Providing universal access to social protection and health systems for all members of society, including the poor and vulnerable, is increasingly considered crucial to international development debates. This is the first book to explore from an interdisciplinary and global perspective the reforms of social protection systems introduced in recent years by many governments of low and middle-income countries.

Although a growing body of literature has been concerned with the design and impact of social protection, less attention has been directed towards analyzing and explaining these reform processes themselves. Through case studies of African, Asian, and Latin American countries, this book examines the 'global phenomenon' of recent social protection reforms in low and middle-income areas, and how it differs across countries both in terms of scope and speed of institutional change. Exploring the major domestic and international factors affecting the political feasibility of social protection reform, the book outlines the successes and failures of recent reform initiatives.

This invaluable book combines contributions from both academics and practitioner experts to give students, researchers and practitioners in the fields of social security, economics, law and political science an in-depth understanding of political reform processes in developing countries.

About the Author
Katja Bender is Professor for Economic and Social Development at the International Centre for Sustainable Development, Bonn-Rhine-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, Germany. Markus Kaltenborn is Professor at the Faculty of Law and Director of the Institute of Development Research and Development Politics, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. Christian Pfleiderer is a project leader and head of the sector initiative Development and Integration of Social Protection Systems at the sustainable development specialist Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Germany.

Reviews
'I warmly welcome this incisive publication, which makes an important contribution to the growing debate on social protection and its relationship to development, poverty and human rights. Implementing more comprehensive and rights-based social protection systems around the world is an urgent priority; a means to realize human rights, provide a lifeline out of poverty for many millions of people and turn our vision for fairer and more inclusive societies into a reality.' - Magdalena Sepulveda Carmona, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights



Book Information
ISBN 9780415641036
Author Katja Bender
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 470g