Summary

The purpose of this note is to respond to the Development Pathways Issue No. 35 (Kidd et. al 2025), which posits that the required investment to ensure universal social protection in low-income countries is significantly lower than the ILO estimate of 19.8 per cent of GDP or US$552.3 billion in 2024 for 25 low-income countries (Cattaneo et al. 2024).