Increase SSN engagement in LICs. The Bank needs to maintain special efforts (financing and internal incentives) for LICs that permit countries to develop SSNs that will protect their poorest and prepare for shocks. Depending on the country context, these may include improving country capacity, adapting SSN programs to the institutional environment, improving poverty data and analysis to identify the particularly vulnerable groups, and assuring donor coordination for SSNs (for financing and technical assistance) to increase efficiency of government programs.
Original Response: Management agreed with the importance of continuing focusing efforts on improving capacity of LICs to deliver SSNs for the poor and also to protect access to basic services by the poor through all available instruments: lending, grants, AAA, training and knowledge-sharing activities.
In recent years, the Banks support for SSN has been increasingly focused on operations in low income countries (LICs). This was clearly laid in the 2012-2022 Social Protection and Labor Strategy. The GP has taken a gradual and phased approachproviding the first round of technical and financial support to Upper Middle Income Countries, such as Mexico and Brazil, and gradually moving towards LICs. As MICs are increasingly financing their own SSNs and working with the Bank in a technical capacity, the GP is increasing its attention to LICs through a variety of different instruments.
For FY2007 and FY2008, combined SSN commitments totaled US$683 million, of which IDA represented 64 percent. However during the years of the fiscal crisis, lending increased substantially with a definite bias towards IBRD. Total new commitments were US$3,118 million in FY 2009 (12 percent IDA), US$2,494 million in FY 2010 (36 percent IDA), and US$3,067 million in FY 2011 (13 percent IDA). Despite the lower share of IDA investment, total support for IDA increased in absolute terms.
Since the end of the crisis, there has been a consistent shift towards IDA-financing. During each fiscal year since 2013, the majority of financing was through IDA. In FY 2014, total financing was US$922 million (66 percent IDA) and in FY 2015, total financing reached US$1,919 million (61 percent IDA).
While support for MICs tend to focus on conditional cash transfer (for example, Mexico or Colombia) or non-conditional cash transfer (for example, Ecuador), support for LICs include a combination of cash transfers, in-kind transfers, and employment programs. Support for Ethiopia (approved in 2004) focused on in-kind support that responded to specific shocks, while in Tanzania (approve in 2012), the Bank financed cash transfers to poor families. In Bangladesh, Madagascar, and Pakistan, the Bank also supported cash transfers. In several countries, such as Kenya and Nigeria, the Bank supported employment-related SSNs.
IEG confirms a rating of high.
2012-2022 Social Protection and Labor strategy identifies increased engagement in LICs as the key action to increase coverage of the poor by social protection. The strategy emphasizes deepening the Banks knowledge and practice for supporting work in LICs, adapted to different contexts and capacity levels. The challenge is enormous: safety net coverage of the extreme poor is the lowest in LICs (75 percent, State of SSN 2015). However, LMIC coverage (73 percent) is not so far behind and even in UMICs, 56% are unprotected. Worldwide, 871 million people live on $1.25/day without publicly provided safety nets. A majority of them (479 million) are in LMICs. Two important challenges for social protection and labor in IDA countries are: (i) lack of capacity to design and maintain effective and scalable social protection schemes where needs are greatest in the poorest countries and fragile states; and (ii) retaining political and fiscal commitments to systems for improved coverage and resilience. To address these challenges the Bank is developing country-tailored tools and approaches, investing in knowledge, data and evidence, providing real-time policy advice and offering continuous technical assistance and capacity building.
New SP L strategy implementation has achieved a breakthrough in engagement with LICs on Social Safety Nets. Bank support for the world's poorest countries - the International Development Association has reached a record high in FY 15 (Table 4, see also Table 3 above), with the largest portfolio in Africa. Over the period since OEG SSN evaluation, there was a dramatic rise in the number of IDA countries that received Bank support for safety nets for the first time. During this period, the Bank began supporting 27 IDA countries that had limited or no engagement on safety nets with the Bank before. The addition of these 27 countries means that about 80 percent of all IDA countries (65 out of 81) have now received support for safety nets from the World Bank. During the same period, the Bank also supported 22 countries classified as being in fragile situations, with over US$500 million being directed towards SSN activities, such as in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Timor Leste, Somalia, Liberia, Haiti, Cambodia, Eritrea and Papua New Guinea. This historical turn around was the result of work on many fronts- from global advocacy to country policy dialogue and engagement thorough South-South learning. This sustaining and even expansion of the portfolio in LICs and FCSs has been possible only with the increased support of country directors to the development of safety nets. The crucial role in these activities leading to projects belongs to RSR.
