Transcript Rapid Social Response Program

Arup Banerji
Geneva, May 11 2010
Outline
2
Safety Nets Today – Myths and Reality
 Safety Nets in Practice – Two Examples
 Challenges Ahead – A New ACCRA
Agenda?

Safety Nets Today –
Myths and Reality
What are Safety Nets?
7 Questions and Answers
4
1.
Intended
function
Are they?
No, they are …
Compensatory / palliative: focus on
mitigation of impact (protection)
Developmental: aiming at mitigation and
livelihood improvement (protection and
promotion).
Time-bound and short term programs,
focused on mitigating impact of a
Duration specific crisis or policy (structural
adjustment, trade reform…)
Not targeted necessarily or exclusively
3.
Targeting to poverty (e.g. when intended to
compensate a particular occupational
criteria
group affected by economic reform)
Giving recipient entitlement that is often
4.
Entitlement time-bound and short-term
2.
Adapted from Conway (2009)
Emergency: saving lives and livelihoods;
protecting against deterioration in and
destruction of human capital.
Longer-term, often permanent, standing
programs (though ideally easily scaled up
or down according to varying level of
need)
Targeted based on need (poverty) – both
structural poverty and vulnerability to
poverty
Providing entitlement that can be shorter
(transitional poverty), longer (e.g. children
aged under five) or unlimited (as long as
meet poverty criteria)
What are Safety Nets?
7 Questions and Answers
5
Are they?
5.
Relationship to
recipients
6.
Institutional form
No, they are …
More likely to be managed on
More likely to be embedded in entitlements /
technocratic criteria alone, with
rights with associated institutional mechanisms
limited downward accountability to for accountability (e.g., appeals mechanisms)
intended beneficiaries
Institutionally complex, involving links with
Relatively simple in institutional and
service delivery ministries and more substantive
operational terms (targeting,
roles for sub-national levels of government; take
enrolment, payment); relatively
longer to design and implement
quick to establish
Financed externally, often through
7.
Financing, project modalities, almost always
manage- donor-led
ment,
leadership
In MICs, typically financed from domestic
revenue
In some LICs , externally financed but
embedded in Government strategy and systems;
in other LICs, major role for donors but with
effort to enable and encourage Government
ownership
Adapted from Conway (2009)
Safety Nets are Non-Contributory Transfers
Targeted to the Poor or Vulnerable
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Programs such as:
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Cash transfers, targeted or not, conditional or not
Food or other in-kind distribution
Public workfare jobs or labor-intensive public works programs
Fee waivers for essential services such as health or education
Price subsidies for food and energy
Similar in concept to Social Assistance or Welfare.
One way of thinking about it is:
Safety Nets + Social Insurance = Social Protection
Social Protection + Health + Education + misc. = Social Policy
Where Safety Nets Fit in Larger Development
Policy
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Actual Spending on Safety Nets is Modest in
Most Countries
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Mean 1.7% of GDP; median 1.4% of GDP (n=72)
For 1/2 of countries is about 1-2 % of GDP
(this does not count energy subsidies)
What are Good Safety Nets?
9
1.
Appropriate
–
–
2.
Adequate
–
–
3.
The range of programs used and the
balance between them and with the
other elements of public policy should
respond to the particular needs of the
country.
Each program should be customized
for best fit with the circumstances.
The safety net as a whole covers the
various groups in need of assistance.
Individual programs provide full
coverage and meaningful benefits to
the subset of the population they are
meant to serve.
Equitable
–
–
Horizontal: equal treatment for
people of equal conditions
Vertical equity: less generous benefits
to those less poor
4.
Cost-effective
–
5.
Incentive compatible
–
6.
Minimize unintended behavioral
changes
Sustainable
–
–
–
7.
system and programs use no more
resources than are needed to achieve
impact
Fiscal
Political
Administrative
Dynamic
–
Evolve over time and responsiveness
to crisis
Safety Nets Provide
Protection AND Promotion
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
More recently, the profession is
recognizing the ability of safety nets
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So safety nets are:
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to break cycles of poverty,
to increase autonomous earnings
to allow government space for
efficiency improving policy reforms
An investment, a la human capital
investment, needed by all countries,
not a luxury affordable only to the
rich.
An indispensable element in not only
policies to improve equity and reduce
poverty, but also to contribute to
sustained growth
Examples of this philosophy:
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Bolsa Familia in Brazil
NREGA in India
Safety Nets – Protection and Promotion
Effect
Nature of Benefit
Protect
Reduce poverty and inequality
via redistribution
Allow governments to enact
reforms that move benefits from
privileged groups to broader
groups
Promote

