A vendor in South Africa’s Alexandra with the backdrop of the Sandton Towers, one of Africa’s most prestigious shopping centres.
Photo credit Mujahid Safodien/AFP via Getty Images
Earnings of laid-off workers in southern Europe are 30% lower five years later, while in northern countries the decline is less than 10%. The differences are largely due to the likelihood of finding a new job.
Traders examine bales of tobacco, which is among Zimbabwe’s key exports, at a March 2022 auction in Harare.
EFE-EPA/Aaron Ufumeli
As Zimbabwe heads for 2023 presidential elections, there are key things voters should watch out for in the social protection promises made by candidates.
A new report on the ongoing impact of the pandemic on social service providers in Victoria found jobs and labour force participation are far from fully recovered.
An unemployed man collects trash for resale in Diepsloot Johannesburg. Calls are growing for a basic income grant for poor South Africans.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Basic income must be embedded within a broader strategy of economic reform, aimed at increasing the social wage and improving working conditions.
Marie Coetzee and her husband Fanie Coetzee live in the poverty stricken shanty town community of Munsieville, west of Johannesburg.
EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Free maternal services introduced in Kenya in 2013 had the immediate impact of increasing access. But it exposed a divide in which the richest 20% of women were the biggest beneficiaries.
Pensions have made a big difference in the lives of Zanzibar’s elderly men and women.
HelpAge/Courtesy
The case of Zanzibar shows that, given certain political conditions, even low-income countries in Africa can introduce and pay for a universal pension programme.
Multiple approaches to alleviating poverty help cater for different contexts and groups of people.
Reuters/Pascal Rossignol
There is no one perfect package for alleviating poverty, but there is agreement on what the elements should be. Combination and sequence of interventions varies, depending on context and beneficiaries.