Support the development of SSN institutions and systems. The Bank can further accelerate institution building, particularly in LICs, where capacity constraints are often severe and the building blocks for SSN administrative systems may need to be built from scratch. In MICs, the approach will require continuing the effort to harmonize programs within the broader social protection framework.
Original Response: Management agreed with the central role of the systems approach for safety nets and for social protection in general, as reflected by its support for the shift in project designs noted by IEG. The Bank will continue supporting the systems approach in both LICs and MICs, adapted to country needs and capacity levels.
Governments in low-income and middle-income countries have continued to develop new SSN institutions and to increase their existing capacity. The World Banks support, through investments and knowledge work, has played a major role in these efforts.
Most countries surveyed in the World Banks 2015 State of Social Safety Nets Report either have an active SSN strategy (57 percent) or are developing one (23 percent). In addition, a growing number of countries have developed sophisticated registries to identify and track beneficiaries. The Bank has provided support for a number of countries that have developed these systems (for example, Colombia and Pakistan) or are in the process of developing them (for example, Jamaica and Bangladesh). These are critical tools for the administration of a SSN system and are an important part of the move from ad hoc SSN programs towards integrated and well-designed systems.
Supporting capacity has been a major part of Banks investment projects. Bank SSN project generally provide substantial technical assistance to the implementing agency as well support to develop or improve the tracking system for beneficiaries.
The GP reports that around 50 percent of new investment projects approved in the 2015 fiscal year included capacity building and system strengthening components. For example, the Banks new SSN project in Madagascar (P149323) commits US$6.5 million (16 percent) to developing the capacity of the SSN system. The Banks SSN in Panama (P155097) dedicates 56 percent of its financing to strengthening the system. The recently approved SSN project in Egypt (P145699) commits US$25 million (6 percent) to strengthen SSN administration and capacity. In addition, the project uses disbursement-linked indicator that include a number of targets related to institutional strengthening. This ensures that additional Bank financing will be provided as the government strengthens the SSN system.
IEG endorses the GPs rating of high achievement of this recommendation.
The 2012-2022 Social Protection and Labor strategy of the WBG has put systems as a central theme for the SPL practice in WB in its engagements with clients and partners. The strategy emphasizes deepening the Banks knowledge and practice for building effective SPL systems in different country contexts and capacity levels. In FY 2015 the Strategy is in its third implementation year with consolidated progress towards its key objective.
Several projects approved in FY 15 focused on helping countries to build safety net systems and institutions to respond better to risk and vulnerability: among WBG new lending projects as many as 21 focused on building blocks of the SSN systems (registries, payments, grievances, etc), representing close to of the portfolio of the newly approved projects. In addition 52 projects approved in FY 13 and FY 14 with a primary focus on systems building are now under implementation and in intensive supervision phase with a lot of dialogue and TA happening to support this process. That gives a portfolio of direct operational engagement in systems building in over 70 operations in more than 60 countries, a tremendous opportunity to achieve global results.
This trend is greatly influencing global outcomes in terms of increasing capacity and institutionalization of safety nets. A truly historic shift is happening worldwide. The new 2015 State of the SSNs flagship report (www.worldbank.org/socialprotectionlabor/safetynets2015) confirms that countries are moving from ad-hoc social safety net interventions to more integrated and efficient systems. As of 2015, a total of 77 developing countries (increase from 67 countries in 2014, and sharply up from just 19 in 2009) have a social protection policy or strategy in place that outlines such systemic approaches, and an additional 33 countries are in process of developing one. This means that in the majority of countries the system-wide approach to SSNs is institutionalized. At the same time, implementing these national strategies, in 2015 as many as 49 countries have now introduced institutional bodies (such as dedicated steering committees and agencies) to coordinate social protection programs across sectors and ministries. Administrative innovations like unified registries are reducing program fragmentation. A key step in establishing common administrative systems includes the use of social registries containing information on potential social safety net beneficiaries. These are databases that can be used by multiple programs and institutions, thus helping reduce program fragmentation and avoiding duplication of efforts. As many as 47 developing countries now have an integrated social registry that serves multiple programs at various degree of development, while 45 are running program-specific registries.
In FY 15 the World Bank has used new CPIA measures, with improved guidelines for benchmarking SSN systems development. This has become part of the regular process of monitoring progress towards system building. The WBG has also developed inter-agency systems assessments tools (ISPA), discussed under recommendation 4 below, to help countries to benchmark their progress towards systems development.
