Global Social Policy Digest 22.3: The pros and cons of digitalization

Redistribution

A new Oxfam report, Profiting from pain, estimates that surges in food and energy prices have created 62 new food industry billionaires. ¹⁹ As a response to developments in the energy sector, governments in the United Kingdom (UK) and Italy have introduced a windfall tax on energy companies who have benefitted from surging energy prices. In the UK, the Energy Profits Levy is a 25% surcharge on extraordinary profits in the oil and gas sector, according to estimates the surcharge will increase government revenue by £5 billion, which will be spent on supporting rising living costs. ²⁰ The Italian tax is also a 25% one-off levy on energy companies with a total expected government revenue of €10 billion, higher than the 10% levy initially announced in March 2022. ²¹ This revenue is largely channelled towards the €14 billion support package to help business sector parties withstand rising energy costs and to support vulnerable households, such as a one-off cash transfer of €200 (see section ‘Social protection’). ²²

Executive Director of Oxfam International Gabriela Bucher has spoken about wealth taxes at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Wealth taxes on the ultra-rich have been heavily debated during the pandemic, Oxfam now advocates revenues generated through such a tax to be geared towards women in the informal sector pushed into poverty by the pandemic. ²³ Another topic of discussion at the World Economic Forum has been the minimum corporate tax rate (see GSP Digest 22.1). This innovative tax has been scheduled to be implemented in 2023, however, during the World Economic Forum in Davos it became evident that the deal will be pushed back until 2024.^24,25 This is due to delays in the legislative process, mainly in the United States (US) and the European Union (EU).

The (potential) revenues raised through the minimum corporate tax can be channelled back to other parts of society. Broader indicators of welfare beyond gross domestic product (GDP) have been created in recent years and are now helping to inform the direction of social (redistributive) expenditures. The latest policy brief of the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All recommends considering practices that are important for social reproduction and health, such as progressive taxation instruments can enhance the public sector space and access to health services (see ‘Health’). ²⁶

From 2015 onwards, there have been calls for a global asset registry, initiated by Berkeley Economist Gabriel Zucman. ²⁷ Such a registry has the potential to connect beneficial owners and their assets, a link which is traditionally kept separate for the ultra-wealthy for tax avoidance and evasion purposes (see GSP Digest 22.1). In recent years, there have been efforts to set up such a registry, for example, Open Ownership. ²⁸ The general idea of the registry is to promote financial transparency and expose assets hidden for tax purposes. During the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, the role of digitalization has been discussed in the context of asset management. ²⁹ These debates are mainly coming out of the private sector. As digital technologies develop, there is potential for public sector bodies to, for example, explore how to use these to set up a global asset registry.

Recent sanctions imposed in response to the conflict in Ukraine have shed a new light on the potential use of such registries. The EU Tax Observatory has released a report stipulating how existing data on beneficial ownership can be arranged under the umbrella of a European Asset Registry which would allow for ‘better-targeted sanctions and effective tools to curb money laundering, corruption and tax evasion’. ³⁰ The Tax Justice Network has also come out with a report including 10 proposals on how to expose hidden assets of Russian oligarchs. ³¹ The use of such registries for targeting sanctions highlights the way in which exposing the relationship between beneficial owners and their assets presents a substantial threat to elites, particularly when these registries are weaponized (see section ‘Rights’). There is strong evidence to suggest that sanctions, both broad-based and targeted, have negative, and in some cases detrimental, impacts on the welfare of civilian populations. The use of such registries, therefore, needs to be viewed in full and carefully scrutinized to ensure that they are actually delivering tax and other forms of justice. ³²

New statistics for remittances have been released by the World Bank, revealing that remittances have reached US$630 billion in 2022 with an increase of 4.2% to low- and middle-income countries compared with the previous year. ³³ There are important compositional shifts in line with geopolitical tensions in Europe and Central Asia. Ukraine is expected to receive 20% more in remittances, and former Soviet countries are expected to experience a decline in remittance flows. The decline in remittances in Central Asia is paired with rising food, fertilizer and oil prices in the region and higher need for social protection. ³⁴

In this period, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has also released new statistics for Official Development Assistance (ODA). Their estimates show a 4.4% increase in ODA, totalling US$179 billion compared with 2020, which is largely attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. ³⁵ US$6.3 billion was reserved for COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries. The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Chair Susanna Moorehead has stated that ‘multiple crises mean multiple demands on the ODA’, including the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Rights

Across the globe, the digitalization of human rights is already a reality in some countries, and it is still emerging in others. As in case of human rights in general, the promotion of digital rights shall be based on general principles. For instance, in accordance with the UN Charter and international human rights law, promotion and encouragement for respecting human rights has to be implemented for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion. Those proven to be vulnerable and disadvantaged have to be granted a higher standard of living and development. Yet, the commencement of year 2022 has increased the importance of the earlier assessment by Philip Alston, then UN Special Rapporteur on poverty, that ‘big technology companies operate in an almost human rights-free zone’. ³⁶

