Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
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Social Protection in Low Income Countries and Fragile Situations : Challenges and Future DirectionsDemand for social protection is growing in low income countries and fragile situations. In recent years, the success of social protection (SP) interventions in middle income countries (MICs) like Brazil and Mexico, along with the series of food, fuel, and financial crises, has prompted policymakers in low income countries (LICs) and fragile situations (FSs) to examine the possibility of introducing such programs in their own countries. Flagship programs in countries as diverse as Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, and Rwanda have shown the adaptability of social protection interventions to the LIC context. Yet, despite growing levels of support for these initiatives, many challenges remain. In LICs and FSs, governments are confronted with a nexus of mutually reinforcing deficits that increase the need for SP programs and simultaneously reduce their ability to successfully respond. Governments face hard choices about the type, affordability, and sustainability of SP interventions. The paper reviews how these factors affect SP programs in these countries and identifies ways to address the deficits. It supports the establishment of resilient SP systems to address specific needs and vulnerabilities and to respond flexibly to both slow and sudden onset crises. To achieve this, both innovation and pragmatism are required in three strategic areas: (i) building the basic blocks of SP systems (e.g., targeting, payments, and monitoring and evaluation); (ii) ensuring financial sustainability; and (iii) promoting good governance and transparency. These issues suggest the possibility of a different trajectory in the development of social protection in LICs than in MICs. The implications for World Bank support include the need to focus on increasing knowledge and operational effectiveness of SP programs, fostering institutional links between multiple SP programs, and using community capacity and technological innovations to overcome bottlenecks in operations.
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Burkina Faso Social Safety NetsThis report provides an inventory of
 safety net programs in Burkina Faso and suggests policy
 measures that could increase their coverage, efficiency, and
 sustainability. It shows that the scope and coverage of the
 existing safety nets is too limited. Most interventions are
 small and temporary. On average, excluding subsidies, annual
 spending on safety nets constituted only 0.6 percent of GDP
 while about 20 percent of the population is food-insecure
 and chronically poor. Food transfers are the main safety net
 program, accounting for 69 percent of total spending and
 over 80 percent of all beneficiaries. Most of the financing
 for safety nets is external. The report recommends
 developing a safety net system that adequately responds to
 the needs of the poor.
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Mozambique Social Protection AssessmentThis assessment shows that Mozambique
 social protection system is developing. While programs to
 address most of the risks identified exist, there are still
 major gaps. Poor families with children are not adequately
 supported, there is no significant youth program, and
 subsistence farmers and other workers are not properly
 protected against recurrent shocks. The government spends a
 considerable amount of its resources on social protection
 but most are absorbed by untargeted subsidies and pensions
 that benefit only a few. This assessment suggests that it
 will be necessary to address three mutually complimentary
 issues: developing effective mechanisms to maximize the
 impact of social protection on reducing poverty;
 rationalizing public expenditures while filling existing
 program gaps; and strengthening institutional arrangements.
 In order to address the multiple challenges Mozambique faces
 to support particularly vulnerable groups and reduce extreme
 poverty and food insecurity, the report proposes a gradual
 approach framed in the existing social protection strategy
 approved by the Government in 2010.