This report reviews the use and effectiveness of community-based social protection (CBSP) mechanisms, and examines how they are integrated into formal social protection schemes and what impact this might have. It begins with a loose definition of the terms used, followed by a section on the evidence on how effective CBSP appears to be. The following section presents the main ...» more
Social protection
Women’s and girls’ benefits from market-oriented agriculture in Uganda
Knowledge about women’s and girls’ benefits from commercial agriculture is limited but sufficient to form the basis of this report. Internal obstacles include: ownership, tenure and access in relation to land; a gendered division of labour and time; unequal domestic decision-making power; interactions between poverty, the harvest cycle and the food market; and changing ...» more
Social inclusion in productive safety net programmes
Evidence is scattered and quite limited, with a heavy slant towards Ethiopia. Multi-country literature offers the following on social inclusion: Lessons for projects, programmes and policies: - Community participation: beneficiary outreach is key. Participatory targeting, project selection and monitoring are useful, though attention needs to be paid to exclusion, ...» more
National databases of the poor for social protection
There is very scant literature on creating or unifying registries to make up a national database of poor households or individuals to be used for social protection programmes (expert comments). Literature on registries tends to relate to the benefits of civil registration (i.e. the registering of births and deaths), or how better to target and register the poor. This report ...» more
Responding to the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon – lessons learned
Three groups of lessons emerge from the literature: Political lessons include: understanding Lebanon’s historic refugee experience; understanding how sectarian divisions affect policy and decision-making; the limitations of excluding key stakeholders; and understanding historic relations between refugees and host communities. Strategic lessons include developing a medium-term ...» more
Livelihoods in fragile contexts
There is strong literature on both livelihoods in general and livelihoods in fragile contexts, presenting conclusions and lessons from programmes and synthesising evidence from other contexts. This review draws mainly on lessons learned in the field, rather than rigorous evidence of impact. There are few impact studies conducted on programmes in fragile environments, as ...» more
Theories of change for cash transfers
This report gathers together examples from the literature which attempt to explain how and why change happens as a result of cash transfers (CTs). While there is a large body of literature examining social protection and cash transfers’ impacts on poverty reduction and development, there is much less on understanding the mechanisms and pathways by which this happens. The report ...» more
Poor people’s rights and successful legal actions
Key finding: Landmark rulings by South Africa’s Constitutional Court in favour of poor people’s social and economic rights since the 1990s have drawn widespread attention to the law as a tool for realising poor people’s rights and tackling the underlying systemic problems in a way that empowers individuals and communities. But while there has been broad support for using the ...» more
Evidence about the effectiveness of child protection programmes in developing countries
Key findings: There is little evidence on the effectiveness of child protection programmes in developing countries. Furthermore, some of the available evidence does not provide information on links between specific practices on the one hand and improved outcomes and impact for children on the other hand. There are, however, some targeted insights into what works and what does ...» more
Impact of microcredit interest rates on the poor
Key finding: Policymakers have been concerned about the effects of the seemingly high interest rates typically charged by microfinance institutions (MFI) lending money to poor people. Available data indicates that microfinance interest rates typically fall between 20 and 50 per cent per year (in places where inflation runs no higher than 10 per cent per year). It has been ...» more
Economic Benefits of Disability-Inclusive Development
Key findings: The economic benefits of adopting a disability-inclusive approach to development are widely acknowledged, but these benefits are complex and difficult to quantify. As a result, few empirical studies provide a sustained analysis of them. Furthermore, there are few reports or evaluations from implementing agencies that present evidence on the economic impacts of ...» more
Literature and debates around ‘choice’ as a notion in development
The concept of choice has informed the development literature in a number of areas. It has been important in informing theoretical frameworks that underpin much development policy (through rational choice, public choice and social choice theory). From these theoretical foundations, the notion of choice has been central to defining key concepts such as human development and ...» more
Microcredit for the ultra-poor
Key finding: There is a paucity of rigorous evidence on the impact of microcredit for the ultra-poor. Studies on microcredit do not tend to explore what, how and why different types of solutions work best for different types of clients. The available evidence gives a mixed picture on the impact of microcredit in general and for the ultra-poor in particular. The ultra-poor are ...» more
How have social protection systems contributed to social and economic development in Singapore?
The social protection system in Singapore is based around the compulsory retirement savings scheme, the Central Provident Fund (CPF), introduced in 1955 as the national funded pension scheme under the British colonial government. In 1968, three years after Singapore became independent from the Malaysian Federation, the government introduced legislation to allow citizens to use ...» more
How have social protection systems contributed to social and economic development in Indonesia?
Social protection systems were introduced in Indonesia in the wake of the 1997 financial crisis, which had devastating consequences for the national economy and society. This report reviews the introduction of social protection systems in Indonesia, how they have developed over time and the programmes that are involved. It also looks at how social protection systems have ...» more
How have social protection systems contributed to social and economic development in China?
After the formation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, social protection systems were gradually introduced and now cover many contingencies, including old age, unemployment, healthcare, maternity and occupational injury. However, despite having a comprehensive system for its ‘legal’ urban population, China is only recently extending this system to the much larger rural ...» more
Policies on Displacement and Resettlement
Displacement can be caused by a number of factors, including conflict, natural disaster and development. Most donor and NGO policy appears to focus on conflict-induced and natural disaster-induced displacement. Multilateral agencies, however, have generated more comprehensive guidelines and principles to address issues relating to development-induced displacement and ...» more
Beneficiaries’ perspectives in research on cash transfer and social protection programmes
The extent to which beneficiaries are included in cash transfer/social protection programmes, and the success and nature of this inclusion depends on a variety of factors, including the circumstances surrounding the programme’s inception and implementation; the ethos of the organisation(s) involved; and the nature of the programme itself. Researchers recognise that ...» more
Cooperatives and Development
A cooperative is an autonomous association of people united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise. Cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. Although the reliability of figures is poor, ...» more
Violence against Women (VAW) and political engagement
The link between violence against women (VAW) and women’s political engagement is a complex one, deeply rooted in patriarchal systems of gender relations.In the literature consulted for this query, convincing arguments are made about the connection between VAW and women’s engagement in political processes. The link between VAW and women’s under-representation in politics is ...» more
