Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Need for long-term approach to social safety nets: World Bank
From The Hindu
In a review of strategies for building Social Safety Nets (SSNs) in developing countries, the Independent Evaluation Group of the World Bank said this week that the countries that had invested in SSNs during times of economic prosperity were better equipped to handle the current economic downturn than those that had not invested in this area.
The study, Social Safety Nets: An Evaluation of World Bank Support, 2000–2010, emphasised the temporal dimension of SSN investments by developing country governments, arguing in particular that once the downturn took hold, low-income countries with tighter budgets “expressed less demand for SSNs as essential elements of their poverty reduction programs.”
Touching upon the Bank’s role in helping spur SSN-development among its member countries the IEG study said, “While the Bank’s SSN programs generally achieved their immediate objectives, the study pointed out that many programs were not adequately anchored in a longer-term strategy for SSN development in countries.”
Speaking at the release of the study its main author Jennie Litvack said,“The World Bank needs to maintain its recent momentum and increase engagement in low-income countries, where safety nets are important to protect the poorest.” Ms. Litvack added that it was encouraging that SSNs were being addressed by the Bank’s management as part of its new social protection strategy.
The study had praise for some large middle-income countries such as India, which it noted had been at forefront of the SSN revolution. This implies that knowledge, work and South-South learning in particular [are] highly significant to the ongoing success of SSNs worldwide.”
Yet, there were also concerns regarding the distribution of the Bank’s funding for SSNs worldwide, with the top ten borrowers for SSNs over the last decade representing 70 per cent of total Bank SSN lending but only 15 percent of poor people in Bank client countries.
That this trend was a clarion call for better SSN development in some lower-income countries was underscored by the fact that when the SSN lending is compared to overall Bank lending, the results were reversed. The top ten borrowers in overall Bank lending represented 52 per cent of Bank lending and 68 percent of the poor, according to the study.
Emphasising the main lesson coming out of this evaluation IEG Director-General Vinod Thomas said, “Countries that had prepared themselves during stable times by building permanent social safety nets – such as Chile, Colombia or Georgia – were better positioned to respond than those that had not when the crises hit.”
Mr. Thomas, who in an earlier interview with The Hindu had cautioned of a spike in global poverty numbers during the economic downturn, added that the Bank had been more effective in helping countries where it was “already engaged over the past decade through lending, advisory services or policy dialogue.”
In a review of strategies for building Social Safety Nets (SSNs) in developing countries, the Independent Evaluation Group of the World Bank said this week that the countries that had invested in SSNs during times of economic prosperity were better equipped to handle the current economic downturn than those that had not invested in this area.
The study, Social Safety Nets: An Evaluation of World Bank Support, 2000–2010, emphasised the temporal dimension of SSN investments by developing country governments, arguing in particular that once the downturn took hold, low-income countries with tighter budgets “expressed less demand for SSNs as essential elements of their poverty reduction programs.”
Touching upon the Bank’s role in helping spur SSN-development among its member countries the IEG study said, “While the Bank’s SSN programs generally achieved their immediate objectives, the study pointed out that many programs were not adequately anchored in a longer-term strategy for SSN development in countries.”
Speaking at the release of the study its main author Jennie Litvack said,“The World Bank needs to maintain its recent momentum and increase engagement in low-income countries, where safety nets are important to protect the poorest.” Ms. Litvack added that it was encouraging that SSNs were being addressed by the Bank’s management as part of its new social protection strategy.
The study had praise for some large middle-income countries such as India, which it noted had been at forefront of the SSN revolution. This implies that knowledge, work and South-South learning in particular [are] highly significant to the ongoing success of SSNs worldwide.”
Yet, there were also concerns regarding the distribution of the Bank’s funding for SSNs worldwide, with the top ten borrowers for SSNs over the last decade representing 70 per cent of total Bank SSN lending but only 15 percent of poor people in Bank client countries.
That this trend was a clarion call for better SSN development in some lower-income countries was underscored by the fact that when the SSN lending is compared to overall Bank lending, the results were reversed. The top ten borrowers in overall Bank lending represented 52 per cent of Bank lending and 68 percent of the poor, according to the study.
Emphasising the main lesson coming out of this evaluation IEG Director-General Vinod Thomas said, “Countries that had prepared themselves during stable times by building permanent social safety nets – such as Chile, Colombia or Georgia – were better positioned to respond than those that had not when the crises hit.”
Mr. Thomas, who in an earlier interview with The Hindu had cautioned of a spike in global poverty numbers during the economic downturn, added that the Bank had been more effective in helping countries where it was “already engaged over the past decade through lending, advisory services or policy dialogue.”
Labels: global economy, Social Safety Nets, SSN, World Bank
# posted by Narayan Lakshman @ 10:01 AM 
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