The digitalization of human rights is a matter of public concern not only in high- and middle-income countries with highly developed technologies for electronic voting and digital welfare systems, but also in lower-income countries, as in case of biometric identification. In high- and middle-income countries, key issues of public concern with respect to rights and data protection include the transfer of personal data by big tech companies for advertising purposes in Europe, data collection by UK- and German-based universities during COVID-19 pandemic, and discriminatory data collection practices from health insurance providers and governmental bodies towards marginalized groups, namely, migrants, asylum seekers and the poor.^37,38,39 For example, a recent report by the Irish Council of Civil Liberties highlighted that advertising technology tracks and shares people’s online usage and their real-world location 178 trillion times each year in the US and Europe alone. ⁴⁰ The situation in middle- and lower-income countries is no better. As noted by UN experts, implementation of human rights, that is, access to humanitarian aid, depends on digital identity programmes, including the collection of sensitive biometric data. ⁴¹ Furthermore, according to the statements by NGOs, the quality of human rights education, and on a larger scale, implementation of human rights during COVID-19 recovery, lacks equal unhindered access to digital resources. ⁴² While advanced economies race towards digital transformation, 3.7 billion, the majority of whom are women, and most in developing countries, remain unconnected. ⁴³

Digitalization of mass media has also aggravated the violent attacks on journalists, targeted surveillance, online hate speech and consequent censorship. In her April 2023 report, Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, highlighted that governments as well as media companies have responsibilities to respect human rights and protect journalists from violations. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur stressed that ‘ Upholding media freedom and ensuring the safety of journalists in the digital age is a multi-stakeholder endeavour, involving States, civil society and digital and media companies’. ⁴⁴ To respect media freedom and the safety of journalists, Irene Khan recommended to operationalize the UN Secretary-General’s Global Digital Compact, which underwent another round of informal consultation in February 2022.

At present, it is unclear whether the Global Digital Compact will stipulate the methods of harm prevention in digital spaces or declare access to the Internet as a human right. ⁴⁵ The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet reiterated the importance of these issues in April 2023 in her speech at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. She distinguished two major issues related to digitalization of human rights: Right to freedom of expression and right to privacy in the digital realm. According to Bachelet, digital technologies have thrust the world towards unprecedented human progress, but also paved way to online hate speech and disinformation. ⁴⁶ Still, even if such a right might be recognized or codified, the absence of consensus among states, political groups and businesses would hamper effective implementation of digital freedoms. Major powers and big tech companies treat the right to Internet as primarily a right to freedom of expression rather than right to privacy, as freedom of expression can be politicized on the international arena. As stated by Iain Levine, senior human rights advisor at Meta,

Striking a balance between giving people a voice but also keeping everyone safe from hatred and harm, is a huge challenge. That is especially so for a company like Facebook that has over 3.4 billion users around the world, and of course we have made mistakes. ⁴⁷

Health

While there was no major digitalization initiative in regard to health in the observed time period by the established global governance institutions (for discussion of the WHO’s Global Strategy on Digital Health see GSP Digest 19.3), observers still highlighted the importance of digitalization of health in terms of pandemic preparedness and response. Here, diverse health technologies that can facilitate pandemic responses, such as public health surveillance systems, electronic health records, clinical decision support systems and patient management systems, already exist. For these technologies, it is imperative that data should be collected transparently, and stakeholders collecting and managing data need to actively promote the right to be forgotten. Technology can also facilitate real-time monitoring of the spread of certain diseases and how a disease is distributed in regard to different social groups within the population. It can thus assist with monitoring inequities in (digital) health from the local to the global level, and support digital literacy in all parts of the population. Also, researchers call for consistent data-sharing standards and obligations as well as a global minimum set of public health data. ⁴⁸

Policy-wise, the latest policy brief of the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All proposes a new set of values that foregrounds practices that support planetary health and the creation of social institutions that favour equity and social cohesion and abandons the practice of commodifying health practices and services. Here, it would be crucial to instigate ‘data collection and measurement apparatus globally that completely abandons’ indices such as GDP as a universal metric for growth and progress. Instead, there is need for a more holistic set of metrics that take account of diverse practices that are important for social reproduction and health but that do not have a monetary value. In terms of policy prescriptions, the brief highlights the use of progressive taxation to enhance public sector space and access to health services (see section ‘Redistribution’). ⁴⁹

The World Health Assembly (WHA) took a geopolitical note particularly with some stark polarization concerning a resolution on the conflict in Ukraine. A Ukrainian-backed resolution entitled ‘Health emergency in Ukraine and refugee receiving and hosting countries, stemming from the Russian Federation’s aggression’ ⁵⁰ was approved by a vote of 88–12, while the counter-resolution, ‘Health emergency in and around Ukraine and refugee receiving and hosting countries’ ⁵¹ by Russia and Syria was rejected by a vote of 15–66. According to Health Policy Watch, the large number of abstentions and absences in both cases reflects ‘the discomfort of many member states with a debate that polarised the global health body’. ⁵² Also, a resolution proposed by countries such as Egypt, Jordan and Syria, that recognizes the dire health conditions in the occupied Palestine territories was approved by a vote of 77–14, with countries such as the US, the UK and Israel opposing it. ⁵³ With regard to WHO’s finances, the WHA approved that until 2030 half of the WHO’s budget will be based on member states’ contributions, which is an increase from the 16% in the years 2020–2021, making the global health body less dependent on donors. ⁵⁴

