Can a leopard change its spots? A critical analysis of the World Bank’s ‘progressive universalism’ approach to social protection

Daisy Sibun is the author of ‘Can a leopard change its spots? A critical analysis of the World Bank’s ‘progressive universalism’ approach to social protection’. The paper critically analyses the justification through which the World Bank continues to promote poverty targeted programmes – despite its more recent high-level support for the idea of universal social protection – and contrasts it with the human rights-based approach to social protection, as promoted by the ILO.

Act Church of Sweden and Action Against Hunger France funded the development of the paper.