The support to the systems building in LICs is continued to be catalyzed by the Rapid Social Response (RSR) MDTF, which continues to expand its operations (see discussion under recommendation 3 below). RSR focuses on systems building (called piping for delivering timely assistance to the poor and vulnerable) as it primary objective. New dedicated RSR window to support innovations o nutrition sensitive SP systems was opened in FY15. RSR Cumulative impact of RSR on building countries capacity in SSN is described below (in the section on LICs, since RSR has focused on IDA countries).
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The development of SSN institutions and systems is central to the new strategy. IEG acknowledges Management's efforts to deepen knowledge and practice for developing SP&L systems in different country contexts and to disseminate the lessons from experience, both internally and externally. Establishing a new CPIA measure for SP systems is a concrete way of encouraging this approach. Increasing knowledge on what systems mean for LICs and MICs and disseminating this is important for advancing the agenda. Further improvements in this ranking would depend on evidence of results of these efforts in terms of accelerated institution-building in LICs and harmonization of SSN progress within the broader social protection network in MICs. IEG rates adoption of this recommendation as medium.
The 2012-2022 Social Protection and Labor strategy puts systems as a central theme for the SP&L practice in WB in its engagements with clients and partners. The strategy was adopted by CODE with strong support by all CODE members on March 14, 2012. The strategy emphasizes deepening the Bank's knowledge and practice for building effective SP&L systems in different country contexts and capacity levels.
The World Bank has developed new CPIA measures, with guidelines for benchmarking SP, including a new measure for SP systems. This has become part of the regular process of monitoring progress towards system building. The process of revisions of the new CPIA with the new guidelines and benchmarking tools is close to completion (March 2012).
The Bank is drawing lessons on developing the building blocks for SSNs in LICs through its current activities (supported by RSR and other crisis-related instruments) focused on building administrative systems, institutions and delivery capacity for SSNs. These lessons are being disseminated internally and externally through the RSR monthly report and the social safety nets quarterly report (latest March 2012). The systems agenda of safety nets is featured prominently at the 2012 Spring Meeting of the WBG, with a number of events around dissemination of good practices.
The Bank is seeking donor funding to develop new knowledge tools and data products to assess performance of SSN/SP&L systems through a global inventory of social programs, their rules and their interactions in delivering benefits at the household level. A global inventory of SSNs is being developed and existing SP&L systems mapped with the new 'sP Atlas which was launched in November 2011. The SP Atlas, also called ASPIRE, was revamped and launched with w serious media efforts in Spring meetings 2012. The data on systems from ASPIRE has become part of the World Bank indicators.
As the crisis has subsided, the sector focused more on developing new social safety net systems instead of responding to one time crises. In LICs, the sector has taken a number of steps to focus on social safety net capacity-building, including:
Technical assistance (primarily from BB and Rapid Social Response Trust Fund) to strengthen the capacity of countries with no or limited engagement in the sector. In particular, the Trust Fund provided support to 42 IDA countries with low social protection capacity (as measured by the sector) as well to 13 countries with limited or no previous social protection engagement. The sector estimates that the trust fund contributed to the preparation of 18 projects as well as supporting the implementation of 6 more in IDA countries with low capacity.
ESW used to identify strategic needs and help government formulate policies and contributed to the policy debate. The Bank supported ESWs in numerous IDA-eligible countries, including Timor-Leste, Ghana, and Pakistan.
Training for policy makers, including the development of an online social safety net course that was delivered in December, 2012. There were more than 1,100 from more than 100 countries. Ethiopia, Kenya, Peru, and Somalia had the highest number of participants in the online course.
Support for conferences and south-south exchanges. The community of practice in Africa held its second face to face meeting in October, 2012 as well as several virtual meeting. Communities of practice are also active in ECA and LAC and have organized several virtual meetings and in-person meetings in the past year. A community of practice was established in MENA in 2013 to facilitate discussion of experiences within the region.
In MICs, the Bank supported the capacity of a number of MICs. This included support to countries with relatively high capacity such as Mexico, Colombia, Turkey, and Brazil where the sector focused on strengthening the existing social safety net and helping it evolve. This included, for example, identifying the exit conditions from social safety nets in Mexico to ensuring that the extreme poor are covered in Brazil. The Bank has facilitated South-South cooperation, with officials from Brazil and Mexico supporting efforts in LICs.
