This issue of the ESR Review features Hannah Dawson’s examination of new methodologies and tools for measuring,
monitoring and evaluating the progressive realisation of socioeconomic rights, and Charles Lwanga-Ntale’s analysis of the barriers to social protection uptake in East Africa. Updates are provided on recent developments on socio-economic rights in Africa and at the United Nations.

The Studies in Poverty & Inequality Institute (SPII) in partnership with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), which is constitutionally obliged to report annually on the defence and advancement of the rights in the Constitution, has developed a methodology based on international best practice. The methodology combines various
approaches to monitoring socio-economic rights including policy and budget analysis and statistical indicators.

This paper conducts an in-depth analysis of the policy developments for social security before and after 1994. This analysis enables an assessment to be made on how far the constitutional obligation to progressively realise the right to social security and social assistance for those who can’t provide for themselves has been realised, and the extent to which this obligation has in fact driven the policy making process.

The analysis is in four parts: the first is an exploration of the background to the EPWP, in its role as South Africa’s largest active labour market policy; the second presents an examination of aspects of the performance of EPWP Phase 1, looking in particular at target vs. actual numbers of job opportunities and training days. The third considers aspects of the vast increases in the scope of EPWP from Phase 1 to Phase 2, of the way in which these have been communicated, and of the way in which they are to be funded, while fourth the looks at the possible contribution that this second phase could/may make to the goal of halving unemployment by 2014.

UNICEF and the Social Policy Initiative in collaboration with several partner organisations launched the Decent Standard of Living report, highlighting the findings on possession of the socially perceived necessities in 2022.

This brief highlights the importance of social protection in climate action.