Fake news: World Bank accuses Kenya’s old age pension of benefitting the rich!
09/08/2019
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...
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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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All work and no pay: The invisibilisation of women’s labour in public works programmes
Anasuya Sengupta On International Women’s Day, I want to bring attention to a silent scandal on the use of women’s labour within public works programmes, which are increasingly referred to as productive safety net programmes in many low-income countries. These are, as many of you know, good old-fashioned workfare schemes...
08/03/2019
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Questioning women’s role as the sole recipients of benefits: contrasting evidence on gender-sensitive social protection programming
Juan Gonzalo Jaramillo Mejia In the midst of speaking to families benefitting from various social assistance schemes in rural Mexico, an on-line conversation has made me question again the assumption that it is best to target women as the main recipient of benefits. On International Women’s Day, can we further delve into that discussion, interrogate the prevailing narratives on gender and...
08/03/2019
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Uganda’s Senior Citizens Grant: Evaluation reveals further evidence on its impacts
Stephen Kidd A mark of a decent society is a guarantee that all citizens can enjoy income security once they reach old age. At least 56 countries worldwide now provide pensions to more than 90 per cent of older people and a growing number of low- and middle-income countries are...
01/03/2019
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The curious case of women leaving the labour market in India
Anasuya Sengupta Recently, in the midst of participating in a launch event for an ODI/HelpAge International study on older women’s work, I thought back on the lives of the women in my family, from India. In the early 1940s – really, not that long ago – my grandmother was married off...
21/02/2019
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