Cumulative volume of Lending and newly approved Safety Nets Projects (Theme 54) by FY , millions US$
IN particular, SPL Practice launched programmatic work in the FCS in the following areas: (i) understanding design and implementation in LICs and fragile and conflict affected settings, and (ii) considerations that drive the choice of the modalities at the stage of building social protection systems in low income settings. The activities will focus on: (i) deepening the documentation of core issues and challenges for engagement in SP in LICs, the evidence on what works and what doesnt and (ii) developing operational guidance and tools for interventions in post-conflict and fragile states/ regions.
A number of the SPL interventions are directly supporting fragile or conflict affected countries such are the Emergency Safety Nets project (Jigismjiri) in Mali, the DRC Eastern Recovery Project, and the Decentralized Service Delivery Program II and Safety Nets Project in Sierra Leone and Haitis Improving Maternal and Child Health through Integrated Social Services.
IEG recognizes management's greater focus on LICs as articulated in the new SP Strategy as well as its capacity building efforts tailored for LICs through south-south learning events. IEG also acknowledges the stated emphasis on donor coordination, through greater financing of the RSR (critical for kick-starting SSN development in LICS) and global coordination meetings of key development partners and particularly, through country specific donor coordination meetings. Given the array of donors and the disparate range of support to LICS, coordinating strategy, funding and activities is important in LICs with very constrained budgets and often inefficient use of donor funds. Improving the ranking in future years will require evidence that these extensive efforts have resulted in better donor coordination efforts (as illustrated in Ethiopia), better poverty data analysis to identify vulnerable groups to improve the efficiency of SSN programs, and continued engagement in new LICs. IEG rates adoption of this recommendation as medium.
The proposed 2012-2022 Social Protection and Labor strategy identifies increased engagement in LICs as the
key action to increase coverage of the poor by social protection. The strategy emphasizes deepening the
Bank's knowledge and practice for supporting work in LICs, adapted to different contexts and capacity levels.
The new SP&L strategy was approved by CODE with strong support by all CODE members on March,
14 2012 and will be launched during Spring meetings (April 2012).
To implement this strategic direction, the Bank is continuing to enhance capacity building and knowledge sharing activities for operational staff of the Bank and client countries focused on LICs. A South South learning event in Ethiopia in May 2011 focused on building resilient safety nets. As part of the follow-up to this event, the Bank is supporting the on-going implementation or the creation of regional safety net communities of practice (the communities were launched in ECA, Africa, South Asia).
The Bank is seeking additional donor resources to supplement BB funding for SSNs capacity building in 92 LICs. Donor consultations for a second round of the RSR , which is focused on LICs, have been on-going
The Bank is continuing its yearly coordination meetings on social protection together with the ILO, UN agencies and all key bilateral and multilateral donors, as well as actively participating in country-specific donor coordination meetings. The consultations with ILO, Trade Unions and IMF in March 2012 helped to prepare for the next meeting.
The sector has clearly increased its engagement in LICs, as evidenced from the significant expansion in support through the RSR series.There has been a significant increase in lending to IDA-eligible countries, particularly after the crisis (starting in fiscal year 2008-09). After the global financial crisis ended, a higher level of lending continued. This increased attention is laudable.
However, additional work is needed to improve poverty data and analysis to identify particularly vulnerable groups, and greater attention tostrengthening donor coordination for SSNs on the ground. Management provides evidence of some individual cases (e.g. Mozambique) but the problems highlighted in IEG's evaluation are more extensive.
In the first year of New SP L strategy implementation the Bank has achieved a breakthrough in engagement with LICs on Social Safety Nets. Bank support for the world's poorest countries - the International Development Association has reached a record high in FY12 and continued to stay above average during FY13 (the FY is not completed yet, so final volumes are not available) and almost equaled IBRD (see table).
Volume of Lending in Safety Nets Projects (Theme 54), millions US$
IBRDIDA Eligible
FY07127 313
FY08116 144
FY092739 601
FY10963 581
FY113007415
FY12782 769
In this time period 13 IDA countries with limited or no previous engagement with the World Bank received financing for safety net expansion. Adding to the flagship examples such as Mexico, Brazil, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, there is a new generation of low income countries emerging with robust safety net systems e.g. Niger, Cameroun, Rwanda, Pakistan.
