Assessing Targeting Options for Nepal’s Social Grants – What Does The Evidence Tell Us?
The Government of Nepal and development partners have been working together to develop a stronger evidence base to inform thinking about social protection policy and support the implementation and scale...
Social Safety Net ≠ Safety Net
This Perspective argues that the majority of “social safety nets” do not, in fact, fulfil the minimum criteria of a “safety net:” in effect, they are not available to catch people as they fall into poverty.
A Case Study of How Not to do Targeting Analysis
Stephen Kidd provides a critique of a recent World Bank paper that provides an excellent example of how not to do targeting analysis. The World Bank paper demonstrates how to...
Rethinking ‘Targeting’ in International Development
Stephen Kidd argues that the debates on targeting are essentially ideological, and we need to rethink the way in which we approach the issue.
Social Protection: An Effective and Sustainable Investment in Developing Countries
A KfW paper details some of the impacts of tax-financed social protection schemes in developing countries and the significant positive benefits that they bring. These range from building human capital to...
Poverty-reduction failures of targeting social protection to be highlighted at social studies seminar
Development Pathways’ Senior Social Policy Specialist Stephen Kidd is set to present evidence on the effectiveness of different approaches to targeting in social protection at a seminar in The Hague....
The Political Economy of ‘Targeting’ of Social Security Schemes
Don’t target ‘the poor’ if you really want to help ‘the poor’ In this edition of our Pathways Perspectives, Stephen Kidd examines the evidence on the political economy of ‘targeting’. By...
Universal Child Grants momentum builds with international conference set to outline the evidence
A global conference on Universal Child Grants set to be held in Geneva in response to “a growing appetite for universal approaches to direct support,” according to UNICEF and the...
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...
Poverty-targeting role in growing wealth divide pinpointed in report aimed at Davos leaders
A new report outlining how the wealth of the poorest half of the world’s population shrunk last year while billionaire fortunes increased underlines how poverty-targeting contributes to the growing divide....