pressure on health spending. This could result in health spending reaching 11.8% of GDP across OECD counties by 2040. This publication explores the policy options to finance more resilient health systems whilst maintaining fiscal sustainability. It finds that the scale of the additional health financing needs requires ambitious and transformative policy changes. Robust actions to encourage healthier populations and policies to reduce ineffective spending can put future health expenditure on a far gentler upward trajectory. These would enable spending to reach a more sustainable 10.6% of GDP in 2040. Better budgetary governance is critical. It improves how public funds for health are determined, executed and evaluated. Therefore, a focus of this report is on how good budgeting practices can increase the efficiency of current public spending, and also enable more ambitious policy changes in the medium to longer-term. Findings of this report are targeted at health and finance policy makers, with improved dialogue between health and finance ministries especially important when governments are operating in a constrained fiscal setting.

Euractiv (12.01.2024) Last month, a coalition of EU countries blocked the provisional agreement on the Platform Workers Directive. But while the Belgian EU Council presidency wants to use the political deal as the starting point for future discussion, Paris wants a more comprehensive file reshaping.

ESCAP (14.12.2023) The report compiles existing policy tools and and good practices adopted by Governments in Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean on formalizing informal employment in the formal sector. To provide a framework for understanding the full range of good practices on formalizing the employment of informal workers in the formal sector, the report sets out the integrated strategic policy approach outlined by ILO Recommendation No. 204 on facilitating the transition to formality. The report was prepared in the context of the project, Policymaking for More Inclusive and Sustainable Economies in Asia and the Pacific and in Latin America, implemented by ESCAP, in partnership with the Government of Colombia through the Agencia Presidencial de Cooperación Internacional de Colombia (APC Colombia).

ESCAP (14.12.2023) The report compiles existing policy tools and and good practices adopted by Governments in Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean on formalizing informal employment in the formal sector. To provide a framework for understanding the full range of good practices on formalizing the employment of informal workers in the formal sector, the report sets out the integrated strategic policy approach outlined by ILO Recommendation No. 204 on facilitating the transition to formality. The report was prepared in the context of the project, Policymaking for More Inclusive and Sustainable Economies in Asia and the Pacific and in Latin America, implemented by ESCAP, in partnership with the Government of Colombia through the Agencia Presidencial de Cooperación Internacional de Colombia (APC Colombia).

Reuters (08.01.2024) The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden will release a final rule as soon as this week that will make it more difficult for companies to treat workers as independent contractors rather than employees that typically cost a company more, an administration official said. The U.S. Department of Labor rule, which was first proposed in 2022 and is likely to face legal challenges, will require that workers be considered employees entitled to more benefits and legal protections than contractors when they are "economically dependent" on a company.

STANOVNIŠTVO, 2023, 61(2) In most European Union (EU) Member States, self-employed individuals receive, on average, lower retirement pensions than employees. Furthermore, the number of self-employed pensioners is lower, and there is a significant proportion of self-employed workers in the EU who are not entitled to a retirement pension. The situation is even more delicate for the new self-employed, as their mode of labour market participation, career trajectory, and the income level they reach can potentially compromise their future pension prospects. This paper analyses the position of self-employed workers within national social security systems, with a particular focus on their methods of contribution and the consequential impact on their ability to access adequate retirement pensions as a form of replacement income, thus avoiding the risk of poverty and ensuring a decent standard of living in old age. In this area, the Member States and the EU interact within the framework of their respective competences, with the manifest aim of improving the social protection of self-employed workers in their senior years.

South China Morning Post (03.01.2024) Questions for people aged 60 and above were added to a survey on population changes and the labour force, including their ability to use a smartphone. A demographer urged China, one of the world’s fastest ageing countries, to ‘build a digitally inclusive society’, while firms were asked to produce age-friendly products

worldbank.org (14.12.2023) The rise of “gig” or digital platform work globally has led to both enthusiasm for its potential to create lucrative employment for large numbers of people, as well as concern about its implications for worker protection that is often provided in more standard employment. While gig work platforms may not be akin to employers in standard work relationships, arrangements that do not obligate them to provide worker protection and social insurance contributions may leave several platform workers unprotected against a range of risks. Is the observed lack of protection among digital platform workers explained by an unwillingness on part of the workers themselves to make necessary contributions for social insurance coverage? This paper analyzes this question in the context of Malaysia, a rapidly growing upper-middle-income East Asian economy that has witnessed a rise in gig work in recent years. The paper deploys a novel vignette-based experiment to ascertain gig workers’ willingness to pay for social insurance coverage. The analysis finds overall a large unmet need for social insurance among gig workers, as well as a high level of willingness to pay for (especially) unemployment insurance, retirement savings, and accidental and injury insurance. This implies that the policy challenge is to channel such willingness into regular contributions for social insurance coverage through relevant and flexible options for contributions.

ILO Working paper 101 (20.12.2023) This paper seeks to explore the key emerging regulatory dimensions of platform work. It contextualizes the challenges associated with platform work as an expression of the consolidated features that, in the past decades, have been transforming the labour market: non-standardization and the deregulation of employment relationships.

thenationalnews.com (14.12.2023) Millions of people globally will have no choice but to work into their seventies to ease increasing pressure on pension systems as life expectancy rates continue to rise, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has said. OECD countries are moving to increase statutory retirement ages, curb early retirement and offer employees incentives to work longer to boost the sustainability of their pension systems, the Paris-based organisation said in its Pensions at a Glance 2023 report. “Governments have several tools available to further promote the employment and employability of all workers, at first by boosting support for reskilling and upskilling,” OECD secretary-general Mathias Cormann said on Wednesday. “[But] older workers still struggle to keep their skills up to date, have limited access to good-quality jobs and risk having an inadequate old-age pension because of short and unstable working careers.”

ILO News (15.12.2023) The Parliament of Lebanon has passed a law that establishes a comprehensive pension system for private sector workers and fundamentally reshapes the governance of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). Previous attempts spanning three decades to replace Lebanon’s end-of-service indemnity system with a modern pension scheme had been met with failure. Until this recent milestone, Lebanon stood as one of only two countries in the Arab region without a scheme that protects insured workers with long-term periodical benefits for retirement, death and disability.

 EURACTIV.com (13.12.2023) The Platform Workers Directive is a bill to regulate the gig economy and ensure that workers of digital platforms like Deliveroo and Uber have the correct contractual status based on their treatment and working conditions. According to the European Commission, almost one in five platform workers ought to be reclassified from self-employed to full-time employees. The Directive intends to establish a harmonised mechanism to assess and operate contractual changes across the bloc. The file also creates new algorithmic management provisions to protect gig workers’ data and regulate the use of algorithms in critical work-related decisions, including remuneration and dismissal.

consilium.europa.eu (13.12.2023)The Council and the European Parliament have reached a provisional agreement on a proposed directive to improve working conditions for platform workers. In the event that the deal struck today is confirmed by both institutions before going through the formal adoption procedure, it will help millions of them gain access to employment rights. The directive introduces two key improvements: it helps determine the correct employment status of people working for digital platforms and establishes the first EU rules on the use of algorithm systems in the workplace.