Providing old-age social protection for women is a major policy challenge, as women?s working lives tend to be more diverse than men?s, often including periods of care-giving and part-time work. In addition, workers in the informal sector, where the majority of women work, are excluded from...

At independence all the countries of the former Soviet Union inherited extensive social welfare, including a comprehensive pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pension system with low retirement ages (60 for men and 55 for women) and generous opportunities for early retirement for selected worker groups such as...