Inclusive social protection for persons with disabilities (pwds): Bangladesh perspective

Purpose Bangladesh faces escalating health challenges among its aging population, driven by inadequate social integration and compounded by health, accessibility and socio-economic vulnerabilities. This paper aims to synthesize existing literature to examine the health impacts of low social integration, emphasizing socio-cultural determinants, health-care access barriers, economic insecurities and weaknesses in social support systems. Design/methodology/approach In contrast to contemporary geographical similarities, Bangladesh is positioned as a representative case of aging in low-resource settings, highlighting the critical need for targeted policy actions to alleviate the disproportionate health burdens experienced by older persons. Findings Studies reported that low social integration – characterized by weakened family ties, limited community participation and insufficient institutional support – emerges as a key factor contributing to chronic diseases, depression and functional decline. Restrictive cultural norms and fragile support networks exacerbate economic vulnerabilities, further hindering access to health care and social protection. Gender disparities intensify these challenges, particularly for widowed and economically dependent women. Additionally, infrastructural deficiencies, digital marginalization and inadequate mental health services, challenges shared by other developing countries, and across neighboring region, underscore systemic limitations in old-age care. Originality/value Addressing these multidimensional issues requires a comprehensive, multi-sectoral approach that extends beyond traditional family-based care. The review advocates for community-based interventions, intergenerational engagement programs and policy reforms to strengthen social networks, promote active aging and integrate age-friendly healthcare into national systems. Such strategies are vital not only to enhance health outcomes and uphold dignity in older life but also to advance sustainable development goals and build resilient, inclusive health systems amid rapid demographic and societal change.

��� Social protection has become part and parcel of the development response in Southeast Asia and across the globe and is likely to gain even greater prominence in light of the post2015 development agenda. Its set of objectives has steadily widened with social protection now expected to fulfil a plethora of functions ranging from household-level consumption smoothing to macro-level economic stabilization. Notwithstanding the many achievements of social protection to date, this paper aims to inject a healthy dose of realism into current debates about its appropriate roles. This paper particularly reflects on the productivityenhancing and growth-inducing focus within social protection — a particularly strong feature in Southeast Asia — and how this undermines principles of inclusivity, human rights and social justice. As an antidote to this Machiavellian type of social protection, this paper argues for “Inclusive Social Protection”, focusing on equitable coverage, realistic expectations and better integration of policies and programmes.

Constitutional right to social security

This paper examines the promise of inclusive social protection central to India’s Aadhaar scheme, a national initiative using biometric information to allocate unique identification numbers to Indian residents. Aadhaar has reached over one billion people and promises to expand access to basic identification, improve enrolment in social protection and financial inclusion schemes, curb leakages, reduce corruption and address other gaps in India’s social protection architecture. However, the establishment of a national identification scheme does not of itself guarantee social protection. This paper assesses Aadhaar’s aims to achieve inclusive social protection through personal, civic, functional and entrepreneurial inclusion, and explores whether Aadhaar indeed fulfils these goals. Although it is too early conclusively to evaluate Aadhaar as a transformative contributor to social protection in India, there is much to be learned for transnational social protection from the scheme’s efforts to create a more inclusive system and to address the critical questions of privacy and state surveillance at stake.

This chapter considers the implications of COVID-19 relief measures for the building and extension of comprehensive and universal social protection systems. It highlights three key areas emerging from the crisis, which are likely to impact the shape of social protection systems moving forwards. These include the contested meaning of universality, the digitization of social protection systems, and the possibilities for informal worker’s participation in building a more inclusive social protection. In doing so, the chapter argues that the terrain of the social protection debate is shifting—it is increasingly uncontroversial that universal social protection is needed and that the state must play a role. However, the more nuanced debates that are emerging across the three areas identified above will shape the terrain of whether the form of universal social protection that remains after COVID-19 is a positive and supportive form of inclusion.

