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	Poverty, Vulnerability and Social Protection by Jomo Kwame Sundaram Inter Press Service   According to the World Bank, the MDG target of halving the share of the poor was achieved by 2008, well in advance of 2015, the target year. However, increased unemployment and lower incomes in recent times remind us that poverty is not an unchanging attribute of a shrinking group, but rather, a condition that billions of vulnerable persons risk experiencing.   Despite the various shortcomings of money measures of poverty, they nevertheless reflect the extent of vulnerability.   For example, the estimated number of poor globally in 2012 more than doubles from 902 million to 2.1 billion when one raises the poverty line by 63% from $1.90/day to $3.10/day per person, suggesting that a very large number of those not deemed poor by the World Bank are very vulnerable to external economic shocks or changes in personal circumstances, such as income losses or food price increases.   Of the world's poor, three-quarters live in rural areas where agricultural wage workers suffer the highest incidence of poverty, largely because of low productivity, seasonal unemployment and low wages paid by most rural employers.   Vulnerability and economic insecurity have increased in recent decades with rising insecure, casual and precarious jobs involving part-time employment, self-employment, fixed-term work, temporary work, on-call work and home-working, often mainly involving women.   Such trends have grown with labour market liberalization, globalization, and declining union power. To make matters worse, macroeconomic policies in recent decades have focused on low inflation, rather than full employment, while limited social protection has exacerbated economic insecurity and vulnerability.   Additionally, lower economic growth rates, following the global financial crisis, would push 46 million more people into extreme poverty than expected before the crisis. This figure was later revised to 64 million, implying over 200 million people fell into extreme poverty due to food-fuel price hikes and the global financial crisis.   While some of these figures were subsequently revised downward, they suggest widespread vulnerability and economic insecurity, due to the inability of governments to respond with adequate counter-cyclical policies and in the absence of comprehensive universal social protection measures.   During the East Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998, the official poverty rate in Indonesia shot up from 11% to 37% in just one year following the massive depreciation of the Indonesian rupiah.   Working poor   The working poor are defined as those employed, but earning less than the international poverty line ($1.25 a day in 2005 and $1.90 a day in 2011 in purchasing power parity [PPP] terms). Despite working, they cannot earn enough to get out of poverty. In most developing countries, most poor adults have to work, if only to survive, in the absence of adequate social protection.   According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), an estimated 375 million workers lived below the international poverty line in 2013. The number of working poor rises dramatically to close to 800 million when a $2-a-day poverty line is used.   Women comprise the majority of the working poor, accounting for about 60%. It also found that progress in reducing the number of working poor has slowed markedly since 2008.   An estimated 1.42 billion people globally were in vulnerable employment in 2013, still increasing by around 1% in 2013, well above the 0.2% average increase in the years prior to 2008. The number was projected to exceed 1.44 billion in 2014, accounting for 45% of total world employment.   Social Protection   Most people who fall under the international poverty line are vulnerable, with no basic social protection. The lack of comprehensive universal social protection is a major obstacle to economic and social development, exacerbating high and persistent levels of poverty, economic insecurity, and inequality. Most countries do not have unemployment insurance or other similar social protection. In the most vulnerable countries, more than 80% have neither social security coverage nor access to health services.   The ILO's World Social Protection Report, 2014/15 found a high or very high vulnerability in terms of poverty and labour market informality. Only 27% of the global population enjoy access to comprehensive social security systems, whereas 73% are only covered partially, or not at all.   This means that about 5.2 billion people do not have access to comprehensive social protection, and many of them - in the case of middle- and low-income countries, nearly half their populations live in poverty. About 800 million of them are working poor, of whom most work in the informal economy.   Although 2.3% of GDP worldwide is allocated to public social protection expenditure for income security during working age, there are wide regional, national and local variations, e.g. ranging from 0.5% in Africa to 5.9% in Western Europe. Only 28% of the global labour force is potentially or legally eligible for unemployment benefits.   Yet, only 12% of unemployed workers worldwide actually receive unemployment benefits, with effective coverage ranging from 64% of unemployed workers in Western Europe to just over 7% in the Asia and Pacific region, 5% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and less than 3% in the Middle East and Africa.   