Social protection systems provide benefit transfers to the poor and vulnerable and protect them against livelihood risks. While digital technologies have been designed to strengthen social protection systems, research shows that the same technologies have been implicated in the exclusion of vulnerable users, both in the global North and South. Such exclusions have affected social protection globally, with particularly serious consequences during the COVID-19 pandemic (Milan et al., 2021).
This project is an exploratory case study of digital social protection during COVID-19. It starts with a review of the literature on digital social protection, focusing specifically on the measures adopted across countries during the pandemic. It will then involve a case study focused on challenges of exclusion from digital social protection during COVID-19. Depending on the students' interest and on travel restrictions, the project may involve fieldwork in a country, centered on the lived experience of users with the digital social protection system.
Who is this for:
1-2 students with an interest in Information Systems or Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D).
References:
Milan, S., Treré, E., & Masiero, S. (2021). Introduction: COVID-19 Seen from the Land of Otherwise. In Milan, S., Treré, E., & Masiero, S. (Eds.), COVID-19 from the Margins: Pandemic Invisibilities, Policies and Resistance in the Datafied Society (pp. 14-21). Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures.