The golden rule, applied to social protection
10/10/2019
Alexandra Barrantes One of my favourite books to read out loud to my children at bedtime is The Golden Rule. It lays out, in very simple terms, the ideal that we should all “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. But as this is not a...
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A much-loved English bear points to cash programming that has more impact
Cash transfers are widely recognised as an important tool for tackling poverty and fostering human development outcomes. The operational challenge is to ensure that the right people are paid the right amount of money, regularly and reliably. In this article, guest blogger Charlie Goldsmith argues that schools can offer a...
25/09/2019
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“They sleep like goats and no-one cares”: The role of social protection in promoting dignity for people who experience disability
Helen Barrett He sleeps like a goat on the floor because she cannot afford for him to soil yet another mattress, she tells me. He is excluded from a nutrition programme, despite being malnourished, told by officials that this is part of his disability. She cannot leave him alone, and...
11/09/2019
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Valor Criança: Angola starts to lay the first building block of an inclusive social protection system
Alexandra Barrantes It is widely recognised that if countries wish to successfully address poverty, enhance human development, augment people’s capacity to engage in the labour market, enhance a national social contract conducive to greater social cohesion and generate sustainable economic growth, it is necessary to build inclusive national social protection...
22/08/2019
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Fake news: World Bank accuses Kenya’s old age pension of benefitting the rich!
Stephen Kidd We probably all know the story of the scorpion that was given a lift across a river by a frog. Halfway across, the scorpion stung the frog, condemning them both to death by drowning. As she was dying, the frog asked the scorpion why he’d done it and...
09/08/2019
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Social security innovation: is it always the right thing to do?
Matthew Greenslade In the world of international development, why are we all so obsessed by innovation? At the right time, social security innovation is important, vital even, but why is there a bias among donors towards the new? This bias can sound progressive, but it often comes at a cost,...
18/06/2019
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Can anthropological research inform the design of social protection schemes?
Maia Green Programmes that give money to poor households are implemented across the Global South as part of donor-financed development assistance. Originally designed as a short–term ameliorative for the social impacts of structural adjustment in Latin America, they are now components of development–oriented social policy in countries as diverse as Kenya, the Philippines, Egypt, Ethiopia,...
18/06/2019
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Building inclusive social protection systems for persons with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries
Rasmus Schjoedt The WHO estimates that around 15 per cent of the world’s population, or more than 1 billion people, have a disability. Disability-inclusive social protection can play a key role in empowering persons with disabilities by providing a minimum income as well as financial support to address the additional...
05/04/2019
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How social protection recipients can raise their voice – with SMS messages
How can social protection communications ensure recipients understand their entitlements and hold social protection officials to account? Even in humanitarian contexts, in remote, sparsely-populated regions with low technology-penetration rates? This is the question that our Management Information Systems team in our Kenya office has been putting expertise into answering. It...
27/03/2019
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Poor targeting: a response to Pathways’ paper on how best to reach those in poverty
Nicholas Freeland Sometimes in life there are things that you know, instinctively, to be true; but you lack the proof with which to convince others. It is then particularly gratifying when the necessary proof emerges. I have experienced just such a moment of gratification with the appearance of Development Pathways’...
19/03/2019
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