In other MICs, such as Brazil, Mexico, and Turkey, the sector focused on strengthening social safety net institutions and supporting reforms of social safety nets. The sector also worked to improve coordination or consolidate existing safety net systems to improve their targeting and efficiency, such as Grenada and Mexico.
One shortcoming, particularly in MICs, has been the lack of coordination between social protection and health, nutrition, and population. Health shocks play an important in bringing households into poverty and the two sectors often work in parallel. For example, in Mexico both sectors are supporting projects that aim at preventing households from falling into poverty. There is little collaboration in the field. As HNP expands its Universal Health Coverage initiative, there is likely to be more room for collaboration and for social protection to support capacity in Ministries of Health.
The sector worked with other development partners on the Social Protection Assessment and Results of Country Systems (known as SPARCS) to carry out assessments of social protection systems and to provide guidance to Bank teams and governments on necessary steps to strengthen the system. This toolkit, which will be launched in June 2013, will help teams identify weak areas in the social protection system.
This year saw increased action by the management to deepen knowledge and practice for developing SPL systems in different country contexts.
The Bank, jointly with development partners, launched of the new Social Protection Assessment and Results of Country Systems (SPARCS) work program which consists of developing a suite of diagnostic and guidance tools to assist countries to identify strengths and weaknesses of their SP systems and offers adaptable solutions. The diagnostic and guidance tools aim to capture the three levels of systems development: policy, program and administrative. This year's work has focused on development of the core diagnostic tool, a public works tool and an identification systems tool. The Bank team is aiming to work closely with external partners (bi-lateral and multi-lateral) to adapt these tools to specific contexts or needs (i.e. disaster or emergency response, children's programs, other). A technical workshop to be held at the end of June will provide input/feedback into the process and define a roadmap for engagement with partners and piloting and application of the tools in FY14.
The management has also compiled a toolkit entitled Building Resilience to Disasters and Climate Change through Social Protection which catalogues good practice experiences of disaster and climate change response using social protection, in particular, safety net programs. The toolkit is a collaborative effort between the GFDRR, SDV and HDNSP. It will be disseminated to these three communities of practice and through targeted regional events starting with East Asia where the need and demand for adapting social protection systems for this purpose is great.
New systems-focused CPIA continues to be used to trace progress. ASPIRE has become a programmatic multi-year Global inventory of SP, existing SPL systems are being mapped by the regional teams with Anchor support (first harmonized data compiled in FY13, fully launched by FY14).
A portfolio stocktaking exercise has been recently completed. This exercise will be repeated periodically and the results will feed into an annual short publication on the state of safety nets featuring also innovations and interesting country experiences in particular on systems development.
In the last twelve months, the World Bank has continued to support global efforts to consolidate knowledge about what works in development social safety net systems. It prepared the 'state of Safety Nets 2014, which reviewed recent research and evaluations on SSN systems. In addition to its role as a source of information, it serves as an informal benchmark of social safety net systems.
The World Bank organized a global forum on strengthening social protection systems. The Bank also continued to develop core diagnostic tools with other development partners. This led to the development of assessment tools in several areas to support development partners and governments. The annual Core courses (SSN, pension, labor), which attracts around 100 participants per themes from countries, development partners, and NGOs, provides support in systems buildings. In addition, this led to the development of Regional Protection Communities of practice in several regions.
At the country level, the World Bank is providing support to developing SSN systems. In 75 percent of countries where the Bank is active in SSNs, it provides knowledge services. In FY14, 28 investment projects included activities to support institutional building in SSN systems; this compares to 24 investment projects (out of 32) that supported institutional building in FY13.
The World Bank has been quite active in supporting the creation of social registries containing information on potential social safety net beneficiaries. These are databases that can be used by multiple programs and institutions, thus helping reduce program fragmentation and avoiding duplication of efforts. At least 23 developing countries now have a social registry at various degree of development, while 10 countries are planning to establish one.
The Bank has made significant progress in implementing the recommendation and is making a major contribution in strengthening social safety net systems both through global instruments and country-level operations. If the current rate of progress continues, this recommendation will be fully adopted at the end of next year's MAR review period.
