Demographic and social trends affecting intergenerational relations in the MENA region

This paper focuses on poverty in the MENA region and whether it can be alleviated by intergenerational support within and across households. Intergenerational relations are mediated through several institutions. The most prominent of these are households, state, civil society and market. Combinations of social arrangements, economic resources and cultural traditions govern these institutions. Whether or not family and households can provide the necessary supports for their poorer or disadvantaged members would crucially depend on household composition, its economic resources and its interaction with the institutions of state, civil society and market. This paper explores the trends in family formation and composition over time and household interaction with the above mentioned institutions through the labour market, or through various state and NGO driven welfare programmes. The above trends as well as migration impact the intergenerational support within families. This paper will argue for improved social support and regional integration in order to complement family resources as well as tackle some of the emerging issues in relation to population ageing and care economy in the region

Economic growth, employment and poverty in the Middle East and North Africa

This paper  provides an assessment of economic growth, employment and poverty reduction in the Arab MENA region. Considering the high rate of unemployment (especially the youth unemployment) and poverty in most countries in the region employment and poverty impacts of growth are of particular concern to policy makers. In the short run for employment growth to be faster than output growth the employment elasticity of growth has to be greater than unity. This is an important condition that is rarely satisfied across all sectors and countries in the region, for good analytical and empirical reasons. For example growth in high productivity sectors will not boost total employment nor reduce poverty substantially in the short run, yet growth in high productivity sectors is essential for accumulation and long term growth. Moreover, if the poor were to benefit from an employment policy they should have been integrated in the sectors where jobs are created -- the so called integrability condition of the 'employment-poverty nexus'. Public work projects have been one of the main short term instruments of job creation for the poor in the region, but there the long term impact on poverty has varied and depended crucially on their sustainability, their contribution to improving local infrastructure and economies. These mixed results in no way invalidate the importance of economic growth for unemployment and poverty reduction, but brings into focus the importance of going beyond short term policies for job creation and poverty reduction as well as complementing such policies with social polic

The financial crisis, poverty and vulnerability: from social investment to an EU social union

The financial crisis of 2009 has had a devastating impact on the people of Europe, throwing millions into unemployment and poverty. The impact was most severe in the Southern and Eastern members of the EU. The EU’s response was more concerned with the impact of the crisis on the viability of the banking and financial sector than on employment, poverty and livelihood. Following a brief discussion of the empirical evidence on the social impact of the crisis, this paper provides a critical appraisal of a major EU initiative in 2013: the Social Investment Package (SIP). The social investment (SI) approach to social policy has its origin in the social democratic response to the Great Depression of the 1930s. In Sweden Ava and Gunnar Myrdal argued for a new approach to social policy that would focus on social investment in human capital. Notwithstanding the intrinsic merits of a SI approach this paper argues that it is a policy paradigm without a foundation in any specific economic theory, and its adoption has been influenced by country specific historical, social and economic institutions and developments. The SIP has been primarily focused on the supply side of the labour market in order to increase people’s skills and their participation in the labour market and society at large. It also covered other related key areas of early childhood education, housing and social protection. The SIP has been complemented by the launch of the European Pillar of Social Rights that if backed up by appropriate legislation and setting up of rules similar to the European Monetary Union would strengthen the social dimension of the EU leading to a Eu

How portable is social security for migrant workers?

This paper reviews the literature on the portability of social security entitlements for migrant workers, who moved along North-North, South- North, and South-South migration flows. Portability of social security entitlements is the ability of migrant workers to preserve, maintain, and transfer benefits of social security programmes spatially and socially, among their families. The paper uses a gender perspective where possible as part of an intersectional approach. We find that North-North migrants have the best access to social protection and portability, due to generally higher income of migrants, the inter-governmental agreements and developed administrative capacities in the North. There is limited coordination between South/origin and North/destination countries on the portability of social entitlements (such as pensions) of South-North migrants. In general, these migrants are dealing with immigration discourses and discriminatory policies that treat them as second class citizens, even as they are providing much-needed labour to their host countries and contribute to their economy. This hinders bilateral agreements on social security portability. South-South migrants are seeing new regional mechanisms addressing portability. However, beyond legal agreements, many of the impacts of these mechanisms are not yet known. Knowledge gaps in the landscape of research on the portability of social security entitlements for migrant workers that future research should address relate to internal migration and South-South migration, the role of gender and other social identities, migrants' occupations as well as the legality of workers' immigration status

What is unpaid female labour worth? Evidence from the Time Use Studies of Iran in 2008 and 2009

This paper uses the Time Use Survey of Iran of 2008 and 2009 to estimate the monetary value of unpaid domestic work of urban housewives. The surveys recorded domestic work activities such as cooking and cleaning and general care of household members as well as care of children and their education. Using the market-based approach to estimate the monetary value of unpaid domestic work we collected data on the cost of buying in services for domestic work and for education of children from ‘nursing agencies’ and private education colleges in main cities of Iran in the summer of 2011 that were adjusted to obtain the 2008 and 2009 prices. The market value of domestic work of urban housewives was estimated to be US$25 billion in 2008 and US$29 billion in 2009. These were about 8.6 per cent of non-oil GDP in the same years. Our estimates complement other findings from around the world that confirm substantial contribution of housewives to the economy. These contributions have gone unrecorded and not compensated in most countries. At a minimum, housewives can be insured against basic contingencies of life such has health problems, poverty and disabilities and supported in old age. Our work and other studies do provide the economic and social arguments for costing and putting into practice the long overdue support for housewives; they have earned it

Trends, determinants and the implications of population aging in Iran

Fertility and mortality decline are major drivers of Iran's population aging. A rapid and sharp fall in fertility rates over the past three decades as well as a substantial rise in life expectancy are causing rapid aging of Iran’s population. The present paper uses the 2015 United Nations Population Division data to discuss the trends, determinants and the implications of population aging in Iran. According to the medium fertility variant, people age 60 and older will represent 31 percent (almost 29 million people) of Iran’s population by 2050. The population age 65 and older is projected to be 22 percent (more than 20 million) and that of aged 80 and older 3.8 percent (around 3.5 million) in 2050, that are almost four-times the corresponding figures in 2015. Data on the speed of population aging show that Iran is the second fastest aging cou

Affluence and poverty in the Middle East

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Sustainability and social policy nexus

Social policies predate the welfare state and have left their mark on the genesis and development of the welfare state in different countries, that testifies to the importance of historical and ideological path-dependencies of social policies in different countries. The political/political-economy ecology literature links theories of social welfare and welfare state to environmental issues like resource use through the relationship between economic growth and sustainability. Orthodox mainstream neo-classical and Keynesian economics rely on economic growth in order to raise living standards but using different channels and mechanisms. It is this reliance on economic growth and its depletive effect on envir

How portable is social security for migrant workers? : a review of the literature

A review commissioned by the International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague (Erasmus University Rotterdam), within the project on ‘Migration, Gender and Social Justice’For most migrants, there is a ‘central tension between the mobility of labour and the non-mobility of entitlements.’ To meaningfully address the needs of migrants whose movements are temporary, circular or transient, portable social protection needs also to be addressed. This paper covers the current scope of knowledge of social security benefits for each phase of migration, indicating research findings and research gaps. Future research must move beyond the existence of agreements between countries that nominally accord social protection, and work to assess their impact to determine which migrant workers are able to access these rights