Proxy means testing: failing both the economics test, and the rights test?
The use of proxy means-tests in social protection defies human rights and makes no economic sense, so nations must instead investigate options for implementing an inclusive social protection floor, writes Dr Michael Cichon. Paragraph 25 of the UDHR states “Everyone has… the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability,...
Has the World Bank admitted defeat on poverty-targeting?
The World Bank’s competition to develop a tool for poverty-targeting, with a top prize of US$6,000, comes after decades of work and millions of dollars of investment by the World Bank in designing poverty-targeting mechanisms. Many of their staff have dedicated their best years to the task – and yet success has...
The limits of using ‘Big Data’ for development – an economist writes
Get your inner nerd out! The World Bank has launched a competition to help them better predict a households’ poverty status based on easy-to-collect information and machine learning algorithms. Build a statistical model that works well, and you could win a cash price of up to US$ 6,000! So what’s...
Targeting humanitarian aid: something to be left to opaque algorithms?
As crises spread across the globe combined with increasing pressure on funding, the question of how best to target aid has entered the humanitarian world in a big way. However, while targeting has long been debated in social protection – and continues to be highly contested – humanitarian actors appear to...
Poverty-targeting harms non-beneficiary children in the Philippines
Credit where credit is due. The World Bank recently published a report on the Philippines Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Programme scheme showing that, among young children excluded from the scheme, stunting rates increased by an average of 11 percentage points. In contrast, among beneficiary children aged 6 to 36 months, stunting fell by...
Double Jeopardy: How Poverty Targeting Mechanisms Unfairly Impact on Families with a Disabled Member
Our guest blogger Ilene Zeitzer, is President of Disability Policy Solutions. An internationally recognised expert on comparative disability policy, Ms. Zeitzer has worked in more than 65 countries on various disability-related issues. In social protection policy, there is probably no better example of the unintentional consequences of well-intentioned policies than poverty...
Book Review: “Revisiting Targeting in Social Assistance: A New Look at Old Dilemmas”
Nicholas Freeland's take on the latest World Bank book on targeting in social assistance.