Within the process of establishing a new pandemic treaty and reforming the International Health Regulation (IHR), the WHA ‘only’ agreed to a new way forward but not yet to substantial changes. Newly proposed amendments to the IHR have to be submitted until 30 September 2022, which will then be reviewed by a committee to make a proposal of amendments at the WHA in 2024. Furthermore, Delegates changed Article 59 of the IHR so that new amendments have to come into force within 12 months and not within 24 months. ⁵⁵ Moreover, the WHA approved a strategy on ‘HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections 2022–2030’. ⁵⁶ While this was expected to be a rather technical consensus vote, many conservative countries had larger objections and abstained from voting due to concerns regarding the use of terms such as ‘sexuality’, ‘sexual orientation’, ‘sexual rights’, ‘men who have sex with men’ or ‘sexual health’, leading to many delegations not being present during the vote. ⁵⁷

The annual Global Health 50/50 report investigates gender and geography of more than 2,000 global health board seats across 146 organizations. It highlights that boards are predominantly occupied by individuals from high-income countries: around 75% of board members are from high-income countries. The majority come from the US and the UK. Only 2.5% of seats are held by low-income countries. Women from low- and middle-income countries in particular are disproportionally represented. While they represent 42% of the global population, they only hold 9% of board seats. Moreover, the report highlights that most organizations do not have board targets in terms of gender parity even less so in terms of regional diversity, civil society or affected communities. ⁵⁸ In terms of gender parity at the WHA, Women in Global Health highlights that only 23% of the delegations are women-led, which is a decrease of 3% compared with last year and stagnation since 2010. Women in Global Health calls for the WHO to ensure that delegations are gender-equal, especially considering that 70% of the health work force and 90% of frontline health care workers are women. ⁵⁹

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) published a report Severe wasting: An overlooked child survival emergency to highlight the high children death toll due to severe wasting (severe acute malnutrition), which accounts for one in five deaths among children under five years of age. Severe wasting has increased by as much as 40% since 2016 in some countries, many of which are already affected by climate shocks, conflicts, and economic crisis due to the pandemic. ⁶⁰ Furthermore, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the WFP warn that food insecurity will most likely increase from June to September 2022, as ‘Organized violence and conflict remain the primary drivers for acute hunger’ as well as ‘weather extremes such as tropical storms, flooding and drought’. ⁶¹ In addition, IMF monitoring suggest that about 30 countries have implemented export ban on fertilizers since the armed conflict in Ukraine began, which can accelerate increases in food prices. ⁶²

Furthermore, the WHO notes that 99% of the global population suffers from air pollution and breathes air that is polluted with particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide. This comes along with evidence that shows that air pollution is detrimental to health at a lower level than previously thought. The situation is particularly detrimental in low- and middle-income countries that suffer particularly from particulate matter. The difference is less so in regard to nitrogen dioxide. ⁶³ Moreover, United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) formally joined the One Health partnership at its executive meeting, creating a Quadripartite partnership together with FAO, WHO and World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) that provides an integrated perspective on, for example, health policy and environmental protection (see GSP Digest 22.2). ⁶⁴ Generally, this leads to an improvement of the health-environment nexus at the global level.

WHO, Ghana and Norway established a new International Strategic Dialogue on Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Dialogue came along with a new Global Compact on NCDs. The compact calls for more policy action in terms of preventing and treating NCDs and the Dialogue noted that ‘the NCD pandemic [. . .] kills seven out of 10 people globally from risk factors like tobacco, alcohol, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and air pollution’. The first meeting as part of the Global Compact will take place in September 2022 and the Heads of State and Governments Group will convene annually at the UN General Assembly. ⁶⁵

There is agreement on the TRIPS Waiver proposal. However, the final waiver seems to be far away from the original proposal proposed by South Africa and India in 2020. Low- and middle-income countries are now allowed to waive property rights of vaccine patents to produce shots for either domestic use or to export them. However, this came along with a decision on postponing the decision on waiving property rights of diagnostics and treatments by six months. Generally, the deal is criticized for hardly providing additional elements to member states that are already available under existing rules. ⁶⁶ Global health campaigners did not mince words about their disappointment stating that ‘[t]he original idea of an intellectual property waiver hasn’t just been watered down, it’s been washed away’. ⁶⁷ Also, Médecins sans frontières states that they ‘are disappointed that a true intellectual property waiver [. . .] could not be agreed, even during a pandemic that has claimed more than 15 million people’s lives’. ⁶⁸

Employment and work

The idea that the world will not be the same after the COVID-19 pandemic becomes more evident in the current phase of rebuilding and reactivation. In workplaces around the globe, the new protocols and formats such as hybrid events, blended-learning, remote-work and working from home are proof of that transformation. The digitalization triggered by COVID-19 containment policies has become a key factor to understand the current trends in work and employment. Also, a differentiation between measures that addressed the immediate effects of the pandemic from those oriented to a post-COVID economy and labour markets is needed to analyze the present tendencies. In addition, inflation is also shaping the current processes of recovery, challenging the possibilities for achieving the ‘building back better’ goals. Against this background, the actions for a just transition to carbon neutrality and the creation of green jobs remain one of the main challenges for international actors.

The Companies that had been already transitioning to digital work accelerated that process and their sales decline was less significant, according to the EIB. Its latest report, ⁶⁹ based on the EIB Investment Survey (EIBIS), gathers data among Europe’s small- and medium-sized firms from April to July 2021. To measure the levels of digitalization, it presents the EIBIS Corporate Digitalisation Index that integrates firms’ perception to the existing European Commission’s Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) and adds data collected on firms in the US. As a result, European countries are grouped into four categories: frontrunners, strong, moderate and modest. Finland and Malta are the two top performing countries followed by Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden. The tool also identifies the aspects of the digitalization process on which each country focuses. For instance, Sweden prioritizes investment in employee training and Austria was a leader in digitalization adaptations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report concludes that digital firms that adapted to the new scenario also made improvements in energy efficiency and, thus, dedicated more efforts and investments towards climate change policies. The document also draws attention to digital expansion trends in the EU before the pandemic that put small firms at risk, mainly in zones that lack proper infrastructure. To counteract these imbalances across regions and countries, the report proposes a strategic perspective that involves supporting policies to narrow the existing gaps in finance and skills.

