Nino-Zarazua, Miguel Angel

Niño-Zarazúa, Miguel

SOAS Research Online

29/01/2023, 17:04 Social welfare services are being cut across the world, but providing them is about more than just money – podcasthttps://theconversation.com/social-welfare-services-are-being-cut-across-the-world-but-providing-them-is-about-more-than-just-money-podcast-19… 1/4Academic rigour, journalistic flairNehal El-HadiScience + Technology Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationDaniel MerinoAssociate Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationChristine Corlet WalkerResearch Fellow, Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, University of SurreyErdem YörükAssociate Professor, Sociology, Koç University IstanbulMiguel Niño-ZarazúaSenior Lecturer, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, and Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow, World Institute for Development Economics Research(UNU-WIDER), SOAS, University of LondonAcross the globe, health-care workers have gone on strike to protest the stress placed on them by theglobal COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn, pushing already-strained services beyond theirlimits. These labour actions are part of the challenges faced by countries attempting to providewelfare services to their populations.Welfare services are essential for a healthy economy and productive population. (Shutterstock)Social welfare services are being cut across the world, butproviding them is about more than just money – podcastPublished: January 19, 2023 2.38pm GMT29/01/2023, 17:04 Social welfare services are being cut across the world, but providing them is about more than just money – podcasthttps://theconversation.com/social-welfare-services-are-being-cut-across-the-world-but-providing-them-is-about-more-than-just-money-podcast-19… 2/4In this episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast, we talk to three experts about why social welfareservices are being cut, and what actions governments may need to take to ensure better access.The… Share FollowSocial welfare services arebeing cut across the world – butproviding them is about more…January 19, 2023 · 36 min ·Listen laterView termsi  Listen and subscribe:Apple podcasts Spotify Google podcasts AmazonStitcher Pocket Casts Castbox iHeartRadio Public Deezer Youtube Tune In RSSWelfare services – like unemployment benefits, health care and pensions – are how countries keeptheir populations healthy and productive in order to maintain robust and growing economies.Miguel Niño-Zarazúa is a senior lecturer in the Department of Economics, at the School of Orientaland African Studies in London, U.K. who looks at welfare institutions in the Global south. He explainsthat welfare systems are integrated social policies, which “have become one of the most importantpolicy instruments against poverty and vulnerability in the developing world.”However, Niño-Zarazúa says that welfare institutions in developing nations are increasingly underthreat. “In low-income countries in particular, now, we see many countries facing a debt crisis thathas been accumulating over the last decade because they continue borrowing to sustain theireconomic growth.”But it’s not just developing countries where access to welfare is diminishing. Christine Corlet Walker,who is a research fellow at the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity at theUniversity of Surrey in the UK looks at member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).Global economic growth is slowing down – and many experts expect it to approach zero or negative.Facing this, governments have responded with austerity measures and cuts to welfare services. “Apost-growth welfare system is a welfare system that can function and can flourish in the absence ofeconomic growth,” Corlet Walker says, “and there’s obviously a huge amount that can be done interms of redistribution through progressive taxes on wealth and land, for example.”29/01/2023, 17:04 Social welfare services are being cut across the world, but providing them is about more than just money – podcasthttps://theconversation.com/social-welfare-services-are-being-cut-across-the-world-but-providing-them-is-about-more-than-just-money-podcast-19… 3/4Read more: Degrowth: why some economists think abandoning growth is the only way to save the planet – podcastErdem Yörük is an associate professor at Koç University in Istanbul in Turkey. He studies howdeveloping countries implement welfare programs, but during his research, he found that existingscholarship on welfare excluded developing nations. “There are two reasons for this western orEurocentrism,” he explains. Scholars assume that “there is no welfare state because capitalism is notfully developed in the non-west as opposed to European countries. The second reason, was thatwelfare systems regimes literature is a highly empirical literature. And so there was no data toconduct such similar analysis for the non-west.”So at first, Yörük and his team compiled the data. And he determined that there was an additional type of welfare regime beyond the three main types established by scholars of western countries,which he refers to as a “populist welfare state regime.”This type of regime uses the provision of welfare services as a political bargaining tool: this occursduring times of political unrest, as in Turkey where Yörük conducted his research, or to leverage thevoting power of the poor during elections.Because welfare services contribute to a productive society, it’s imperative that governmentsunderstand the value of taking care of their populations. But during these uncertain economic times,countries are contending with the unprecedented and unexpected expenditures produced by climatechange mitigation, environmental disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic and political conflict.Niño-Zarazúa believes that governments reduce access to social services at their own risk. “So despitethe fact that many countries face substantial and very difficult challenges, there are always ways tofinance and make savings or reorganize the spending to support these programs.”Cuts to welfare will only exacerbate the rates of poverty around the world. And as economic pressuresincrease on governments in both developed and developing nations, the provision of welfare is underrisk. And the strain on welfare systems is felt not only by those attempting to access services, but byalso by those who work within them under these conditions.Listen to the full episode of The Conversation Weekly to find out more.This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced and written by Mend Mariwany who is alsothe show’s executive producer. Sound design is by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by NeetaSarl.women wearing hijabs and carrying a sign reading KURT HALKI ADALET ISTIYOR.Social assistance programs in Turkey emerged in response to political unrest. (Shutterstock)29/01/2023, 17:04 Social welfare services are being cut across the world, but providing them is about more than just money – podcasthttps://theconversation.com/social-welfare-services-are-being-cut-across-the-world-but-providing-them-is-about-more-than-just-money-podcast-19… 4/4You can find us on Twitter @TC_Audio, on Instagram at theconversationdotcom or via email. You canalso sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. A transcript of this episode will be availablesoon.Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed, or find out how else to listen here.

Social welfare services are being cut across the world, but providing them is about more than just money

https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/38685/1/Social%20welfare%20services%20are%20being%20cut%20across%20the%20world%E2%80%93%20podcast.pdf

Social welfare services are being cut across the world, but providing them is about more than just money

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