Social Protection (MSc)
MSc Social Protection Insights: March
March 2024: Social Protection Insights
📢 H-BRS Department for Social Policy and Social Security Studies Turned 20
The department had something big to celebrate in February: the department's 20th anniversary! Back then, the department started with a handful of colleagues and a Bachelor's degree in 'Social Security Management - Accident Insurance (BA)'. Almost 10 years later, the Master's program in Social Protection was added, then still under its old name as 'Analysis and Design of Social Protection Systems (MA)' - today as 'Social Protection (MSc)'. The range of courses on offer is now supplemented by a further Bachelor's degree course in 'Sustainable Social Policy (BA)' and a certificate course in Prevention and Employability.
Over the course of time, many professors and researcher have joined the department, conducting research projects on topics such as sustainable labor migration, health insurance in Pakistan, the sustainability of medical rehabilitation, and the AI-based detection of fake news and misinformation (NEBULA). The department partners with renowned organizations for research, internships, teaching, guest talks and theses. They have been continuously expanded and include important players in social protection, which will be presented in our next issue.
Ultimately, the department mutually benefits from its intensifying partnerships with other universities international like the The Institute of Finance Management (IFM) in Tanzania, the University of Zambia and the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. Just recently, arthur ngasani from IFM taught a course in Poverty and Inequality as a guest lecturer and Masauso Chirwa PhD joined the department as a guest professor from the University of Zambia for the winter term 2023/24 and summer term 2024.
📢 Recap of Brown Bag Lunch Series Events During the Winter Semester 2023/2024
We had three Brown Bag Lunches with brilliant guest speakers last semester. Thank you presenters for the generous offering of your time and expertise, and thank you for those who joined for the conversations! We are looking forward to more compelling topics this summer. Here's an overview of the winter semester topics:
- Including Migrant Workers in National Security Systems with Anas Ghonaim: In his presentation, our alumn Anas went through his research collaboration with the ILO Arab States regional office on the inclusion of migrant workers in national social security systems and reforming end-of-service indemnity in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The presentation included migration-related definitions, demographics analysis of international migrant population, ILO minimum standards and principles for the inclusion of migrants in social protection, and the case study of migrant workers’ inclusion in GCC countries. (Tipp: see related publication below!)
- Social Protection and Climate Change Adaptation: A Case Study on the Philippines with Amirhosein Rahbari: Our alumn Amir(hosein) introduced his award-winning master's thesis research. He developed a comprehensive framework for assessing the convergence of social protection and climate change adaptation (SP-CCA nexus) across policy, coordination, financing, and program levels by conducting an extensive desk review and key informant interviews. In the seminar, Amir gave an overview of his systematic evaluation of the SP-CCA nexus within the Philippines' context, culminating in a set of recommendations for system enhancement.
- Adaptive Social Protection in Colombia with Carlos Alberto Garzón Riveros: In the third brown bag lunch, Carlos gave an overview of the social protection system in Colombia and explained the term adaptive social protection in this context. He derived lessons learned, limitations and challenges to consolidate an Adaptive Social Protection System (SPSA) in Colombia.
- Lessons of Using Social Insurance in Crises in Sub-Saharan Africa with Sayanti Sengupta: Our alumna Sayanti concisely used case studies to report on how social insurance helps to protect people in sub-Saharan Africa during crises and thereby draws from her experience as a freelance technical social protection advisor. She has already given this short presentation at our alumni seminar in Tanzania, which captivated our local partners. We have invited her again so that our current students and colleagues can also benefit from her expertise and network with her.
Get to Know Our Students, Lecturers & Alumni
Student of the Month
Name: Maureen Barasa
Batch: 2023/24
Country of Origin: Kenya
Social Protection Experience: Social Worker, providing support to at-risk children. Focus on community engagement, social development programs, policy design and implementation, and working with vulnerable groups.
Research Interests: Human rights issues, social development
„The Master's in Social Protection has been a transformative experience, deeply enriching my understanding of global social protection strategies and policies. A key highlight of the program is the practical application of theoretical knowledge in real-world scenarios, providing me with the tools to effectively address social vulnerabilities. I would highly recommend this program to future applicants for its comprehensive curriculum and the unique opportunity to engage with international experts in the field.”
