Week 1 | Social Protection and Public Finance

Welcome to Week 1 of the course, from Monday 3 to Friday 7 October. This week
you will be introduced to the key principles and concepts that underpin all our work
in social protection. You will also gain an overview of key questions related to social
protection financing as well as learning more about the impact of current multiple
crises on public finances worldwide.

For the weekly assignment, you will be identifying and collecting key documents
relevant to public finance and social protection in your country. You will find more
detailed instructions on Assignment 1 below.

To help guide your learning this week, we have identified mandatory resources for
you to consult. We suggest you do that before you join the discussion on the
technical forum. You will also find additional materials to broaden your knowledge.

To do list | Week 1

 Join the Opening Ceremony on5 October at 12:00 UTC+2

 Complete the pre-course introductory activities in the "Welcome" section
 Review the mandatory reading under Topic 1 and then contribute to
the Week 1 Technical Forum
 Join the live seminar on Topic 1 on Friday 7 October at 14:00 UTC+2
 Complete the individual assignmentby Monday 10 October at midnight, Italy
time.

Introduction | Topic 1

Why finance Social Protection?

This section of the course provides an introduction to key social
protection financing concepts and helps frame these in the current
context. You will find all learning materials in the tabs below. These will
be complemented by the live seminar delivered by Helmut
Schwarzer. Mandatory and additional resources are clearly marked.

To locate ourselves in the unique and unprecedented historical

moment facing social protection and public finance, we suggest you
start by reading the Executive Summary of the latest ILO World Social
Protection Report, which provides state of the art data and analysis of
the current social protection landscape. You may also wish to consult
the additional resources which provide further analysis relating to
social protection financing. Then, watch Alexander Pick's (OECD
Development Centre) video, which provides an overview of global
public finances.

Once you have completed these tasks, you can proceed to

the Technical Forum to share your reflections on the questions listed.

Assignment | Week 1
Compiling a national resource inventory

This assignment forms the first step in the Integrated Applied

Exercise that runs through the seven weeks of the course. The aim of
the first assignment is to ensure you have key data to hand in order to
undertake the assignments in subsequent weeks of the course.

The key tasks to complete are:

 To start, you will need to decide which country you will focus on

for the full Integrated Applied Exercise. We suggest that this is a
country you are most professionally involved in. If you are
working for an international organisation and work across
multiple countries, we suggest you focus on a country of
particular professional interest.

 Next, you should gather resources (reports, government

documents, datasets, news articles, websites) that you think are
relevant to social protection and public finance in your country.
We have compiled a document on "tips and tricks" to help you
identify key resources.

 We then ask you to complete in a resource inventory, listing

key resources of interest, and identifying sections that you think
 will be particularly useful for further analysis. You do not need to
read all documents in detail at these stage, but rather identify
sections/pages/charts that you think are of particular relevance.

A template for the resource inventory can be found HERE. We ask that

you share information on at least six resources. You should expect to
spend 3 learning hours on this assignment.

To give an idea of what is expected, you can find an inventory

completed for the case of Thailand HERE.

The inventory should be submitted below by Monday 10 October at

23:59 UTC+2.

Technical forum | Week 1

This week's discussion will give us an opportunity to reflect on social
protection and public finance in the context of current multiple crises.

To start, review the mandatory reading under Topic 1. This includes

the Executive Summary of the latest ILO World Social Protection Report
as well as other resources (readings and a video) discussing social
protection financing issues against the backdrop of the COVID-19
pandemic, the conflict in the Ukraine and the deepening energy, food
and cost of living crises. 

Once you have reviewed these resources, write a contribution to the

forum (between 150 and 300 words) considering the following
questions:

 How is the current volatile situation impacting public finances in

your country?
 Have social protection programmes been used in any notable
ways to extend social protection coverage as a response to
emerging needs?
 How do you think that the current crisis will impact the longer-
term development of the social protection system in your
country?

To post your answers, click on the button "Add a new discussion

topic" below.

As a way to encourage discussion, we also ask that you posted a short

reply (i.e. a comment, question or reflection) to at least one other
contribution made by another participant.