Session Name: Public Works The Evolving Agenda Public Works Plus: Introductory Remarks Presenter: Kalanidhi Subbarao

Transcription

1 Session Name: Public Works The Evolving Agenda Public Works Plus: Introductory Remarks Presenter: Kalanidhi Subbarao

2 Objectives of public works programs Primary objectives of public works programs are: Mitigation of covariate shocks (both unexpected as droughts and seasonal dips in farm activities) Mitigation of idiosyncratic shocks Poverty relief As a bridge to more regular employment Secondary objectives Creation/maintenance of infrastructure and social services Addressing these objectives, three models of PW programs: Short term safety nets Longer term safety net (with or without employment guarantees) Public Works Plus aimed at graduating participants from PW coverage This session is about this last model, Public Works Plus 2

3 Evolving Focus of Public Works Programs Recent efforts focused on rendering PW programs to perform more than what they have been performing in the past, viz., providing short term employment These efforts are aimed to somehow enable participants to graduate out of the program into more regular employment and/or building participants resilience to future shocks In other words, the traditional objective of PW as a safety net response immediately after a shock is being modified with appropriate design changes to accomplish additional objectives, aiming to increase household income, individual skills, human capital all contributing to enhancing resilience These efforts are now known as Public Works Plus 3

4 What do we mean by Public Works Plus PW Plus goes beyond such temporary employment support in various ways: Training for participation in labor markets (e.., El Salvador, Latvia) Linkages with intermediate services and other social protection programs (e.g., Ethiopia, Djibouti) Creation of infrastructure (such as irrigation facilities)to offer second round regular employment opportunities (e.g., Ethiopia, India s Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme..MEGS) Ensuring financial inclusion (enhancing financial literacy, setting up accounts in institutional financing agencies (e.g., Rwanda) Two past country examples, and two recent innovations 4

5 India s MEGS promoted resiliency and growth: precursor to PSNP Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme (MEGS) began in 1973 in Indian state of Maharashtra following a state-wide drought Over a decade it acquired a lot of experience and strength Reduced severity of poverty by half (Ravallion) What is less well known: it promoted resilience when a massive drought occurred again in 1987 ( drought of the century ) thus building resilience to a future shock (Rao, Ray and Subbarao, 1988) Not a single drought-related mortality of humans and livestock; water special trains Drought-proofing infrastructure enabled an increase in the area under second crop thus enhancing permanent employment opportunities

6 Bangladesh safety nets enabled rapid progress in resilience indicators Bangladesh pioneered links between safety nets and human capital: food for education program: increased enrollments and reduced child labor Food-for-works programs enabled households to cope with periodic floods, while promoting resilience by reducing food insecurity, connecting every village to high ways Table 1 shows what remarkable progress Bangladesh made in resilience indicators with a combination of creatively designed safety nets (public works, nutrition interventions and micro finance) 6

7 Table 1. Changes in resilience indicators: Bangladesh Indicators D% Indicators D% Nutrition Social: health 101. Underweight (%) Mortality/1, Stunting (%) Physicians/1, Low BMI (%) Prenatal care (%) Economic Medical births (%) Crop production Vaccinations (%) GDP p.c. ($) d,f Social: other Female 2 nd Asset poverty (%) schools Remittances (% GDP) Fertility Infrastructure Microfinance????????? Better water (%) 78 a Social protection????????? Better sanitation 42 a Governance????????? Source: Headey (2012). Electricity (%) c

8 Two recent examples: Building human capital, promoting informal sector activities A recent innovation (pilot) is linking PW activity with human capital (e.g., Djibouti) In a pilot program in Djibouti, the program linked participating (and nonparticipating) households to improvements in nutritional practices thus enabling a behavioral change Non-working household members (children under age 2 and pregnant women) receive training in improved child care practices, and nutrition supplementation and weekly visits by community health worker to the household Another recent initiative: promote savings out of wages, followed by enabling access to credit institutions for supporting informal sector activities (Rwanda) originally saving was intended to be compulsory, but later scrapped to make it only voluntary 8

9 Possibilities and limitations of PW Approach These initiatives show that PW Plus clearly offers some promise of building resilience of participating households However, its limitations must be noted First, we do not have any evaluations to confirm effectiveness of such initiatives Second, skills training has proved to be a difficult option (assessing demand for specific skills and matching such demand with supply not always possible, making placement difficult after training) Third, effecting behavioral change is never easy, nor is it easy to integrate various efforts into mutually reinforcing programs But if we succeed, how does it look like? 9

10 10 Public Works Plus can be so designed as to enable resilient growth after a shock, while building resilience against future shocks

11 Three case studies 11 Let us now look at three country case studies that are piloting these new initiatives Latvia: illustrates PWs aimed at addressing not only an immediate jobs crisis but also with the goal of activation/retention of labor market skills of participants so they are equipped to find employment. Ethiopia: illustrates choice of infrastructure projects to offer promise of creation of second-round regular employment, as well efforts to link PWs with other programs focused on household asset building (HABP) El Salvador case shows the use of training of participants for labor market participation targeting youth and female groups.