Transcript Social Protection: An Overview

Social Risk Management and
Social Inclusion
Hermann von Gersdorff,
European Center for Minority Issues
Flensburg, Germany
September 17, 2004
Overview
Social Risk Management – A conceptual
tool
Social exclusion in the ECA region
Social inclusion strategies
World Bank programs and social
inclusion
The World Bank and Roma Issues
What is Social Protection?
Old Definition: Public measures to provide
income security to the population.
Defined by interventions:



Labor Markets
Social Insurance
Social Assistance
New Approach: Social Risk Management

Rethinking triggered by the East Asia crisis:
recognition that growth is insufficient; need
to address risks and vulnerability.
Rethinking SP:
Vulnerability and Risk
Addressing the poor is not enough; need to
recognize the dynamic nature of welfare.
Households move in and out of poverty;
many live close to the poverty line.
Households are exposed to many different
shocks and risks over time.
Risks affect poor and minority households
differently than others and influence their
level of vulnerability.
Social Risk Management:
Central Elements
Accounts for the multiple sources of risk and
their characteristics.
Operates with multiple strategies (prevention,
mitigation, coping) and arrangements
(informal, market-based, public) to deal with
risk.
Attempts to match the multiple suppliers of risk
management instruments (such as households,
communities, NGOs, and governments) with
key demand groups (formal, minorities,
informal-urban and informal-rural workers).
Types and Characteristics of
Risks
Micro
Meso
Landslide
Volcanic eruption
Health
Illness
Injury
Epidemic
Life-cycle
Birth
Old Age
Death
Social
Crime
Domestic violence
Terrorism
Gangs
War
Economic
Unemployment
Business failure
Resettlement
Harvest failure
Output collapse
Currency crisis
Political
Ethnic discrimination
Riots
Political default on
social programs
Natural
Environmental
Pollution
Deforestation
Macro
Earthquake
Floods
Risk Management Strategies
Prevention Strategies - to reduce the
probability of negative risks.
Mitigation Strategies - to decrease
the impact of a future negative risk;
Coping Strategies - to relieve the
impact once the risk has occurred.
Risk Management
Arrangements
Informal, e.g.

community support, real assets, marriage
Market-based, e.g.

cash, bank deposits, insurance
Publicly provided or mandated, e.g.

social insurance, transfers in cash and kind,
subsidies and public works
Summary
A New Approach
 From static poverty to dynamic
vulnerability
 From safety nets to “springboards”
 From a reactive to a proactive approach.
A New Definition: The set of public
policies aiming at,
 Helping individuals, households, and
communities to better manage risk
 Supporting the extremely poor
Poverty and Exclusion in the
ECA Region
The challenge: deepening “pockets of
poverty” among excluded groups.


Roma are the poorest minority group; in
Bulgaria Roma are 10 times poorer than
the majority; Turks are 3 times poorer; in
Serbia Roma are 8 times poorer;
Children are overrepresented among the
poor;
Poverty and Exclusion in the
ECA Region


The disabled make up a disproportionate share
of the poor. 10 percent of population in developing
countries is disabled according to WHO. Estimated
to make up 15-20 percent of the poor. Within ECA,
7.5 percent of the population in 17 countries is
disabled (official data), from a high of 14 percent
in Poland to a low of 0.6 percent in Bosnia and
Herzegovina (questionable in a post-conflict
country).
Roma children are disproportionately designated
as disabled/mentally retarded and put in
residential institutions.
Exclusion is Multidimensional
Economic: high unemployment; lack of
labor market opportunities;
Geographic: marginalized rural
settlements and urban ghettos are
frequently the poorest (qualitative
analysis of Roma in Slovakia);
Social/cultural: lack of access to
services; language barriers for children
attending school/parents interacting
with service providers.
Addressing Exclusion:
Instruments
Social Funds: support demand driven
community development (risk prevention);
Microcredit: (risk mitigation);
Conditional cash transfers: support
positive behavior, e.g. school attendance (risk
prevention and coping);
Deinstitutionalization: support community
based care (risk prevention and coping).
World Bank Programming to
Address Exclusion
Social funds in 29 countries;
32 projects (US$934 mn.) out of 312 projects
have a disability component. 26% of the
future lending projects.
Child welfare loans to support
deinstitutionalization (Bulgaria, Romania,
Georgia, Russia);
Grants for policy making for ethnic integration
(Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary);
Analysis and policy dialogue (quantitative and
qualitative surveys).
Roma Issues: The Role of the
World Bank
Framing the Roma issue as a poverty issue,
complementing human rights approaches;
Supporting analysis and acting as an
objective information broker in countries;
Capacity building and policy development;
Supplementing and coordinating the work of
partners (Open Society Institute; EU; UNDP).
Roma Issues: Main Activities
Knowledge generation and dissemination:
analysis of poverty and exclusion of Roma.
Coordination and policy dialogue: 2003 high
level regional conference;
Capacity building of Roma leaders and NGOs:
training and support for involvement in the
Decade of Roma inclusion ;
Operational support: through grants, project
components (SIFs, education).
2003 Budapest Conference
Outcomes
Decade of Roma Inclusion: A political
commitment by 8 governments to achieve
progress on inclusion between 2005-2015.


Goals address employment, education,
health and housing.
Monitoring progress against agreed
indicators is key to the Decade.
Roma Education Fund: Establishment of a
Fund in 2005 to improve education outcomes
for Roma. Technical preparations are
underway.