The provision of social protection by the state in the form of social assistance, insurance and services, is widely considered to be a key component of a social justice oriented social contract. Informal workers remain largely excluded from social protection benefits and schemes as highlighted by their limited access to relief, income security and social services during the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter explores how informal workers can be active participants in the shaping of social protection, and by extension a social contract. It draws on the power resources approach to review examples of collective action led by informal workers and their organisations to engage the state in social dialogue for greater access to social protection and quality social services. Learning from these examples can provide strategies for informal workers organisations to engage in the process of defining a new social contract given the heightened attention on extending social protection due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) outlines the rights for every child, including the right to benefit from social security and the right to a standard of living adequate for their physical, mental, spiritual, moral, and social development. The UNCRC is the most widely ratified human rights treaty to date. However, millions of children continue to be denied their rights and face poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion, merely because they are displaced – internally or across borders. Children bear the heaviest burden of displacement, despite not being responsible for its triggers. This reality underlines that a significant population is being “left behind”, threatening progress to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals as part of international efforts to end poverty and ensure all people enjoy peace and prosperity. This article advocates for inclusive social protection systems for displaced children by highlighting the difficulties they encounter, emphasizing the potential benefits of social protection, and assessing the current status of inclusive social protection for this vulnerable group. Drawing on emerging lessons from UNICEF’s experience across several refugee and internal displacement contexts, such as Brazil, Ethiopia, Slovakia, and Türkiye, the article also offers recommendations to strengthen inclusive social protection systems specifically tailored to meet the humanitarian and development needs of displaced children.

In the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) in 1997, some observers pronounced the demise of the developmental state . This view has recently been challenged by scholars who argue that rather than the demise of the developmental state, the role of the state has been reconfigured in the post-AFC period to meet new economic challenges and social demands. The provision of more inclusive social protection by the state is now a significant consideration. This paper will examine the role of the state in social protection in India with reference to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) which was introduced through an Act of Parliament in 2005. There are two distinguishing features of MGNREGS: it guarantees employment as a legal right, and through the provision for mandatory social audits by the beneficiaries of the scheme, it promises accountability from below. However, it is arguable whether the state has demonstrated a capacity to deliver effectively on its rights-based programme. This chapter raises the central question: What does the implementation of MGNREGS reveal about the capacity of the state to provide social protection and accountability in contemporary India? The discussion cautions against viewing the state as a homogenous entity.

The purpose of the article is to study the nature of various economic methods of public administration of social protection of persons with persistent health disorders. For this purpose, by means of the dialectical method, methods of analysis, documentary analysis, systematisation, explanation, comparison, induction and specification, legislative and theoretical-practical aspects of the relevant economic methods of public administration of the researched area were studied. As a result, the conceptual apparatus of the problem declared in the article was analysed, namely the existing definitions of the categories "disabled person", "social protection of persons with persistent health disorders", "public administration method" and "economic management methods". The authors' understanding of the concepts of "public administration of social protection of persons with persistent health disorders" and "economic methods of public administration of social protection of persons with persistent health disorders" is presented. Categories of persons who, in accordance with the legislation of Ukraine, are equated in social protection matters with persons with persistent health disorders, in particular: disabled persons; combatants; victims; the elderly; children with musculoskeletal disorders. Types of economic methods identified in the scientific literature (long-, medium- and short-term planning, licensing, quotas, commercial calculation, taxation, credit, budget system, economic regulators, incentives, setting minimum levels of social standards and benefits, pricing, responsibility). Given the specifics of the listed economic methods, it is proposed to classify them into five types according to the purpose of application. The study identified various economic methods of public administration in the researched area. These methods involve planning expenditures in state and local budgets focused on social protection for disabled individuals and financing for the same. The development, approval and implementation of social protection programs for disabled individuals and the elderly also fall under the purview of these methods. Additionally, financial aid is provided to support public movements in the field of social and legal protection for disabled individuals. Establishing minimum social standards, setting maximum prices for goods, works, and services, determining employment standards for disabled individuals, implementing measures to promote their employment, enforcing responsibility for non-compliance with legislation related to social protection of disabled persons, licensing specific types of economic activity, and implementing taxation regulations. Each of the economic methods is analysed in a distinct section of the article, with reference to the legislative norms that regulate their implementation, coupled with empirical evidence. The article's value lies in its intricate portrayal of the authors' perspective on the economic techniques employed, public administration methods for ensuring social protection of individuals with chronic health disorders, and their efficacy in safeguarding the rights of the socially vulnerable population.

