Takashi Oshio

After working for eleven years as a researcher and economist in the Japanese government and at J.P. Morgan, Dr. Takashi Oshio started his academic career from 1994 and has been serving at Hitostubashi University since 2009 as a professor at the Institute of Economic Research. He obtained his docoral degree in international public policy from Osaka University in 2002. His research has largely focused on social security, income distribution, education policy, and other issues related to public finance.

Closing Financial Gaps for Contributory Schemes

This presentation shares the International Labour Organization's (ILO) two-dimensional approach for the extension of social security: the vertical and horizontal approach. The former progressively ensures higher levels protection while the latter guarantees access to essential health care and minimum income security for all. It also recommends ways social protection and insurance can be more responsive to people's needs. Particularly, it discusses the role non-contributory pensions can play to extend coverage and reduce poverty.

Self Employed Women's Association: A Collective Voice of Women

Women in the informal sector are vulnerable, posing threat on their income security, food security, and social security. The Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) was established to help women become individually and collectively self-reliant, economically independent, and capable of making their own decisions. Poor women are the owners, managers, and beneficiaries under the association.

SEWA now has 1.9 million members and over 100 affiliated organizations working to empower women in the informal sector mainly by promoting financial inclusion and social security.