The revolution in IDA safety nets is particularly clear when one looks at the breakdown of IDA lending and operations. At the onset of the crisis in FY07-08, there were a total of 24 lending operations supporting SSN programs in IDA eligible countries. Post crisis, this number almost tripled in FY10-12, totaling 73 operations.
This historical turn around was the result of work on many fronts- from global advocacy to country policy dialogue and engagement thorough South-South learning. The crucial role in these activities leading to projects belongs to RSR. RSR has been successfully extended and entered in the second phase with new donor pledges, enhanced coordination and higher visibility under G20 (see in section 11.1).
The RSR series on success stories in LICs were launched in FY2012 and are expanded in FY13, with constant updated to the web site and new stories (http://www.worldbank.org/rsr). The following are examples of the programs featured in the success stories.
In Africa, RSR played an instrumental role in strengthening the IDA- pipeline for social protection, with the projects in every case working in close coordination with other donor partners. Examples are Mozambique where RSR helped to identify and prepare the country's first IDA-supported Social Protection Project which will support the nation-wide expansion of a public works program (the program will benefit an estimated 500,000 poor and vulnerable people. This is part of Mozambique's implementation of its poverty reduction strategy, which is supported in a coordinated way by all active donors in social protection. RSR also triggered the first Social Safety Net Project in Cameroon which will directly benefit 420,000 vulnerable people through cash transfers and public works programs in the five poorest regions of the country. RSR provided technical assistance to a pilot and an analysis and feasibility study. In Rwanda, technical assistance funded by the RSR helped pave the way for a recently approved $ 50 Million IDA Development Policy Grant (Rwanda - Second Support to Social Protection System). Between 2008 (when it was launched) and now, the program has grown from less than 10,000 to over half a million. RSR also impacted on social protection policies in other parts of the world. In Haiti, for example, RSR played a key-role in putting the Improving Maternal and Child Health through Integrated Social Services Project in the IDA-pipeline by successfully piloting the innovative concept of Household Development Agents, and introducing a Management Information System.
The increase in demand on SSNs in LICs has also been mirrored in the cross support and quality enhancement reviews (QERs) being conducted by the Anchor, which doubled in FY13 compared to Fy12. All of the QERs are on LICs.
To sustain this rapid expansion the social protection network is initiating work to capture the emerging best practices arising from engagement in countries with low capacity, low income countries and fragile states (for FY14-16). This will result in a number of knowledge pieces that will deepen the documentation of core issues and challenges for engagement in SP in LICs and FS, the evidence on what works and what doesnt and will enhance the operational guidance and tools for interventions in post-conflict and fragile states/ regions
In cooperation with the gender Anchor, the SPL anchor unit has conducted an assessment of gender component in SSN projects in IDA and will continue to monitor it in FY13-14 and part of the strategy implementation. Data gathered were provided to IEG launching a new evaluation on gender in SSNs.
Since 2007, the World Bank has shifted its focus to establish social safety nets in lower income countries. The World Bank's SSN portfolio is increasing focused in low-income countries.
Currently, nearly 80 percent of IDA countries have received support from the World Bank, in the form of financing, technical assistance, or both. In FY07, less than 50 percent of IDA countries received support for SSNs. In the period between FY11 to FY13, an estimated 59 million new beneficiaries were supported by World Bank projects. Of these, 56 percent were in IDA countries. The Social Protection and Labor Global Practice confirmed that much of the pipeline is targeted in poorer countries and that it plans to continue a large part of its focus on low income countries going forward. Trust funds, such as the multi-donor Rapid Social Response Fund, have given the Bank the capacity to provide support on a small scale. The Global Practice describes this as catalytic as it is often the first step in providing larger project support through IDA
The Bank has increased its support SSNs aimed at population in extreme poverty in Niger and Mali, through cash support projects. In addition, the Bank is beginning operations to support SSNs in other low income countries such as Bangladesh and continuing to support social safety nets in Ethiopia. The Bank has also been active in establishing SSNs in conflict-affected countries, such as the Central African Republic (through the Agricultural Global Practice) and South Sudan. The Bank has also focused on social safety nets in small states, such as Grenada and Fiji, which can be especially vulnerable to natural and economic crises.
In addition to providing support for new social safety net systems, the Bank has also supported efforts to strengthen existing system and to refocus them on the most vulnerable populations. For example, in both Bangladesh and Grenada, the Bank is working with the government to improve the efficiency and targeting of existing social safety net programs. This aims to improve the coverage of the poorest populations. Likewise, in many MICs, the Bank is supporting efforts to target the poorest populations, such as in the Philippines.
