RESILIENCE, EQUITY, OPPORTUNITY THE WORLD BANK S 2012-2022 SOCIAL PROTECTION & LABOR STRATEGY UNICEF SOCIAL PROTECTION STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK LAUNCH EVENT MAY 2012 Laura Rawlings
Main messages of World Bank strategy 2 1. Social protection and labor (SPL) programs and policies are necessary in a risky, interdependent world 2. Social protection and labor programs and policies work, if well-designed as part of systemic approaches to become more inclusive of excluded regions and groups responsive to individual shocks and systemic crises productive through investments in human capital and people s ability to access jobs and opportunity 3. To succeed, work in this area will have to be tailored to countries and evidence, knowledge-driven and collaborative across sectors and actors
Social Protection and Labor policies and programs provide 3 Resilience for the vulnerable Insuring against impacts of different shocks Opportunity for all Promoting human capital and access to productive work Equity for the poor Protecting against dire poverty and loss of human capital
World Bank strategy objective: help countries move from fragmented approaches to harmonized systems 4 Origin of cash transfers in Sub-Saharan Africa Outside Government, 45% Fragmentation Other, 4% Social welfare or related, 35% Social Fund, 1% Social security/ labor, Health, 9% 4% Educatio n, 2% Fragmentation: Different ministries/donors implement similar programs Some beneficiaries have access to multiple programs, others excluded Few Integrated Systems: Incentive incompatibility Financing inadequate and non-transparent Unclear institutional roles Source: Garcia and Moore (2012)
5 SPL Systems: portfolios of coherent programs that can communicate with each other, often share administrative sub-systems, and work together to deliver resilience, equity and opportunity Administration level: Program Aim: Building basic subsystems to support one or more programs for security, equity or opportunity Program level: Program Admin. subsystems Program Aim: Improving design of existing programs and harmonizing across portfolio of programs Policy Level: Program Aim: Ensuring overall policy coherence across programs and levels of government Source: Robalino, Rawlings and Walker (2012)
Percent 6 SPL Systems in Low-Income Countries- Fragile Contexts From Exclusion to Inclusion Low coverage concentrated low-income countries and fragile contexts poor populations and vulnerable groups informal sector Meeting the challenge Fiscally sustainable inclusion Innovation in reaching the excluded Institutional capacity building 13 13 12 75 No transfer Only social assistance 17 70 Low coverage 23 9 65 Only social insurance Labor market programs 27 21 46 46 22 43 SS Africa MENA SAR LAC EAP ECA % of households receiving transfers 32 33 22 Source: SP Atlas
7 SPL Systems in Low-Income Countries- Fragile Contexts From Less to More Productive Low productivity concentrated Low-income countries and fragile contexts Poor populations and vulnerable groups Informal sector Meeting the challenge Investment in human capital, especially among children Cognitive delays are associated with limited household wealth, accumulate over time, hard to reverse Need to address nutrition, stimulation prior to primary school Role of SPL in fostering access to basic services in education, health and nutrition focus on equality of opportunity A focus on productivity and access to jobs Link SPL program beneficiaries to jobs and higher productivity work Foster activation programs, skills, capacity building Pathway to inclusive growth
8 SPL Systems in Low-Income Countries- Fragile Contexts From inflexibility to responsiveness Responding to risk Protection is needed from both individual shocks and systemic crises -- and to address chronic poverty and foster opportunity Systemic crises are more frequent, widespread, severe (economic, climatic) and concentrated in poor regions among poor people; Both individual shocks and systemic crises have long term consequences for children (toxic stress) Meeting the challenge to enhance crisis responsiveness Ensure that appropriate programs are in place before crises hit Enhance existing programs to capture the newly vulnerable Add programs to the SPL portfolio that can be scaled up during crises Strengthen programs to help the most vulnerable in times of crisis
9 Final thoughts on systems in low income fragile contexts Relatively new area for World Bank SPL work Recognized importance of: ICT in leapfrogging access, accountability Role of communities, but not at expense of investing in the public sector to build functional institutions Service delivery Calls for: tailoring to country context generating, sharing evidence on what works in these settings developing scalable, fiscally sustainable solutions partnering across actors (donors) and sectors
For more information 10 www.worldbank.org/spstrategy Full paper Translations (French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Portuguese) Background papers Video Consultations results