United Nations Research Institute for Social Development

In response to a resolution by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Productive Capacities Index (PCI) was developed by UNCTAD as a multidimensional statistical tool to measure, monitor, and benchmark productive capacities through a comprehensive framework, encompassing human capital, natural capital, energy, transport, ICT, institutions, private sector, and structural change. This paper outlines the conceptual foundation of the PCI, the methodological approach used for indicator selection and data transformation, and the statistical processes, particularly Principal Component Analysis, used to derive the composite index. Emphasis is placed on how the PCI supports evidence-based policymaking, facilitates cross-country comparisons, and contributes to statistical development agendas aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The PCI serves as a valuable complement to traditional indicators such as GDP, offering insights into the underlying capabilities necessary for economic and social development.

This study examined the coping strategies of teachers to manage the intersection of work and family duties, emphasizing their challenge and stress coping strategies in both domains. The research was based on a qualitative research design grounded on the interpretivism paradigm that aims to interpret human experiences from the participant's point of view. Utilizing a phenomenological study design with descriptive, contextual, and exploratory aspects, the study explored teachers' everyday life experiences, using semi-structured interviews to collect data. The study assessed how professionals balance professional and family obligations, noting the coping processes they implement to alleviate stress and achieve equilibrium. Findings indicated that teachers utilize adaptive coping processes, such as proficient time management, seeking help, and maintaining segregation between work and family obligations. Social support networks, including colleagues, relatives, and community groups, were pivotal in offering emotional support and practical help. In addition, teachers also outlined the deployment of personal resilience and ordering strategies to sustain their well-being. The study highlights the significance of teachers comprehending the dynamic interplay between professional and family life by illuminating how institutional support and policy action could strengthen their coping ability. These results add to the general discourse on teacher satisfaction and work-life balance by urging professional support structures in school and home environments.

By combining environmental and social objectives in order to address climate change and other environmental challenges, ‘just transitions’ have the potential to accelerate low-carbon transitions in an inclusive and equitable manner. More broadly, by strengthening an egalitarian and ecological public sphere that protects workers’ rights and the rights of nature, just transitions can contribute to a new eco-social contract for both people and planet, guaranteeing full access to social rights and a viable future for all. But like other strategies, just transitions vary in their ambition and thus their eco-social visions. This article builds on the analytical framework developed by the Just Transition Research Collaborative to comparatively assess different just transition pathways in Germany, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United States in the context of different types of welfare state and economic structure. The comparison may help stakeholders to evaluate different just transition policies according to contextual factors and transformative potential.

La Prière de Marcel Mauss, ouvrage publié en 1909 avant d’être finalement retiré des étals des librairies, s’agence autour d’une question centrale que Mauss n’a eu de cesse de poser dans ses divers écrits de sociologie religieuse et que l’on peut résumer ainsi : quels sont les moyens de communication avec la divinité ? Tout en suivant les commentaires contenus dans une récente préface introductive (Mauss 2019), il nous semble important d’insister sur le modèle d’analyse que Mauss cherche à mettre en place et qui, comme souvent chez lui, prend le contre-pied d’approches classiques, qu’elles soient anthropologiques, psychologiques, philosophiques ou théologiques.

Abstract The current study seeks to understand the nature of gender relations within a post‐Soviet welfare model in Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Russia. On the basis of the analysis of key labour market indicators, parental leave, and childcare policies, it finds that the welfare models in the three countries are hybrid, and neither authoritarianism in Kazakhstan and Russia nor democracy in Mongolia lead to substantive gender equality outcomes. Persistent gender inequality in these countries is underpinned by the neo‐liberal approach to welfare provision, conservative social norms, and limited agency of civil society to influence the policy agenda. Nonetheless, these states have distributed to the population with an emphasis on working mothers, and this policy choice has been driven by economic, demographic, and political considerations, which ultimately serve to support, rather than transform, the patriarchal power structure in these societies.

The article examines the approaches to poverty of the UN development decades, with a focus on the current 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Using the “5 R” criteria of global social policy discourse, the article’s main point is that a coherent analysis of poverty is absent from the agenda. While the agenda does address redistribution, social rights, and resource consciousness, and makes important contributions to social protection and care policy, it makes only superficial reference to the need for regulating of the economy. The main lacuna of the agenda, however, is that it does not address the issue of relationality – the systemic asymmetries in economic, social and political power. As a result, it is weak on policy, and there is the risk that poverty eradication will remain an elusive goal, even beyond 2030, despite the agenda’s transformative remit.

Abstract This article locates the discussion of this Special Section within the wider analysis of Interculturalism and intercultural dialogue as a new way of framing dynamic inter‐ethnic and broader community relations, and considering how perceived and real crisis affects both states’ and societys’ understandings of ethnicity, culture and diversity. Taking cases from Catalonia, Spain, the European Union, this Special Section's multi‐level approach illustrates how intercultural dialogue can be developed at the sub‐State, State, Region and international levels. By surveying the articles in the Special Section, this introduction critiques the Interculturalism framework and develops it. Crucially, drawing out insights from across these different types of groupings and from theorists offering a range of perspectives, this collection is able to offer new insights on Interculturalism, its relations with Multiculturalism, and forms of intercultural dialogue.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 was agreed at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan in March 2015 and endorsed by the UN General Assembly in June 2015. The goal of the Sendai Framework is to prevent new and reduce existing disaster risk. UNISDR coordinates and ensures synergies among the disaster reduction activities of the United Nations system and regional organizations and stakeholders The role of science and technology in providing the evidence and knowledge on risk features prominently in the Sendai Framework. Expanding the interface between science, technology and policy is therefore essential for effective disaster risk reduction. In January 2016, UNISDR hosted the Science and Technology Conference on the Implementation of the Sendai Framework. The main outcome of the conference was the launching of the Science and Technology Partnership and the endorsement of the science and technology roadmap that outlines expected outcomes, actions, and deliverables under each of the four priority actions of the Sendai Framework. Over the last twenty years, the majority of disasters have been caused by floods, storms, heatwaves and other weather-related events. Most of these disasters can cause landslides, which in turn cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damage and hundreds of thousands of deaths and injuries each year The International Consortium on Landslides (ICL) 2015–2025 and The Sendai Partnerships promotes global understanding and reduction of landslide disaster risk. They will contribute significantly to the implementation of the science and technology roadmap by providing practical solutions and tools, education and capacity building, and communication and public outreach to reduce landslides risks. UNISDR fully supports the work of the Sendai Partnerships and the community of practice on landslides risks

Given the importance of cash transfer programmes in social protection strategies in sub-Saharan Africa, understanding programme impacts and processes that facilitate improvements in programme implementation is critical. Based on rigorous mixed method impact evaluations, evidence presented in this book from Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Malawi, and South Africa that form part of the Transfer Project and From Protection to Production project clearly counteracts concerns around cash transfers creating dependency. Unconditional cash transfers lead to a broad range of significant social and productive impacts, even though they are not tied to any specific behaviour. Lessons on the political economy of evaluations suggest that impact evaluations must be embedded in policy processes to be effective in influencing decision-making. Impact evaluations help build the credibility of the social protection sector, strengthen the case for social protection as an investment, address public concerns around transfers, and support learning around programme design.