Valentina Barca

I've done a NEW page on my website 🖥️

And I'm starting NEWSLETTER ✉️

If you are interested in the use of AI and other tech in how govts the world over administer the welfare state you should sign up!

Monthly-ish insights, analysis, gossip, thrills and more ⤵️

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Climate-responsive social protection: A primer for philanthropy

We need to take urgent #ClimateAction right now to avoid the worst of Climate Change!

More: odi.org/en/publications/pri...

#ClimateAction

Scalable Targeting of Social Protection: When Do Algorithms Out-Perform Surveys and Community Knowledge?: Emily Aiken; Anik Ashraf; Joshua Blumenstock; Raymond Guiteras; Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak

Why Big Tech is threatened by a global push for data sovereignty Countries are forcing tech giants to store citizen data locally, challenging the standard business model of harvesting data abroad while keeping profits at home.

Developing countries are pushing back on Big Tech’s control of user data. The countries want tech giants to store their citizens’ data locally instead of overseas, to reclaim digital sovereignty and have more control, reports @tarykuh.bsky.social for @restofworld.org
restofworld.org/2025/big-tec...

Stark visual!

This proposal is a bomb under the right to asylum in Europe. People who flee war and prosecution deserve our protection. With this proposal, asylum seekers can potentially be deported through unsafe third countries, without any form of connection being needed. 1/2

bsky.app/profile/eura...

A ray of hope: FEWSNET is back.

drive.google.com/file/d/1bp3g...

The World’s Most Urgent Scientific Question https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/wmo-confirms-2024-warmest-year-record-about-155degc-above-pre-industrial-level There is no question more urgent than the one indicated by that red arrow in the graph...

Global average temperatures are spiking, rising faster than climate models seem able to explain, and in a sane world, every country would be united in a full-scale effort to figure this out & respond. Instead the US is dismantling its scientific infrastructure.

Almost half of young people would prefer a world without internet, UK study finds Half of 16- to 21-year-olds support ‘digital curfew’ and nearly 70% feel worse after using social media

46% of 16 to 21 year olds say they would rather a world without internet, and 70% say they feel worse about themselves after using social media.

It’s long past time governments stepped in to address the consequences of leaving the internet to the private sector.

Lawyer for Venezuelans deported to El Salvador prison arrested Ruth López held without access to lawyers at secret location accused of ‘embezzlement’ a decade ago

None of the 278 men sent to CECOT have been returned. Meanwhile their lawyer has been arrested and "disappeared" in El Salvador.

The government was wrong to cut winter fuel payments.

It was wrong to keep the 2-child benefit cap.

It was wrong to slash disability benefits.

Pushing people into poverty is the wrong thing to do. The right thing to do is redistribute wealth and power so that everyone can live in dignity.

The Fourth Transformation | David Adler, Vanessa Romero Rocha, and Michael Galant The political economy of Claudia Sheinbaum’s popularity

3/ How did Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum became the most popular president in the world? Read this.

“We will not return to the neoliberal model … We will continue with Mexican Humanism and with the maxim of ‘For the good of all, first the poor.’”
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the...

I've had a long-running thread on twitter on the real migration crisis (not enough migrants). Will start posting here... but for the earlier 1,000-plus examples, see here:

x.com/charlesjkenn...

Exploring health insurance as a financial buffer in Maternal and Child Health in the Democratic Republic of Congo This study investigates the low health insurance coverage among pregnant women and new mothers in selected health zones of DRC, aiming to identify und…

"Health insurance coverage among pregnant women and new mothers in the DRC remains critically low at 3%"
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The Impact of Trump’s Tariffs The tariffs proposed by Donald Trump, which are far larger than any on the books today, would significantly raise the prices faced by American consumers across the income scale.

New research from @itep.org found that Trump’s tariffs will hike the taxes of the poorest 20% of Americans by 6.2%.

Meanwhile, the richest 1% will see a 1.7% hike.

Everybody suffers under tariffs, but as always, it’s the poor that hurt the most.

itep.org/trump-tariff...

What Donald Trump has said about raising minimum wage as new bill proposed The president has historically opposed federal minimum wage hikes as Democrats push a 2025 bill to raise wages nationwide.

Would it surprise you to learn that Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Netflix, Apple, and Microsoft have avoided nearly $278 billion in corporate taxes over the last decade?

Yeah, didn’t think so.

It's time for wealthy individuals AND corporations to pay up. www.newsweek.com/donald-trump...

Powerful, if scary, read.

Trump Just Cut the Minimum Wage for Hundreds of Thousands of Private Sector Workers By tearing up a Biden-era executive order that set a minimum wage for workers on federal contracts, the Trump administration has made some private sector workers vulnerable to pay cuts of up to 25 per...

With Trump gutting the $17.75 minimum wage for contract workers, corporations with government contracts are free to cut wages for hundreds of thousands of workers.

That can mean up to 25% pay cut—a devastating amount for those just trying to get by. www.americanprogress.org/article/trum...

“A republic, if you can keep it” - but can the US keep it? How Trump is dismantling democracy Mapping out 69 actions that President Trump has taken in the last twelve weeks to undermine democracy, undermine the rule of law, attack enemies, suppress dissent and control information

My new post mapping out 69 actions that President Trump has taken in the last twelve weeks to undermine democracy, undermine the rule of law, attack enemies, suppress dissent and control information.

Do read and share. Full 🧵 tomorrow hopefully!

christinapagel.substack.com/p/a-republic...

U.S. Statement Delivered at the 177 Session of the FAO Council

US tells UN's FAO to stop "distracting focus on climate" and instead help farmers adapt to drought & extreme heat. 🤔

usunrome.usmission.gov/u-s-statemen...

A tax justice lens on Palestine - Tax Justice Network Tax has been an important tool of Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Tax matters may seem almost administrative and of negligible importance within this context, but Israel’s withholding of tax sovereignty has been a significant and compounding factor in the denial of Palestinian rights. taxjustice.net/2025/04/09/a...

In the latest ODID blog, @ophioxford.bsky.social Director Sabina Alkire highlights a lesser-known casualty of the current tumult in humanitarian assistance, the flagship Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program

www.qeh.ox.ac.uk/blog/flying-...

YouTube video by Garys Economics Special: Can tariffs make you rich? with Ha-Joon Chang

My beloved old professor Ha-Joon Chang on why #tariffs make sense for some countries but definitely not in this case (think child development) youtu.be/Shz3mSMqW04?... @garyseconomics.bsky.social

I'm seeing a huge spike in interest in tariffs from people who normally don't work in the economics of international trade. Here are a few useful things to know about them. (1/14)

New blog by @justsand.bsky.social and me on USAID cuts by country and updated (again) sectoral cuts based on the list that went to Congress today.

Ukraine $1.4bn cut. Ethiopia, the DRC, Colombia, South Africa, Palestine, Bangladesh, Kenya, Afghanistan, and Tanzania >$200m

@emryss.bsky.social

From 2010 to 2016 (latest data I have ), NIH research contributed to EVERY drug approved by the FDA

Had been waiting for this one: all it takes is political will, yet the massive problem here is the unfettered will to slash rather than serve (and the cutting of all checks and balances in the process) bsky.app/profile/scho... #interoperability #data

A must-read! 📖 This blog delves into the implications of recent funding cuts on social protection, summarizing key insights from our recent Open Discussion. Join the conversation and explore the reflections from the social protection community.