The rise and rise of neo-liberal social protection
Monday 1st April was not only April Fool’s day; it was also the day chosen by the British government to make the most drastic changes to the UK’s social security system in decades, throwing many poor people into even deeper poverty. People with disabilities were the hardest hit: as has been...
Is Latin America Transitioning from Poor Relief cash transfers to a More Progressive and Inclusive Vision of Social Security?
Despite all the hype around poor relief conditional cash transfers in Latin America, the ideology underpinning social protection in the continent is shifting. While conditional cash transfers are targeted at the poor – with the result that the majority of the poor are excluded (see here for an explanation) – a...
The Zomba conditional cash transfer experiment: An assessment of its methodology
In the 6th edition of our Pathways Perspectives publications, Stephen Kidd and Rebecca Calder examine the results of a study undertaken by the World Bank in an attempt to assess...
Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes – Their Relevance For Nepal
Compared to countries with a similar level of economic development, Nepal is doing very well in terms of its commitment to social protection. Programmes such as the Senior Citizens’ Allowance,...
Mis-labelled Cash Transfers
Nicholas Freeland, a Senior Social Policy Specialist, criticises a report written about a two year pilot social protection scheme in Morocco and how an unconditional transfer became 'mislabelled'.
Dismantling of social protection in UK highlighted by UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty
16th November: A fifth of the population lives in poverty in the UK and this number is projected to increase as a result of the “systematic dismantling of social protection,”...
A new dawn for social protection: a proposal to transform all social security programmes into conditional cash transfers
At Development Pathways, we like to please everyone. Recently, we’ve become particularly concerned by the continuing desire of many people to sanction poor and vulnerable families through the use of punitive conditions, despite the absolute lack of evidence of any added value from their use. So we’ve been racking our...
To condition or not to condition: what is the evidence?
‘The World Bank do not like having conditions imposed on them: so why impose them on others?’ In the first of our Pathways Perspectives of the year, we look at...
Conditions and sanctions don’t work, and hinder the rights of the most vulnerable
A UK MP found “depressingly unsurprising” the finding that punishing people in their hour of greatest need is ineffective and ethically questionable. Indeed, the results of the five-year study on Welfare Conditionality, presented to Parliament last month, should surprise none of us. The evidence has been mounting for years that a punitive...