The need for social safety nets has become a key component of poverty reduction strategies. Over the past three decades several developing countries have launched a variety of programs, including cash transfers, subsidies in-kind, public works, and income-generation programs. However, there is little guidance on appropriate program design, and few studies have synthesized the lessons from widely differing country experiences. This report fills that gap. It reviews the conceptual issues in the choice of programs, synthesizes cross-country experience, and analyzes how country- and region-specific constraints can explain why different approaches are successful in different countries.

Safety Net Programs and Poverty Reduction: Lessons from Cross-Country Experience (Directions in Development)

Business & Money

Carvalho, Soniya

Subbarao, Kalanidhi

Braithwaite, Jeanine

Economics

World Bank

HIV/AIDS is generating a major humanitarian crisis for families in Sub-Saharan Africa. The number of children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS is expected to rise to 35 million by 2010. Rolling back decades of progress in social development, HIV/AIDS has become a major constraint in the fight against poverty. Many African countries are also suffering from civil unrest and post-conflict situations resulting in more orphans or displaced children. 'Reaching Out to Africa's Orphans' makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of the many risks and vulnerabilities faced by orphans and the ameliorating role played by the actions of governments and donors. It brings together the admittedly limited evidence from interventions on behalf of orphans with a view to advancing our knowledge on what works and what does not in mitigating the risks faced by orphans, and enhancing capacities of communities to address this problem. Juxtaposing the risks and needs of orphans against the effectiveness (including cost-effectiveness) of care-giving arrangements, the study addresses issues bearing on how to scale up the more promising interventions. The authors draw several important conclusions on the strengths and weaknesses of various programs, targeting methods and their implications and, in particular, highlight the gaps in our knowledge with respect to the cost-effectiveness of interventions and the potential incentive effects of orphan care. Considering that resources are limited and the problem is immense, the study rightly underscores the need for coordination of efforts among all agencies seeking to respond to the crisis.

Reaching Out to Africa's Orphans: A Framework for Public Action (Africa Human Development Series)

Coury, Diane

World Bank Publications

The crisis threatens the welfare of about 160 million people in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region who are poor or are just above the poverty line. Using pre-crisis household data along with aggregate macroeconomic outturns to simulate the impact of the crisis on households―transmitted via credit market shocks, price shocks, and income shocks―this report finds that adverse effects are widespread and that poor and non-poor households alike are vulnerable. By 2010, for the region as a whole, some 11 million more people will likely be in poverty and over 23 million more people will find themselves just above the poverty line because of the crisis. The aggregate results mask the heterogeneity of impact within countries, including the concentration of the poverty impact in selected economic sectors. Meanwhile, stress tests on household indebtedness in selected countries suggest that ongoing macroeconomic shocks will expand the pool of households unable to service their debt, many of them from among the ranks of relatively richer households. In fact, already there are rising household loan delinquency rates. Finally, there is evidence that the food and fuel crisis is not over and a new round of price increases, via currency adjustments, will have substantial effects on net consumers. Lessons from last year’s food crisis suggest that the poor are the worst hit, as many of the poor in Albania, Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan, for example, are net food consumers, with limited access to agricultural assets and inputs. The resilience of households to macroeconomic shocks ultimately depends upon the economy's institutional readiness, the flexibility of the economic policy regime, and the ability of the population to adjust. However, compared with previous crises, the scope for households to engage in their traditional coping strategies may be more limited. Fiscal policy responses in the short-term are also constrained by rapidly falling revenues. Governments in ECA have to make difficult choices over what spending items to protect and what items to cut, social protection programs to reform and scale-up, and new interventions to mitigate the impact of the crisis.

The Crisis Hits Home: Stress-Testing Households in Europe and Central Asia

Taylor, Ashley

Sugawara, Naotaka

Tiongson, Erwin R.

Sulla, Victor

Gueorguieva, Anna I.

Levin, Victoria

Personal Finance

Public Works as a Safety Net: Design, Evidence, and Implementation reviews the conceptual underpinnings and operational elements of public works programs around the world. Drawing from a rich evidence base including program documentation, policy papers, peer-reviewed publications, and empirical data from over 40 countries, it provides an overview of the state of public works programs and how they function as part of wider social protection systems. The book provides a comprehensive analysis of the design features and alternative models of public works implemented under diverse country settings. Topics covered include program objectives, institutional and financing arrangements, targeting, costs and benefits, gender considerations, and monitoring and evaluation. Political economy issues that inform the development and effectiveness of public works programs are also addressed, bringing into focus the centrality of governance and transparency to ensure the achievement of program outcomes. The comprehensive nature of the review, and its thorough analysis of available data, fills a gap in knowledge related to public works program design and implementation. The book should benefit both policy makers and practitioners involved in public works planning. It will also help inform future efforts to incorporate public works as an important tool of an integrated national social protection systems, that will help respond to unpredictable global shocks leading to sudden declines in employment, whether seasonal or systemic.

Public Works as a Safety Net: Design, Evidence, and Implementation (Directions in Development - Human Development)

Andrews, Colin

Del Ninno, Carlo

Rodríguez-Alas, Claudia

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