Digitalization projects pose many challenges for employers, workers and their organizations. One particular challenge is closing the persistent gap of access to care services. This sector – which proved to be central for the protection and support of workers and their families during the pandemic – could lead to the creation of about 300 million jobs, according to the ILO report published in commemoration of the 8 March 2022, ‘Care at work: Investing in care leave and services for a more gender equal world of work’.

The document shows the results of a survey conducted in 185 countries to portray the current situation of maternity and paternity leaves. It analyzes the duration, amount and source of funding in accordance with ILO Convention No. 183. Only 98 countries are fully in line with those requirements. The data suggest that 649 million, or 34% of potential mothers live in countries whose policies are not aligned with the ILO Convention. Furthermore, the study shows that even if 115 countries have introduced legislation on paternal leave, almost two-thirds of potential fathers live in countries where their right to caregiving is still not recognized. ⁷⁰ The report also addresses the key issue of breastfeeding at work, showing that in 142 out of 185 countries, breastfeeding workers have no access to paid or unpaid daily breaks or to hour reductions.

Furthermore, inflation and subsequent decreases in the purchasing power of wages are affecting the everyday lives of workers and deepening inequalities in labour markets. One particular issue is the combination of employment problems among young people. For example, women in Europe who are at the beginning of their professional trajectories (aged 25–29 years) are facing a 7.2% gender pay gap, and this is further compounded by a decrease in purchasing power.

In this challenging context, the debate on green jobs, recovery policies, safe, healthy and labour rights emerged as a fundamental topic in the latest Group of 7 (G7) meeting in Wolfsburg, Germany. The meeting resulted in a Ministerial Declaration by the G7 Labour and Employment Ministers that focuses on three topics: (1) the investment in skills required for new or reconverted (green) jobs; (2) the extension of social protection; and (3) the improvement of the occupational safety and health systems to incorporate the occupational risks related to climate change. ⁷¹ In the same vein, the IMF’s RST joins the already existing toolkits and is particularly oriented to long-term policies that entail climate change–related solutions and pandemic preparedness. But, for those initiatives to succeed, all the operations should fulfil ‘Sustainable Development Goal 8, including full employment, social dialogue and labour rights, all of which promote peace and prosperity from the ground up,’ said International Trade Union Conference (ITUC) General Secretary Sharan Burrow.

In addition to the discussion on a just transition, the green skills and job reconversion topics are gaining importance as a subject of debate under the concept of ‘green talent’. On this issue, two publications provide valuable data: the LinkedIn Global Green Skills Report 2022 and the World Forum article. ⁷² The former serves as a general introduction as it includes a glossary, basic definitions and a summary of five trends on the green economies future:

i) demand for green talent will soon outpace supply; ii) hiring of green talent is accelerating faster than overall hiring; iii) there’s currently a good balance in the green skills that are needed; iv) the fastest growing green skills are both mainstream and emerging; v) the volume of workers moving into green and greening jobs is too low. ⁷³

Another key finding is that green skills are required mostly in non-traditional green jobs. For instance, between 2016 and 2021, the fastest annual growth was for the following positions: Sustainability Manager (30%), Wind Turbine Technician, (24%), Solar Consultant (23%), Ecologist (22%) and Environmental Health and Safety Specialist (20%). The World Forum document also delivers figures on the present tendencies with illustrating graphics that show a faster growth of green skills among workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher and by country comparisons. Both sources indicate that this is both an ongoing process in the global labour market and a matter of great interest for policy-makers, employers’ and workers’ organizations.

Social protection

Global recovery from COVID-19 has been highly uneven, as confirmed by the SDG Report 2021. For 2021, the number of extremely poor people is expected to be on the level of 2015. While the working poverty rate is only slightly higher in 2021 than before the pandemic – having increased from 6.7% in 2019 to 6.9% in 2021 (with a high of 7.2% in 2020), these percentages translate to starkly different numbers across regions of the world. While remaining unchanged in Europe and Central Asia, and slightly lowered in Asia and the Pacific, Africa and the Arab States saw drastic increases. Low-income countries have been hit the hardest. In addition, working poverty is overwhelmingly being experienced by women and the youth, so strong divisions become not only observable between world regions but also within societies.^74,75

While wealthier countries have been able to respond to the crisis with the swift introduction and expansion of social protection policies, and have thus avoided the worst economic side effects of the COVID-19 crisis that came about due to the health crisis and the containment measures, low-income countries have only been able to finance temporary and often inadequate policies. Now, during the recovery phase, a similar picture emerges, which continues widening the gap between rich and poor countries. Disruptions of global supply chains and the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine, including its consequences on the global supply of oil, gas and food, add to the challenges from the economic ramifications of the COVID-19 crisis. Under pressures from limited fiscal resources and debt sustainability policies, weak production capacities, insufficient infrastructures and limited technological capabilities, low-income countries experience ‘structural weaknesses’ in joining the world’s recovery measures. These result in huge constraints in the duration and adequacy of social protection policies. Since informal employment is widespread in low-income countries, representing almost 90% of total employment in the least developed countries, social protection institutions are often ill-equipped to cushion the crises’ effects on the most vulnerable households.^76,77