Enable households to invest
–In children’s human capital
–In their livelihoods
Help households to manage
risks
–Avoid irreversible losses
–Allow higher risk/return
activities
Strength of
Evidence
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How good is
current practice?
5 star scale
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Safety Nets in Practice:
Two Examples
Mexico – From a series of programs to a
comprehensive social policy
Program
1. Social Insurance
—Social Security
—Negative Income Tax
4
3
1
2. Sectoral Social Assistance
—Education
—Health
—Housing credit
—Other
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18
5
2
4
3. Income Transfers and
Subsidies
— Conditioned income T
— Food Programs
7
1
6
4. Income Generation
—Temporary Employment
—Labor Training
—Rural Development
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1
2
51
5. Social Infrastructure
5
6. Natural Disaster Protection
1
7. Other
5
TOTAL
105
Broad
BroadMeasures
Measures
(overall
(overallpopulation)
population)
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••
••
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••
Education
Education
Targeted
TargetedMeasures
Measures
(population
(populationininextreme
extremepoverty)
poverty)
••
Health
Health
Social
Socialsecurity
security
Job
Jobtraining
training
••
Housing
Housing
••
Human
Humancapital
capitaldevelopment
development
Nutrition
Nutrition
Supply and
Health
Health
demand subsidies
Education
Education
Income
Incomeopportunities
opportunities
Productive
Productiveprojects
projects
Access
Accesstotofinancing
financing
Temporary
Temporaryjobs
jobs
Physical
Physicalcapital
capitaldevelopment
development
Rural
roads
Rural roads
Water
Waterand
andsanitation
sanitation
Communications
Communications
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Ethiopia – Safety Nets as Part of Other
Income Generating Programs
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The Productive Safety Net Program is the largest social
protection scheme in Africa outside South Africa.
The PSNP has two delivery modes:
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Purposes:
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‘public works’ activities
‘direct support’ for labor-constrained households
building community assets by selected public works
protecting household assets by avoiding damaging ‘coping
strategies’ such as selling productive assets or taking on highinterest loans to buy food
smoothing food consumption in chronically food insecure
smallholder households, by transferring food or cash to buy
food during the ‘hunger gap’ months
Operates in conjunction with other programs on agricultural
extension and resettlement, with objective to ‘graduate’
PSNP participants out of the program within five years of
implementation.
Going Beyond Simple Safety Nets:
Towards a Social Protection System
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Post-Graduation Activities
Enhancements
to get
beyond
assistance
Intermediation Services
Exit Policies
Conditionalities
Cash Transfers –
Basic Design
Development of Program over Time
Challenges Ahead
A New ACCRA Agenda?
Building the Safety Nets of Tomorrow –
Five Sets of Challenges
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Acceptability
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Comprehensiveness and coverage
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Differentiated approaches and South-South learning between MICs, LICs and fragile
countries
Use of technology to “leapfrog” capacity constraints
Research and evaluation for scaling up and replicability
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Building systems that cover all who need poverty-oriented transfers (including those in the
“non-covered” or informal sector)
Graduation policies and linkages between social insurance, safety nets and labor/farm
income opportunities
Capacity building
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Political economy – Building the case for the productive nature of safety nets
Accountability, governance and protecting rights
Using evidence-based policies for adapting and scaling up programs
Affordability and financing
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Building sustainable budgetary commitments ‘owned’ by governments
Bridge financing by donors for capital costs to set up SP systems (e.g., RSR)
http://www.worldbank.org/safetynets