The Bank has strengthened the collection of poverty data both through projects and AAA. For example, projects in Bangladesh and Nicaragua have included support for the data systems, often including impact evaluations of programs.
In addition to focusing on the poorest, Bank projects have targeted other vulnerable groups. The Global Practice identified projects in Nepal, which target people from historically discriminated castes. In middle income countries like Panama and Peru, the Bank projects have targeted indigenous populations. Most of the targeting procedures use a combination of non-income variables such as ethnicity to determine eligibility, which facilitates the inclusion of disadvantaged groups.
The Bank often acts as a global coordinator in promoting social safety nets in the poorest countries. As explained by the Social Protection Global Practice, the Social Protection International Coordination Board was established in 2012. It is composed of the World Bank, other multilateral and bilateral development partners, and NGOs. Periodic meetings provide a platform for regular discussions, stock taking of social protection activities and coordination. During the last three annual meetings, the SPL global practice has organized high level round tables to discuss extension of social safety nets to the poorest countries, chaired by Bank senior management.
At the country level, the Bank has also worked with other partners to support social safety net initiatives. As indicated by the Global Practice, in the case of Ethiopia, the Bank works with a group of development partners to finance a large social safety net initiative. The World Bank is also working with the United Kingdom in both Mauretania and Mali to finance new social safety net initiatives for the poorest.
To date, the Bank has fully implemented the recommendation.
FY 14 continued the shift of SSN activities by the WBG described in the previous years towards greater attention to IDA countries. These shifts were in terms of the number of countries newly introduced to the portfolio, the growing volume of IDA, and IDA presence in terms of the number of projects under implementation (see Table 1 above). The initiation of SSN activities in new IDA countries means record level country coverage: about 80 percent of all IDA countries (65 out of 81) have now received support for safety nets from the World Bank. To note that before FY07, the number of IDA countries that had received World Bank support was 39, or fewer than 50 percent of all IDA countries.
These effects have started to have cumulative effects on the lives of the poor people. From FY11 to FY13, approximately 59.3 million new safety nets beneficiaries, including 29.7 million women, benefited from WBG support to SSNs. The majority among them, or 33.5 million were in IDA countries, while 25.7 were in IBRD countries.
In FY 14 there have been major social safety net initiatives in the poorest countries supported by the WBG, such as in the Sahel. In Mali, the Jigismjiri, or Tree of Hope program ($70 million) supports 62,000 extreme poor households and lays the groundwork for a national social safety net system. In Niger, a social safety net project ($44 million) aims at providing support to 80,000 households with conditional cash transfers and 60,000 with cash-for-work. In Mauritania, efforts are underway to improve targeting, prepare a single registry and a feasibility assessment for a national cash transfer program. These are all new operations in poorest countries in Africa that never before benefited from SSN. But efforts are scaling up also in countries which traditionally benefit from IDA for SSN activities. E.g. Bangladesh has a stream of recent SSN focused operations, and takes the lead as the biggest IDA client in SSN in terms of volume. Objectives of these projects are to integrate and improve the equity, efficiency and transparency of the existing safety net programs. Ethiopia continues to strengthen its flagship SSN Productive Safety Nets Project (over 8 mln beneficiaries), sustaining great ownership and developing a strategy to expand it to urban areas.
The Bank is enhancing the use of demand-driven grant financing from the first round Rapid Social Response (RSR) multi-donor TF (www.worldbank.org/rsr ). The RSR continues to provide catalytic resources in relatively small amounts, with grants ranging from US$40,000 to US$3 million, now in the 6th and 7th round of calls for proposals. It has increasing catalytic effect helping poorest countries to overcome capacity constraints and borrow from IDA. During the last four years, US$ 93 million of RSR resources catalyzed US$ 3.8 billion of IDA resources for70 projects in 40 countries, particularly in Africa (56 projects supported by RSR, 20 of these remain active).
Management is devoting a particular attention to the work in the most difficult segment of LICs; the Fragile and Conflict Affected States (FCSs) . The practice management launched programmatic work in the following areas: (i) understanding design and implementation in LICs and fragile and conflict affected settings, and (ii) considerations that drive the choice of the modalities at the stage of building social protection systems in low income settings. The activities will focus on: (i) deepening the documentation of core issues and challenges for engagement in SP in LICs, the evidence on what works and what doesnt and (ii) developing operational guidance and tools for interventions in post-conflict and fragile states/ regions.