Management has committed to continued support assisting all countries to build safety nets in a way that is appropriate and affordable. Developing systems for delivering social protection to the poor and vulnerable in all countries is the main thrust of the Social Protection and Labor Strategy 2012-12002 of the WBG under implementation. As many projects approved in FY 14 focused on helping countries to build safety net systems and institutions to respond better to risk and vulnerability. Thus, in 2014, among WBG new lending projects as many as 28 focused on building blocks of the SSN systems (registries, payments, grievances, etc) steady increase compared to FY13 (24).
This trend is greatly influencing global outcomes in terms of increasing capacity and institutionalization of safety nets. The Social protection network of the WBG has launched annual publication 'state of safety nets 2014 to monitor these global trends (https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/18376 ) . The report based on a review of 475 programs in 146 countries, 69 household surveys , 84 impact evaluations 276 new publications shows very dynamic change in safety nets occurring now. Countries are moving from ad-hoc social safety net interventions to more integrated and efficient systems. The biggest shift in the nature of social safety net programs over the last half-decade is towards building better-integrated social protection systems that weave together the often disparate and fragmented social safety net programs, as well as those relating to social insurance and labor markets. As of 2013, a total of 67 countries have a social protection policy or strategy in place that outlines such systemic approaches, up from just 19 in 2009. At the same time, 10 countries have now introduced institutional bodies (such as dedicated steering committees and agencies) to coordinate social protection programs across sectors and ministries. Administrative innovations like unified registries are reducing program fragmentation. A key step in establishing common administrative systems includes the use of 'social registries containing information on potential social safety net beneficiaries. These are databases that can be used by multiple programs and institutions, thus helping reduce program fragmentation and avoiding duplication of efforts. At least 23 developing countries now have a social registry at various degree of development, while 10 countries are planning to establish one.
The support to the systems building in LICs is catalyzed by the Rapid Social Response MDTF, which continues to expand its operations (see recommendation below). In addition to lending and technical assistance, system building included several important knowledge management. Training and learning activities:
1 . A major South-South Learning Forum 2014 took place March 17-21 2014 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was entirely dedicated to the topic of systems building Designing and Delivering Social Protection SystemsMore than 230 policy makers, practitioners from 70 countries, including ministers and vice ministers, met to learn from each other about practical solutions for implementation challenges and how to design systems to successfully deliver social protection services. This particular Forum put special emphasis on building effective delivery systems, and the ability to enhance existing enrollment and transaction processes. Additional focus was on using information systems to help organize and communicate key indicators for effective and efficient program administration. Real world experiences were shared through country case presentations, interactive sessions, field trips and dedicated group work. Topics included how to build robust identification systems, how to determine eligibility and registering beneficiaries, how to provide convenient payment and financial services to the poor, how to build effective information systems and benefits delivery systems, and how to link safety nets, human capital and health insurance. Participants also attended special sessions to interact and build a network of practitioners that will continue discussions and collaboration beyond the Forum. Regional social protection communities of practice (CoPs) now operate in Africa, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa. The CoP in Africa was created in 2011 with RSR's support. The blogs (http://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2014/03/17/south-south-learning-foru…) cover the event.
2. Development of core diagnostic tools to assess social protection systems (and its SSN components) performance and initiate work on their improvement. In 2013, the World Bank and other development partners (ILO, EU, GIZ, UNICEF, WFP, FAO, and several other bilateral donors and international NGOs) agreed to work together on the development of the diagnostic instruments to support governments to improve the performance of social protection systems by creating an open source platform for collaboration based on defining and assessing key system metrics and outcomes. In FY14 the work has lead to a break-through: development of one 'set of assessment tools (the "what matters" guidance notes, data collection instruments, implementation guidelines and country reports) in the area of:
core SP diagnostics (the CODI instrument, to map out the key features of a SPL system in a given country and to serve as an evidence base for country dialogue in strengthening systems);
one program instrument (the public works instrument, to ensure solid PW program design and implementation, effective institutional arrangements, accountability and harmonization with other programs);
one service delivery instrument (the identification instrument that evaluates both the ID ecosystem and the ID process used by a particular program).
During FY 14 these instruments were field tested in countries (El Salvador, Liberia, Vietnam, Philippines, Djibouti, Peru and Morocco). In addition inter-agency quality assurance process and related protocols have been developed, given the need to articulate guidelines to ensure consistency and high quality application of the suite of assessment instruments.
3 As part of the annual Core courses (SSN, pension, labor), attracting each close to 100 participants from client countries, development partners and NGOs, the systems back has been developed to give participants a good understanding of key concept, international experience of systems buildings and key challenges.