Universal social protection: the ILO attempt, once more, to persuade the World Bank to commit to inclusivity and the right to social security for all
On Wednesday 21st September 2016, we heard the apparently joyous news that the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and World Bank had launched the Global Partnership for Universal Social Protection which “aims to make pensions, maternity, disability and child benefits, among others, available to all persons.” Does this send hope to...
Poxy Means Testing
PMT is a curse! Sisters, you all know that: inescapable, debilitating, emotionally draining, a regular cause of extreme irritability! But I refer here not to Pre-Menstrual Tension, but rather to a new form of PMT that is sweeping the globe: Proxy Means Testing. This variant of Proxy Means Testing, PMT,...
Poxy Means Testing: it’s Official!
(“A prox on both your houses”)[i] The World Bank has recently – and some would say belatedly – undertaken a critical review of the Proxy Means Test (PMT)[ii], the approach to targeting that it has been advocating, uncritically, for the past decade. The results are astonishing. Disguised beneath a splendidly...
The Effectiveness of Targeting: Options for Uganda
This paper attempts to clarify the concept of targeting within the context of Uganda and discuss the most effective means of ensuring that ‘the poor’ and vulnerable are included in...
The debate in the World Bank on the Proxy Means Test hots up: or does it?
It has been great to see the response so far to the debate on the proxy means test (PMT); and, as you’ll know from a recent blog by Nick Freeland, the World Bank itself is beginning to question the value and worth of the PMT. However, we don’t yet know...
Enough with the KIDDing around – let’s tackle the BIG questions!
Not too long ago, my colleague, Stephen Kidd, wrote a blog called ‘The debate in the World Bank on the Proxy Means Test hots up: or does it?’ (you can find the blog here). In it, he took issue with the way that the Bank’s Social Protection and Labour Group is...
Exclusion by Design: the effectiveness of the Proxy Means Test
In recent years, the proxy means test (PMT) has become the predominant targeting mechanism for social assistance schemes in developing countries. It has many powerful advocates and claims that it...
Anti-Social Registries: how a database excludes many from social protection
A craze sweeping the social protection world for Social Registries is systematically depriving some of the world’s poorest not only of social protection but also of access to vital services. So argues our...
Tackling exclusion, pensions progress, citizen action: a year in review
2017 has been a busy year for Development Pathways. We have redoubled our efforts to share the experience and knowledge we have gained working on building the strategies and systems needed to ensure evidence-led, inclusive programmes that realise human rights. Our most-read resources reflect the evidence we have provided on the...
Free at last! Kyrgyzstan’s liberation from poor relief, with universal social security for children
In April 2018, a new law will enter into force in Kyrgyzstan which abolishes its main poor relief scheme and replaces it with a system of universal child benefits. This is a major step forward in Kyrgyzstan’s attempt to build an inclusive, lifecycle social protection system, since the nation already...