Global increases in prices of food, oil and gas, exacerbated most recently by the armed conflict in Ukraine, further hurt those households that are already vulnerable – those working in the informal economy, people who lack social protection, and smaller businesses. While FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu argues that a global food crisis similar to the one in 2008 can still be avoided, ⁷⁸ the FAO also suggests that countries should quickly implement social protection policies to cushion its potential impact on the most vulnerable. ⁷⁹ To improve knowledge on the rising food insecurity worldwide, FAO has begun a new programme dedicated to collecting up-to-date data on the consequences of the armed conflict in Ukraine on global food security. ⁸⁰

For example, a document recently published by FAO shows the importance of both Ukraine and the Russian Federation in the global agricultural market, highlighting a number of different risks associated with the conflict. In particular, the potential impacts on food security are expected in countries that are highly dependent on imports of agricultural commodities, fertilizers and energy – especially from Ukraine and the Russian Federation. ⁸¹ These data are particularly important for those countries that are highly dependent on imports of agricultural commodities, energy and importantly also fertilizers from Ukraine and Russia.

Moreover, according to UNICEF, the most vulnerable entities are often households with children. Using data from 35 countries, the organization reports that up to half of all households experience food insecurity, while a quarter of households even suffer from dire food insecurity. Since children are the foundation for a sustainable future, the report warns about potential generations of inequality if measures are not taken to counter this crisis. ⁸² Meanwhile, FAO highlights that the majority of vulnerable people live in rural settings. Due to the mostly informal nature of their employment, people living in rural settings are most often insufficiently covered by social protection. Extending coverage beyond the urban population in formal employment is thus key to counter widening inequalities. ⁸³ Together with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, FAO has recently introduced a new poverty index that aims at better capturing the intricacies of rural poverty. ⁸⁴

As the UN’s Commission for Social Development points out, a truly global recovery after the pandemic is in danger if it is only achievable within high-income countries, whereas others still have insufficient access to vaccines and social protection. ⁸⁵ Under these conditions, the ILO asserts that it is crucial that the international community steps up in assisting these countries to join the global recovery by raising current levels of ODA (see section ‘Redistribution’), eliminating unnecessary barriers to trade and migration and guaranteeing equitable access to vaccines. There are signs that, at least in principle, this is acknowledged across the international community. During the ILO’s recent Global Forum for a Human Recovery, a variety of international agencies – among them the WHO, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the IMF, the OECD, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, UNICEF and more – pledged to cooperate in combating the inequalities that originated from the unequal recovery after the pandemic, including through expanding social protection. ⁸⁶ However, the IMF, as one of the largest funding organizations in development, avoids addressing social protection in its new Managing Director’s Global Policy Agenda 2022 altogether but instead speaks more vaguely about ‘social spending’ and prefers acknowledging inequalities in access to food rather than in issues of wealth. ⁸⁷

In response, ILO Director-General Guy Ryder repeated his organization’s call for universal social protection as a best defence against further crises and a more equitable future ⁸⁸ – a call that he also made at the IMF’s and World Bank’s annual meetings (see section ‘Global social governance’). ⁸⁹ A recent report from Human Rights Watch agrees that targeted programmes are less effective in protecting their beneficiaries’ human rights. ⁹⁰ However, the World Bank still mostly advocates for targeted cash transfer programmes, even though it acknowledges universal social protection as the ultimate goal. A recent World Bank report indeed praises the value of unconditional transfers but warns about programmes that are too large and argues that smaller cash transfer programmes might better and more persistently achieve their goals of poverty reduction than their larger cousins. ⁹¹ In fact, the World Bank has recently delved deep into the targeting discussion, by putting out a publication which exclusively deals with this issue. In light of tight fiscal resources in many countries, it argues that targeted transfers fulfil a very important role. But there is no specific method of targeting that is universally beneficial in every situation. ⁹²

As part of these discussions around targeting, several organizations address the question of how to reap the benefits of digitalization, including in improving the identification of beneficiaries and the delivery of benefits. In light of the fact that in low-income countries, where cash transfers are most needed, only 4.5% of the overall population has social protection coverage, it is high time to improve the processes of implementation and delivery. The World Bank points out that the pandemic has already shown the benefit of digital technologies in both identifying those most in need and delivering benefits more efficiently. ⁹³ A recent report argues that targeting methods will improve with the availability of improved data and new data sources, including big data and machine learning. ⁹⁴ The value of digital technologies has also been confirmed by a new International Social Security Association publication on social protection responses in Asia and the Pacific, which has found that information and communication technology has worked as an ‘enabler’ for the exceptional success of these countries to counter the negative effects of the pandemic. ⁹⁵ For the poorest countries, creating a comprehensive system for identifying, enrolling and delivering aid to those in need is thus crucial but also a huge challenge. ⁹⁶

Digital technologies have proven useful not only in the pandemic response but also in social protection responses to ongoing armed conflicts. In Ukraine, for instance, UN High Commissioner for Refugees has worked on distributing cash assistance to displaced Ukrainians in collaboration with local governments. Secure finance technology and data protection measures ensure that the assistance reaches the intended recipients. To guarantee this, refugees have to provide personal information and can then retrieve the money through the existing banking system and the national postal service. ⁹⁷