Globally, about 39% and more than 90% of the population living in low-income countries have no right to healthcare. About 18,000 children die every day, mainly from preventable causes. On average, governments allocate 0.4% of GDP to child and family benefits, ranging from 2.2% in Western Europe to 0.2% in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.   Fiscal austerity measures since the 2008-2009 global financial and economic crises have exacerbated the situation. Such measures are not limited to Europe; many developing countries have also adopted such measures, including reducing or ending food and fuel subsidies; cutting or capping wages; more narrowly targeting social protection benefits, and reducing public pension and health care systems.   These are contrary to the pledges countries made in adopting Agenda 2030 for the Sustainable Development Goals which include achieving universal protection and health care. Not surprisingly, fiscal austerity measures, including cuts in social protection expenditure, have not helped economic recovery, but instead, have exacerbated inequality.   * Jomo Kwame Sundaram was recently United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development. Visit the related web page
	European CSOs demand a tax on financial transactions by GFI, Social Watch, Robin Hood Tax Campaign Italy   May 2017   Illicit capital flows in developing world as high as $3.5 trillion in 2014 reports Global Financial Integrity study. (Reuters)   Illicit capital flows into and out of developing economies ranged from $2 trillion to $3.5 trillion in 2014, with Africa the region most vulnerable to the flight of capital needed for investment and other purposes, according to a new study.   Released this week by the Washington-based think-tank Global Financial Integrity (GFI), the report comes before the World Economic Forum on Africa in Durban this week, where the region''s development and financial challenges will be in the spotlight.   It shows that combined, illicit outflows and inflows amounted to 14.1 to 24 percent of total developing country trade from 2005 to 2014, the last year for which comprehensive data are available.   "The massive flows of illicit capital shown in this study represent diversions of resources from their most efficient social uses in developing economies and are likely to adversely impact domestic.. economic growth," the report said.   The GFI report looked at both illicit outflows, which rob poor countries of capital that could be taxed or invested, and illicit inflows, which could point to cash being funnelled to tax havens or to be laundered.   In 2014, illicit outflows were estimated to have drained $620 billion to $970 billion from developing economies. Illicit inflows were put at $1.4 trillion to $2.5 trillion.   Over the decade of 205 to 2014, GFI found, sub-Saharan Africa led all regions for illicit outflows, estimated at 7.5 to 11.6 percent of its total trade.   Some development economists have argued sub-Saharan Africa - widely regarded as relying on aid inflows and the charity of industrialised nations - is actually a net exporter of capital to the rest of the world because of these trends.   Developing Europe - mostly comprising Eastern European and former Soviet republics, including Russia - was the leader for illicit inflows, estimated at 12.4 percent to 21.0 percent of the region''s total trade.   Illicit capital is mostly channelled through mis-invoicing of trade - exports and imports are booked at different values to avoid taxes or to hide large transfers of money.   http://www.gfintegrity.org/press-release/new-study-illicit-financial-flows-in-developing-countries-large-and-persistent/ http://tmsnrt.rs/2pBGOxc   10 April 2017   European CSOs demand a tax on financial transactions. (Social Watch, Robin Hood Tax Campaign)   Nearly 7,000 civil society organizations and trade unions have signed a letter to their respective heads of state and government calling for redoubling efforts to implement a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT), also known as the ''Robin Hood tax''. The petition was submitted on the occasion of the European summit held in Rome to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.   CSOs point out that such a tax on financial transactions would realise a minimum income of €20 billion a year, and that revenue should be used to meet social needs such as financing global public goods such as health, education and the fight against poverty and climate change. In addition, this measure would restore the stability of markets, the prevention of future crises such as the one that shook Europe and the world in 2007-2008.   After having stopped several times in recent years, the European negotiations on FTT under the enhanced cooperation procedure are now very close to the target. Implementing the FTT does not only mean improving the efforts made so far and so much energy in a long process influenced by the resistance of the states.   To approve the agreement today would provide tangible proof that Europe is capable of establishing an ambitious commitment on fair and progressive measures. This campaign has strong support backed by more than one million signatures collected in 2015 by trade unions and European civil society.   http://www.socialwatch.org/node/17611 http://bit.ly/2oEEcha http://bit.ly/2ohexIs http://www.eapn.eu/ http://bit.ly/2nTFtBZ http://www.solidar.org/en/news/achieving-the-sdgs-needs-fair-taxation-ngos-call-on-the-eu-to-endtaxhavens Visit the related web page
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