A Letter from the UNDP

A few days ago I got a request from Avi Sharma, an Indian volunteer with the UNDP, to post the following on my blog. I agree in principle with what follows and have therefore decided to post it. I have also added the mentioned website to the list of "Useful Resources" found on the left column.  If you have any further questions you can contact Avi Sharma at leisuresoul.avi@gmail.com

South-South Learning on Social Protection

When the world is connecting and exchanging ideas & knowledge through internet, then why Social protection topics should be left behind? We can never expect a country to generate correct and workable ideas to change the world. We need a platform, world needs a platform to exchange ideas and knowledge that have gained practicality in some part of the planet which can be implemented in others. Thus, United Nation’s International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) has realized this requirement of mankind and recently launched a website named “South-South Learning on Social Protection”. This gateway is an initiative to foster south-south collaboration, aiming to expand the knowledge base and capacities of developing countries to design and implement nationally-owned poverty reduction strategies, bridging the gap between theory, policy and practice with accessible and diverse social protection information in print and online. It also provides a space where practitioners can share ideas, experiences and resources.

This new website has been set up as a “virtual bookcase” where there is a searchable database of social protection materials from across the world. The collection includes tools, case studies, policy papers and research. Another innovation of this gateway is that is that it fosters the interactive engagement of users, offering the possibility to participate by posting news, comments and suggestions, submission of recommendations for library inclusions, proposing new features and also participating in the Forum. The South-South Learning on Social Protection features more than 150 papers in the area and maps public policies of 94 nations - from Brazil to Madagascar, from India to Zimbabwe from South Africa to East Timor, from Mexico to the Cook Islands, from China to Trinidad and Tobago.

The idea of the website has its roots on the Africa-Brazil Cooperation Programme on Social Protection, which started in 2008 to support the development and implementation of effective social protection policies and foster South–South learning with partner African countries. Now, it’s our time to contribute i.e. youths, national policy makers, NGO’s and other organization who believe in serving and healing this world. This can provide a platform for youths to interact and design a policy in discussions with specialist by using roster feature of website and forum. As we, the people, are very energetic and have excessive interest to contribute to the society that can be contributed in the right directions. We can get ideas, policies and many publications that can lead us in contributing to the society around us which can result in a change, a change that world expect, a change which we all want to see in our lifetime. A world without poverty, without employment, without unavailability of basic necessities, that’s the kind of world I and we aim for.

Let’s hope we can change the world with clearer ideas to implement and seek guidance from people world believes on!!

Visit us at http://south-south.ipc-undp.org/