To help close the global digital divide, the UNDP has started its new Digital Strategy 2022–2025. The proposed measures allow policy-makers to access real-time information, which ensures that policies target the right beneficiaries. UNDP also plans to experiment with new digital solutions, including implementing foresight activities into its programmes. ⁹⁸ This is in line with insights from experiments with ‘adaptive social protection’ reported by the World Bank, which show, for instance, how timely changes in social protection systems made possible through real-time information on crises, such as droughts, can help vulnerable households adapt more quickly. ⁹⁹

Education

As the COVID-19 pandemic ebbs down, international student programs experience a renewed interest. ¹⁰⁰ Although it will take some time to return to the numbers of students going abroad before the pandemic, US-based sending organizations see that big cities like Barcelona, Florence and, interestingly, Seoul currently have the most appeal for US students. ¹⁰¹ However, in destination countries, the return of international students is welcomed, and not only by education institutions. In Australia, for instance, students play a vital role in the workforce in many services industries. ¹⁰² A group of four Hungarian universities even increased their efforts to attract more students by advertising themselves as a great destination specifically for students from Africa. Indeed, the fourth largest source of student interested in studying in Hungary is from Nigeria. ¹⁰³ Even as borders are opening, the continuation of digital learning solutions remains critical to attract and retain international students. ¹⁰⁴

At the end of May 2022, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) held the third World Higher Education Conference. It was intended to kick off a process of steering global higher education to a more open and less elitist viewpoint. ¹⁰⁵ Principles that are specifically highlighted include protection of academic freedom, integrity, inclusion, diversity and sustainability. Transdisciplinary, flexible and lifelong approaches to learning – with an emphasis on the use of technology – are to be favoured in the future. In accordance with the conference, a high-level session made a strong appeal to ratify the ‘Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education’. To date, only 15 countries have ratified the convention from 2019 and 20 are well advanced in its process. The increase in virtual academic mobility via digital distance and cross-border higher education, in particular, poses new challenges. ‘A key challenge is the recognition of qualifications obtained through online provision, requiring quality assurance agencies and internal processes to define standards and principles for “good practice” in e-learning, e-assessments, and other areas’, ¹⁰⁶ the UNESCO writes.

While the convention aims at more equity and global transferability, the UK’s ‘Brightest and Best’ Visa programme sends a completely different signal. This programme allows graduates from a list of 37 top-rated universities to come to the UK for two years, even without a job. However, it has been fiercely criticized by academics, students and politicians that no institution from the Global South is listed. ¹⁰⁷

In late April 2022, the World Bank, together with governments and foundations, launched the global ‘Childcare Incentive Fund’ – a new programme to scale up quality affordable childcare in developing countries. The Fund is intended to catalyse at least US$180 million in new funding in the next five years to support childcare in low- and middle-income countries. ¹⁰⁸ Accordingly, the World Bank published a volume in May 2022 that provides a holistic multidisciplinary view on how to best deliver early childhood education in lower- and middle-income countries. ¹⁰⁹ The authors consistently stress that expansions of access need to be balanced with quality improvements to prioritize learning for children. Key investments including improving the workforce, adopting new pedagogy and ensuring a stimulating learning space need not be very expensive or complex to be effective. ¹¹⁰

UNESCO’s yearly gender report ‘Deepening the debate on those still left behind’ reveals that the gender gap in learning has closed even in the poorest countries. The analysis of data from 120 countries showed that in later levels of schooling, girls in middle- and high-income countries score significantly higher in science. Around the world, girls tend to outperform boys in reading. In some countries the old gender gap in mathematics closed or even reversed in secondary education in countries like Malaysia, Cambodia or Congo. ¹¹¹

The gap in enrolment in tertiary education is also reversed: globally, only 88 men for every 100 women are enrolled in tertiary education. To put it succinctly, while girls face more difficulties in accessing education in early stages, boys face increasing risk at later stages to drop out of school. Poverty and child labour are identified as the main drivers behind this trend. UNESCO denounces the lack of protective legal frameworks in many countries. For example, of 146 countries, only 55 have a minimum age of employment aligned with its length of compulsory education. ¹¹² Clearly, legal provisions should be brought into a coherent policy to ensure education survival.

A new OECD report focuses on the overall impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people. Innovatively they surveyed youth organizations to collect experiences from people and practitioners working on the ground. Over half of OECD-based youth organizations were dissatisfied with how their governments delivered public goods in education and in areas like sports, culture and leisure. Organizations are also worried about wider societal effects of the crisis, such as inequalities across age cohorts, youth rights, and the spread of disinformation. Most peculiar is the worry of increasing polarization: more than a third of the surveyed organizations estimate their members’ trust in government to have decreased since the start of the pandemic. ¹¹³ This should motivate policy-makers to introduce measures which truly remedy the losses of youths – in particular, but not only, in education. Otherwise, political instability may be one undesired consequence.

The advocacy paper ‘The Future Youth Want’ drafted by the OECD’s youth advisory board at the Ministerial Council Meeting in early June is in the same vein. It marks the first time, youth voices are actively included in these Council Meetings. The paper calls for youth participation in decisions and representations in government and public institutions. Furthermore, it demands a holistic rethinking of the financial system to take into account the critical challenges young people face, including lack of access to social security, and social policy measures like health, pensions and education. ¹¹⁴ A view ahead in time should also include schools’ prioritization of essential skills especially for the digital world.

