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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Measuring Governance and Service Delivery in Safety Net ProgramsThis paper develops a framework to
 assess organizational performance in the delivery of social
 safety nets. Specifically, it provides guidance to task
 teams and program managers for identifying indicators of
 governance and service quality in targeted cash transfer
 programs. The paper identifies governance issues along the
 results chain of service delivery and suggests policy and
 performance indicators for assessing program inputs, human
 resources, financing and resource management; and program
 activities, operational procedures, Management Information
 Systems (MIS) and control. It also suggests indicators of
 organizational performance and the quality of outputs,
 including demand-side accountability mechanisms.
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Rules, Roles, and Controls : Governance in Social Protection with an Application to Social AssistanceThe paper develops an operational definition of governance that can be applied to social protection. The 2004 World Development Report (WDR) accountability framework acts as a starting point, defining accountability in terms of a set of principal?agent relationships between policymakers, providers, and citizens. Applying this framework to social protection, the paper looks at three broad areas where the Bank is involved in governance in social protection: rules of the game, including clear criteria for entry and exit of programs; roles and responsibilities, including defining accountability relationships and incentive frameworks across levels of government and institutions involved in social protection; and controls and accountability measures, including the broad set of implementation mechanisms and procedures for ensuring that 'the right benefit gets to the right person at the right time'. The paper applies this framework to social assistance policies and programs, reviews what is currently being done across the Bank in this area, and identifies future opportunities for clients and Bank engagement.