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) faces escalating hydro-meteorological hazards that disrupt rural food systems, intensify hunger, and undermine livelihoods. This systematic review synthesizes evidence from 2010 to August 2025 on the effectiveness of Early-Warning Systems (EWS) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) interventions in protecting rural food security. A PRISMA-style screening identified 320 records, with 29 duplicates removed, and 212 full-text articles assessed for eligibility, with data extracted independently by two reviewers. Sources include peer-reviewed studies, program evaluations, regional assessments, and institutional reports from FEWS-NET, ICPAC, IPCC, FAO, WFP, WHO, and CREWS. The review addresses three questions: (i) How effective are EWS in hazard detection, dissemination, and anticipatory action?; (ii) What are the impacts of DRR measures including social protection, risk financing, nature-based solutions, water management, and community-based approaches on food security?; and (iii) Which governance, institutional, and socio-economic factors facilitate or constrain adoption? Findings indicate EWS and DRR reduce vulnerability to droughts and floods when systems are reliable, people-centered, and linked to pre-arranged finance and delivery mechanisms. Integrated approaches combining early warnings with anticipatory cash, climate-smart land and water management, and inclusive social protection are most effective. Constraints include fragmented governance, underfunded hydromet-infrastructure, weak last-mile communication, insurance basis risk, and inequities excluding pastoralists, women, and remote communities. Emerging technologies-satellite monitoring, AI, IoT, drones, and digital advisories enhance forecasting if co-produced, ethically governed, and sustainably financed. Strengthening legal-frameworks, regional interoperability, shock-responsive social protection, and harmonized monitoring aligned with Sendai Target C and SDG-2 is essential for resilient, equitable, adaptive food systems in SSA.

This publication examines the main debates under way on social protection and co-responsibility transfer programmes. It identifies the role played by these programmes and considers the conceptual elements, needs and the challenges that will have to be overcome to consolidate comprehensive social protection systems in Latin America. The authors argue that these should be solidarity-based systems that provide universal coverage and are essentially egalitarian in the guarantees established as citizens' rights. Citizenship as a whole is thus becoming part of protection policies as the region moves towards all-encompassing social policies that combine the complementary principles of targeting as the instrument and universality as the end.

The article illustrated the intervention of government within poverty alleviation through inclusive social protection for People With Disabilities. By studying Special Health Insurance program in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, it assumes that the existence of the program has occurred from a rights-based perspective in inclusive health configuration. It is based on the case study approach that aimed to explain the Special Health Insurance program implementation to extend coverage to all People With Disabilities. The main result provided the Special Health Insurance-integrated scheme program can be more inclusively and accessible for People With Disabilities than former social protection programs in Indonesia. It has finally provided the best practice for the social protection program as a social policy tool focusing on disability.

This book refers throughout to co-responsibility transfer programmes (CTPs), considered as just one of a battery of tools used in social policy. It also sets out to show that, even though inclusive social protection does not begin and end with CTPs, they can be useful and effective because they are assigned with specific functions and objectives and clearly defined tasks and responsibilities. Nevertheless, the trend towards broadening the scope of CTPs, both quantitatively (by increasing the population covered or transfer amounts) and qualitatively (by matching benefits more closely to the target population or adding new benefits) is causing growing tensions.

One of the main findings to have emerged from the debate spearheaded by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in recent years is that economic and social development are closely intertwined and should form an active part of any public policy aimed at achieving greater equality. However, social gaps and debt in the region call for efforts to be redoubled to achieve full equal opportunities and universal rights. Although, in the past five years, there have been promising results in terms of poverty reduction and economic growth, Latin America remains the world's most unequal region. This poses challenges not only in terms of monetary income but also from the gender, ethnic and territorial standpoints. In excluded and other groups, these factors tend to lead to precarious employment that does not serve as a vehicle for social mobility and welfare. Furthermore, the working conditions of large sections of the population are a far cry from the normative horizon of decent work and fail to ensure access to social protection mechanisms. The region still has a very long way to go in achieving full realization of rights. In the absence of effective public or private protection channels, this undermines people's sense of belonging and precludes the legitimacy needed for a common project shared by all citizens.

PurposeThe control of particularly virulent communicable diseases such as COVID-19 can be considered a global public good. Unabated contagion, both within and across borders, can result in a global public bad. More effective control – such as by flattening the epidemiological curve – could prevent severe social and economic disruption by allowing domestic health and social protection systems to more adequately respond to the health crisis. This article elaborates on some of the main elements of counter COVID-19 responses, drawing on emerging international good practices. While a full evaluation of policy effectiveness is still forthcoming, it is critical to review and synthesize the emerging lessons and evidence even this early.Design/methodology/approachThis article reviews the international good practices in counter COVID-19 responses across countries.FindingsConcerted efforts across borders, such as by sharing data and collaborating in research and by coordinating international support for countercyclical economic and health responses at the national level, are some of the options for countering COVID-19 at the international level. Within countries, more inclusive social protection and health systems, combined with countercyclical economic policies, and concerted behavioral changes tend to produce more effective collective action against the spread of the disease.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is based on a review of emerging responses to the health crisis.Practical implicationsThe policies and practices reviewed in this paper could feed into better-informed crisis responses to COVID-19 and other types of health shocks.Originality/valueThis study is among the first general reviews of policy responses to the COVID-19 health crisis.