Social Protection Podcast

How can countries mobilise the resources needed to expand social protection coverage? Financing gaps are often presented as fixed constraints, but a new toolkit developed by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) highlights how policy choices can help expand fiscal space. The toolkit also includes a calculator to estimate the cost of universal coverage in each country and explore potential sources of financing. The calculator will soon be available online to a wider audience. 

Featuring discussions of case studies from Honduras, Moldova, Morocco, Pakistan and Senegal, this episode explores how domestic reforms and international mechanisms can help close financing gaps for social protection, as well as the role of trade unions in advocating for more inclusive and sustainable systems. 

The discussion examines how progressive taxation, the reallocation of military and fossil fuel spending, and labour market formalisation could help mobilise resources for social protection. It also explores international measures, including debt restructuring, Special Drawing Rights and greater tax cooperation. Our guests discuss the political and economic trade-offs involved in these reforms, the challenges posed by debt and tax avoidance, and how trade unions can help turn potential financing opportunities into concrete policy action. 

 

Meet our guests: 

Beatrice di Padua, Advisor for Economic and Social Policies, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) 

Lara Merling, Policy & Research Fellow, University College London 

Polina Fisticanu, Head of Social and Economic Protection Department, National Trade Union Confederation of Moldova 

 

For our Quick Wins segment, we spoke with Anand Ramesh Kumar, Social Development Specialist (Social Protection) at ADB, who shared key highlights and takeaways from the Asia Pacific Social Protection Week 2026, including emerging trends and innovative approaches to social protection across the region. A dedicated page featuring event resources, including recordings and presentations, will soon be available on socialprotection.org. 

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This episode – co-produced by the FAO, Brazil’s IPEA, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and socialprotection.org – is the first of the Social Protection for Fisheries series.

Globally, fisheries and aquaculture make essential contributions to nutrition and food security, income, livelihoods, and economies, particularly through the small-scale fisheries sector, which directly employs 60 million people, supports nearly 500 million livelihoods, and provides over half of all fish consumed worldwide. Yet, despite these contributions, small-scale fishers and fish workers often face unequal access to resources and opportunities, precarious working conditions, unstable incomes, market and value-chain pressures, limited access to social protection, and growing exposure to economic and environmental shocks. Together, these challenges can undermine livelihoods and contribute to unsustainable outcomes for both fishing communities and aquatic ecosystems, which raises an important question: How can efforts to protect our oceans also protect the communities that depend on them?

In this episode we explore the connections between social protection, livelihood security, and environmental sustainability in small-scale fisheries. Through practical examples, our guests discuss how social protection measures, including compensation mechanisms linked to fisheries management and conservation efforts, can help reduce vulnerabilities, support income stability, and enable sustainable fishing practices. The episode also highlights the role of markets and fishers’ organizations and explores how stronger registries and interoperability can help extend social protection to fishing communities.

Meet our guests:  

Daniela Kalikoski, Fishery Officer and Equitable Livelihoods Team Lead, Fisheries and Aquaculture Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) 

Fabio Veras, Researcher, Brazil's Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) 

Wendy Norden, Director of Global Programs, Global Ocean Conservation, Monterey Bay Aquarium 

💬 Your feedback and ideas for the podcast are always welcome. Share your suggestions on topics to cover, resources, or guest recommendations.

Beyond reducing poverty, can social protection build trust – within communities and between citizens and the state – and help hold societies together? In this episode, we discuss the relationship between social protection and social cohesion.

Drawing on research from Ethiopia, Malawi and beyond, our guests explore why cash transfers can help restore social ties and institutional trust in some settings, while creating perceptions of unfairness and tensions in others. The conversation looks at what makes the difference, from transparent targeting to community participation and communication, and asks how policymakers can support social cohesion without expecting social protection schemes to achieve what they cannot do alone.

Meet our guests:

Francesco Burchi, Senior Researcher and Project Leader, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)

Kibrom Abay, Senior Research Fellow, Development Strategy and Governance Division, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

For our Quick Wins segment, we talked to Social Protection Specialist and researcher Nourjelha Elhag. In her recently published article, she explores the potential of zakat to complement national social protection systems, drawing on research from Pakistan and Jordan.

 

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As part of socialprotection.org’s 11th anniversary, this episode explores the central question behind the campaign: what does society stand to lose when we do not invest in social protection? 

Too often framed primarily as a public expense, social protection can play a critical role in reducing poverty and inequality, expanding access to opportunities, and helping people and economies withstand and recover from shocks. When adequate protection is not in place, the consequences can extend across the life course and across societies, reinforcing vulnerability, limiting inclusive development, and weakening social cohesion. 

Drawing on evidence and examples from different contexts, this episode delves into the social and economic returns of investing in social protection, from early childhood, care and informal employment to economic inclusion and crisis preparedness. What are the wider costs of leaving people without adequate protection? How can stronger, universal systems contribute to resilience, productivity and more equitable opportunities? And what does it take to build and expand social protection systems when governments face competing priorities and limited resources? 

 

Meet our guests: 

Laura Alfers, International Coordinator, WIEGO 

Dominic Richardson, Managing Director, Learning for Well-being Institute 

Jamele Rigolini, Senior Advisor for Social Policy, The World Bank 

 

For our Quick Wins segment, we spoke with Sherine Al-Shawarby, Professor of Economics at Cairo University and Dean of the Faculty of Political Science, Economics and Business Administration at May University in Cairo, who discussed the ongoing debate around bread subsidy reform in Egypt 

 

💬 Your feedback and ideas for the podcast are always welcome. Share your suggestions on topics to cover, resources, or guest recommendations.

In the context of global price shocks, governments often turn to subsidies to shield households and businesses from rising costs. While subsidies can provide immediate relief, they are also among the most contested policy instruments. Given how costly they are to sustain, subsidies often have regressive distributional impact making them notoriously difficult to reform.

In this concluding episode of our two-part discussion on subsidies, we explore why subsidy reform remains one of the most politically and economically challenging issues in social policy. If there is broad agreement that resources could often be used more effectively through targeted social protection, why do subsidies continue to persist? What political, institutional, and social factors make reform so difficult? And what lessons can be drawn from countries that have successfully transitioned towards more equitable and efficient systems?

We also examine the role of social protection in making the reforms feasible. As governments seek fiscal space to strengthen social protection systems and respond to economic, climate, and other shocks, compensatory cash transfers and adaptive social protection have increasingly been presented as viable alternatives to broad-based subsidies and strong enablers of a successful reform.

Meet our guests:

Dr. Neil McCulloch, Director, The Policy Practice

Tara Moayed, Governance and Social Development Consultant

For our Quick Wins segment, we spoke with Shaun Baugh, Programme Manager at Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat who shed light on the implications of the “Super El Niño”, alongside other climate and global shocks, for food security and vulnerable populations in the region.

Related resources
Publication | Intersecting Global and Regional Shocks: Implications of the Middle East Crisis and El Niño for Food Security in the Caribbean

Publication | From Regressive Subsidies to Progressive Redistribution: The Role of Redistribution and Recognition in Energy Subsidy Reform