This sheds a new light of urgency on the persistent gap between students’ digital skill levels. The 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey assessment examines explanations in teachers’ situations and capabilities. The survey finds that schools with inadequate digital resourcing fall more often in the public sphere than private, and in rural areas more than cities. They also have a mostly disadvantaged student population. Even more, digitally savvy teachers are more likely to teach in private schools. One remedy, obviously, is a fairer distribution of teachers who are digitally savvy. Another, more short-term practical one, is hinted at by the finding that collaboration of teachers increases their use of digital technologies. ¹¹⁵

Online learning is booming globally, particularly during times of crisis. The Ireland-based online education platform Alison reports an 87% increase of enrolment and course completion from the African continent alone. The platform specializes in workplace skills and is free to use; however, certificates and diplomas need to be purchased. These purchases from persons in Africa have more than doubled over the last year. Students are most interested in skills for a digitalized economy such as information technology, arts, audio/video technology and communications, and business management and administration.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, closures of educational institutions meant that education needed to be delivered remotely, including online. Armed conflicts also force teachers to resort to fully digital ways of teaching. Using technology can enable children in these situations to continue with some sort of normalcy, at least in learning. For example, during the armed conflict in Ukraine, webinars, television lessons and online platforms served as synchronous and asynchronous ways of teaching. ¹¹⁶ Also, considering refugee children from Ukraine, UNESCO calls for measures to ensure the continuation of education, for example, via provision of hardware as well as development and expansion of digital content. ¹¹⁷ Indeed, students can enter the ‘National Online School’ from inside as well as outside the country. The resources included are digital versions of textbooks and even an online kindergarten with video classes for children aged three to six years. ¹¹⁸ In addition, online learning platforms in countries receiving refugees from Ukraine are expanded with offers targeted at Ukrainian children.

The speed and vigour of these measures are stunning to most political analysts. Especially, because European countries never moved in the same direction when it came to the situation of, for example, Syrian refugees, even when many of them were children. This unequal treatment has resulted in criticism of the European refugee regime as hypocritical and discriminatory (see section ‘Migration’). ¹¹⁹

Environment and climate justice

The COVID-19 lock-down made a significant contribution to the rapid growth in digital technologies, spaces, societies, and economies globally. This was due to the high dependency on such technologies to ensure efficiency and avoid collapse of economies. On the World Telecommunications Day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized the vision of embracing digital technologies while protecting against its perils. ¹²⁰ The UNEP vision 2022–2025 stipulates an important external pathway of the digital transformations sub-programme which is intended to harness best data and digital technologies. This will accelerate action by: building a digital ecosystem of data for the planet; shifting markets and consumer behaviours; and strengthening digital literacy, innovation and e-governance. ¹²¹

In this regard, digital and information system technology is believed to be an integral component of the global race to net zero. ¹²² This mostly includes information and communications technologies (ICT), such as wireless sensor networks, satellite technologies, geographic information systems, remote sensing, mobile technologies and web-based applications, which are being used to combat climate change in several ways. ¹²³ At the workplaces, sensors and actuators are often used for water management and energy consumption in smart buildings and smart devices. ¹²⁴ In addition, cost-efficient and climate friendly transactions, such as Eat Grim, Too Good to Go and Plant Jammer, are used in the marketplace to inform consumers about their climate footprints or redistribute products unwanted by supermarkets or bakeries at lower prices which reduces food waste and promotes sustainability. Generally, these digital forms have increased accessibility to massive timely information on climate change, as well as online climate activism.

However, the impact of digital and information systems and technology is far more complex. For example, digital innovation and electronic waste in the ICT sector has expanded the carbon footprint through higher demand for networks, data centres, computing power, data enabled analytics and applications, and for the manufacture of devices, telecom networks and data centres, which highly contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. ¹²⁵ Using renewable energy in the operation of the technologies, educating the masses about the sustainable use of ICTs, strict government regulations on their use and heavy sanctions on the offenders of the regulations, would help to maximize the opportunities and benefits ICT can provide in reducing the impact of climate change locally and globally. Furthermore, since most of these technologies are based in wealthy countries of the Global North, they can promote a global digital divide and limit access and use by countries in the Global South without careful management and governance.

South Korea has emerged as an exemplar for sustainable digital transformation through its policy practices including leadership and early government commitment; a whole-of-government approach involving a presidential committee, 18 ministries identifying and leveraging 10 core digital technologies and digitalization focussing on data centre power consumption and the application of management systems to ensure carbon neutralization by 2050; enabling private sector participation; increasing public awareness and managing the culture change. ¹²⁶

In the draft action plan for a sustainable planet in a digital age, the UN Coalition for Digital Environmental Sustainability indicates that digitalization can help tackle the triple planetary crisis through decarbonization for climate action; dematerialization to protect nature; and detoxification to prevent pollution. Moreover, the use of these technologies has brought about transformation in several sectors including: (1) the water sector, through water management, payment for ecosystem services, digital water diplomacy; (2) the energy sector, through coordination, balancing and monitoring, energy access, modelling and prediction; (3) the agricultural and food commodities sector, through vertical farming, precision agriculture, transparency and incentives; (4) the buildings sector, through smart buildings, digital building passports, 3D printing of buildings and components; (5) cities, through smart urban management, collaborative urban governance, smart sustainable cities, urban digital twins; and (6) the transport sector, through traffic control and optimization, shared mobility, smart logistics and fleet management. ¹²⁷ However, the plan indicates power asymmetries in environmental digitalization which is a major flaw, as less than 20% of the tech companies control 80% of the global digital infrastructure, including major platforms such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Meta (Facebook), Tencent and Alibaba, and they are increasingly investing in all parts of the global data value chain. ¹²⁸