Maureen Barasa - 2023/24 Batch
Alumni Spotlight
Name: Sajanika Sivanu
Batch: 2020
Country of Origin: Canada
Current Role: Independent Social Protection & Climate Consultant // Technical Advisor for the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre
Internship: Junior Researcher at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre
Some of her most recent publications (the first 4 co-authored by our alumna Sayanti Sengupta) include:
- Climate risk impacts onemployment opportunities for youth in Pakistan,
- Climate funds and social protection: What is the progress to date?
- Universal health coverage as a crucial pillar for social protection
- Synergies in Social Protection and WASH: What should Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies know?
- Chapter 13: Social protection impacts, gaps and future research, co-authored by Prof. Dr. Esther Schüring & former lecturer Valentina Barca
„This programme not only equipped me with a strong understanding of social protection fundamentals but also facilitated valuable connections with practitioners and organizations – essentially kick-starting my career.”
Sajanika Sivanu - 2020/21 Batch
Meet our Lecturers
Name: Dr. Deepta Chopra
Position: Professorial Research Fellow Institute of Development Studies
Teaching in the programme since: 2022
Course(s) in 2023/24: M3.3 Social Care Services
Expertise: Gendered politics of policy processes, empowerment of women and girls, paid and unpaid care work
„This is an exciting programme for those who want to deepen their knowledge and expertise in Social Protection. I teach the Social Care services module – where our focus is on designing gender and care-sensitive social care policies and programmes for vulnerable populations – with the ethics of care at the heart of these policies.”
Dr. Deepta Chopra - Lecturer
Resources and Publications
Since our students are on a semester break and our MSc Social Protection supporters are sharing numerous valuable publications, we've expanded the resource section this time. We hope it keeps you equally inspired and well-informed!
Publications:
- Our lecturer Arthur van de Meerendonk with colleagues Zina Nimeh and Guido Thomas Heins presents the findings in terms of projected costs and estimated coverage of social protection regorm for Asia and the Pacific (2024-2030): Costing Social Protection Reform for Asia and the Pacific, part of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Sustainable Development Working Paper Series
- Want to know what happens beyond COP28? Alumna Sayanti Sengupta, Garima Bhalla and Jana Bischler published a blog post on socialprotection.org: Social protection for inclusive climate action: COP28 and beyond
- In line with Anas Ghonaim's interesting brown bag lunch presentation, Christina Lowe who has taught M7.2 "Delivery Mechanisms for Social Transfers" last year contributed to the International Social Security Association (ISSA) publication "Extending social protection to migrant workers in the region of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC): an analysis of enablers and barriers (co-authored by Jessica Hagen-Zanker, caterina mazzilli, Luca Pellerano and Abigail Hunt (she/her)) as part of the Special Issue: To leave no one behind: Social security coverage for displaced and migrant workers
New databases and mappings (that might be useful for your thesis research):
- "The State of the World's Children 2023: Statistical tables" by UNICEF
- The Global Alliance for Food Security's Global Food and Nutrition Security Dashboard
- A Mapping of gender and social protection data by Handbook on Social Protection contributor Maja Gavrilovic, part of the STAAR Facility
- The Child Benefits Tracker by International Labour Organization & Save the Children International
Podcasts:
- One of our guest speaker for the Evaluation module - Nyasha Tirivayi from UNICEF Innocenti - has just launched a new podcast with her colleagues Lauren Whitehead and Ramya Subrahmanian to discuss the GRASSP (Gender-Responsive and Age-Sensitive Social Protection) research project and the potential of #SocialProtection to address child wellbeing and gender inequality: The GRASSP Podcast
- WIEGO - Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing new podcast episode on Registration For Social Protection in Cambodia
- New episode of the socialprotection.org podcast, this time on gender-transformative social protection
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E-Courses:
- International Labour Organization and partners have launched a new free self-paced course in Making Universal Social Protection a Reality (available in English and French)
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Contact Us!
We are always interested in creating partnerships with those of you working in the field! We would love to hear from you if are interested in
- being a #ThesisSupervisor,
- providing #Internship opportunities to our students,
- publishing a paper in our #WorkingPaper series, or
- visiting our university as a #GuestSpeaker!
Your feedback and suggestions to improve the newsletter are also very welcome.