There is no common definition and a lack of clarity among the available literature of what the selected organisations consider these to be. Some organisations advocate a child-sensitive approach to social protection (for example UNICEF and Save the Children), while others take a right-based perspective (such as SIDA and IDS). Some of the research think tanks contacted indicated ...» more
Social protection
Disability inclusion in social protection
Key Findings: Three types of programmes: i) targeted specifically at people with disabilities; ii) mainstream programmes; and iii) targeted mainstream programmes explicitly including people with disabilities. Targeting: programmes can target all disabled people, or be means tested for a particular level or type of disability, or targeted at children with disabilities. ...» more
Social transfer evaluation syntheses
This paper includes cash transfers, cash-for-work, asset transfers and pensions. It excludes all other types of social protection, such as microfinance, food-for-work, school feeding, vouchers, and insurance. It lists meta-analyses, systematic reviews, syntheses and meta-evaluations, and excludes single programme evaluations. This report does not include primary research ...» more
Post-graduation from social protection
This paper reviews the results of social protection graduation programmes. It highlights whether people who leave the programmes are lifted sustainably out of poverty, and what changes they experience in their lives and livelihoods. The first part of the report reviews general lessons about how graduation happens and whether there are any impacts on employment, and the second ...» more
State fragility and social cohesion
This report reviews the relationship between social cohesion and state fragility – focusing on literature from 2010 onwards. There is no clear empirical understanding in the literature of how social cohesion contributes to state resilience or fragility, as it is very difficult to measure, and to assess independently other variables that impact on state fragility. Key points ...» more
Community-based social protection
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
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 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
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