For this reason, UN Secretary-General Guterres emphasized the need for corporate digital responsibility and for ‘working together across disciplines and actors, across nations and political divides, giving direction to these technologies so that we maximise benefits and curtail unintended consequences and malicious use’. In addition, legal accountability for ecocide is key to ensure justice for those impacted by the environmental crises such as the case of Ukraine. ¹²⁹ Also, transnational collaboration through environmental digital financing is key to improve access to digital technologies by populations at the margins that are more affected by climate change and environmental crises and to ensure fair and effective mitigation of climate change risks.

Migration

Amid the rise of zoom diplomacy and remote meetings, digital migration and virtual transportation to forums, panels, and even formal policy-making settings have become a regular occurrence. Statistical reports on virtual migration are insufficient to allow scholars to gauge the extent of digital migration. But Oxford University Researchers who have developed the Online Labour Index argue that there is an increasing trend in online labour. Even before COVID-19, the online data reported that the online economy grew by as much as 26% in one year. ¹³⁰

While the armed conflict in Ukraine has drawn much increased media attention, given that it is the largest migration of people seen in Europe since the end of World War II, it is far from the only instance of forced displacement within or across borders globally. Since the start of the armed conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, over 7.1 million people have been displaced and 15.7 million people are estimated to urgently require humanitarian assistance and protection. ¹³¹ Besides Ukrainian citizens, as of 3 April 2022, nearly 205,500 Ukrainian residents living, studying or working in the country had fled. ¹³² These included many Africans, who face differential and worse reception conditions in the EU compared with Ukrainian nationals. Several European countries have swiftly responded to the needs of displaced people from Ukraine by initiating policy interventions that do not pass through the channels of cumbersome bureaucratic procedures. ¹³³ These measures have included urgent legislative measures, coordination platforms of various stakeholders, entry requirements, border controls and registration with the authorities, provision to grant temporary or other types of natural protection for Ukrainians; establishment of reception points and emergency structures, and increasing existing capacities, provision of psychological support, and suspension of obligation to leave and return to Ukraine. ¹³⁴ The aforementioned measures would provide some relief for displaced Ukrainians, but other critical issues need to be addressed. For example, what would skilled displaced Ukrainians do as they negotiate for livelihood in the host countries? What are the implications of forced displacement on the nexus between digitalization and migration? What policies should inform digitalization and migration? And why were similar measures not taken as refugees from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan entered Europe in large number in the early 2010s? Beyond Ukraine, 89.3 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide by the end of 2021, the vast majority of which (53.2 million) are internally displaced people. ¹³⁵ Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar are the most common countries of origin of international migrants, and the top three hosting countries are Türkiye, Colombia and Uganda. ¹³⁶

Long before the outbreak of the armed conflict in Ukraine, technology had contributed to the migration of several activities online. The explosion of social media and other channels that are shaped by ‘sentient’ robotic machines has enhanced online economic transactions. This development has resulted in online freelance labour across countries (see ‘Employment and work’). ¹³⁷ Similarly, UN agencies, donors and civil society organizations have invested consideration time and resources in digital technologies to provide migrants with information, advice and support during the migration journey and their destination. ¹³⁸

Migration has also surged since the UK’s exit from the EU and the COVID-19 pandemic. Concomitantly, several technologically inclined works migrated online. The UK government has, therefore, introduced a new visa scheme to attract more skilled labourers (see section ‘Education’), which was swiftly criticized. ¹³⁹ Reports also suggest that workers born in India or EU-14 countries are more likely to be in high skilled occupations – IT specialists, doctors and nurses, and managers – than those born in the UK, while those born in new EU member states (EU-8 and EU-2) are more likely to be in low-skilled occupations. ¹⁴⁰

As digitalization eases migration procedures and physical migration becomes cumbersome in a world of human and naturally-induced crises, several EU member states incorporated digital technologies in the management of migration and asylum. ¹⁴¹ All these have enhanced virtual migration. As virtual migration and online freelance skilled labour increase, there are issues of transnational and social citizenship. Would nations that receive the service of online skilled workers be willing to provide easy visas to such workers? Is it also possible that the idea of citizenship would need to be considered to pave way for the more social-oriented type of citizenship, as opposed to a legalistic type of citizenship?

As virtual migration becomes a feature of the contemporary world, a face-to-face conversation, which is fundamentally most human, is imperilled.This has the potential to effect virtues such as empathy, the experience joy, and our ability to foster social cohesion. All this means that migration policies must foster dualistic migration – where virtual migrants could translate into reality as physical migrants to have real physical sense with other persons. This is very important because the world is striving to overcome multidimensionality of social exclusion. The extensive concentration on economic enrichment skills, at the expense of the humanities that promote critical thinking and the creation of competent democratic and empathic citizens, is problematic for a world of cultural wars. For policy consideration, there is a need for migration policy to check the extensive virtual migration to blend sociality and virtuality in supporting human flourishing and prosperity in a globalized world.