Strokova, Victoria

Person:
Strokova, Victoria

Social Protection Global Practice

Fields of Specialization

Labor economics, Social protection and labor, Employment policy

Departments

Social Protection Global Practice

Last updated: November 20, 2024

Biography

Victoria Strokova is the program manager for the World Bank’s Partnership for Economic Inclusion. With more than 15 years of experience in international development, she has technical expertise in social safety nets (cash transfers), building social protection systems (social registries), labor and economic inclusion programs, and cross-sectoral topics such as jobs and human capital. At the World Bank, Victoria has gained extensive experience across multiple regions and global units within the Social Protection Global Practice, as well as in cross-cutting units like the Jobs Group and the Human Capital Project, where she was co–program manager for the Human Capital Umbrella program and co-led cross-sectoral analytical work on disruptive technology. Previously, she led operational and analytical work in Ethiopia and Liberia, focusing on the design, implementation, and evaluation of economic inclusion programs in rural; urban; and fragility, conflict, and violence contexts. She holds a master’s degree in public policy with honors from the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.

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Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

The State of Economic Inclusion Report 2024: Pathways to Scale
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-11-20) Arévalo-Sánchez, Inés; Heisey, Janet; Chaudhary, Sarang; Clay, Timothy; Strokova, Victoria; Vasudeva Dutta, Puja; Andrews, Colin
The State of Economic Inclusion Report (SEI) 2024 explores efforts to scale up economic inclusion programs - bundles of coordinated, multidimensional interventions that support individuals, households, and communities to sustainably increase their incomes and assets - in the context of overlapping crisis. These programs transform the economic lives of the poorest and most vulnerable people, building their resilience and creating job opportunities. The report features data from 405 programs across 88 countries, benefiting over 70 million individuals either directly or indirectly. This marks almost doubling in the number of programs and nearly a 50 percent increase in coverage since the SEI 2021 report. Governments continue to lead in scaling up these economic inclusion programs, covering nearly three-fourths of program participants. However, non-governmental programs have also significantly contributed to the increase in coverage in recent years, in addition to serving as both service providers and capacity building providers for governments. The report offers five important contributions: 1) Positioning economic inclusion programs as crucial for building resilience and providing job opportunities for the poor and vulnerable in the face of overlapping crises. 2) Analyzing the global landscape over the past three years, highlighting the extent to which economic inclusion programs are being customized for diverse contexts and groups, including a cross-cutting focus on gender. 3) Reviewing progress and challenges in the design and implementation of government-led programs, including the interplay with communities, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. 4) Examining the emerging agenda of designing economic inclusion programs to enhance the long-term climate resilience of poor and vulnerable individuals and communities. 5) Featuring three spotlights that unpack emerging evidence from government-led programs, customization strategies targeting youth, and the increasing role of digital tools and technologies in program delivery. Data from the report are available on the PEI Data Portal (www.peiglobal.org).
More, Better, and More Inclusive Industrial Jobs in Ethiopia: Summary of Evidence Base and Knowledge Gaps
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-09-29) Maaskant, Koen; Strokova, Victoria
This note aims to shed light on how Ethiopia’s efforts towards export-led industrialization can create more, better, and more inclusive jobs. It first reviews the evidence on how global value chain participation and industrialization have led to improved employment outcomes across the globe, before turning to the evidence on Ethiopia’s industrialization experience so far. Significant progress in building this evidence base has been made in recent years, including more recently through different analytical outputs produced under the World Bank Group’s analytical program on industrial labor, highlighted in this note. However, significant knowledge gaps remain. The note concludes by outlining ideas for a future research agenda on industrial labor in Ethiopia, focusing on key areas for policy-oriented research.
Sustaining Employment and Wage Gains in Brazil: A Skills and Jobs Agenda
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2015-10-15) Silva, Joana; Almeida, Rita; Strokova, Victoria
In the past 15 years, employment, labor market participation, and wages have grown significantly in Brazil. Improved labor market outcomes have been the main drivers of reductions in poverty and inequality. But job creation is already slowing. Continued progress in employment and labor earnings will depend on the country’s ability to achieve a first critical goal: raising labor productivity. Continued improvements in the livelihoods of the poor will depend on the country’s ability to achieve a second critical goal: connecting the poor to better, more productive jobs. Sustaining Employment and Wage Gains in Brazil: A Skills and Jobs Agenda analyzes Brazil’s labor markets and identifies the key challenges involved in sustaining job creation, wage growth, and poverty reduction. The book discusses reforms of program design and implementation in the policy areas of skills development, unemployment insurance and other labor market regulations, active labor market programs, and productive inclusion programs. The report reviews existing interventions in these four policy areas and proposes an agenda of incremental policy changes that could more effectively support the two critical goals. It also describes specific opportunities in each policy area to better coordinate programs with private sector demands and across policies, while also adapting them to improve the results for the urban and rural poor. An essential first step will be to strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems to measure results by tracking the effects of programs on labor market outcomes and using that information to inform program expansion.
Tajikistan Jobs Diagnostic: Strategic Framework for Jobs
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-01) Strokova, Victoria; Ajwad, Mohamed Ihsan
Tajikistan’s economy is not creating sufficient jobs for its rapidly growing workforce, in particular its burgeoning youth population. As a result, its most valuable asset – human capital – is largely underutilized. Although remittance-driven growth since the early 2000s has led to a steep decline in the poverty rate, poverty remains high. Strong economic growth in the last decade has not resulted from structural transformation that can lead to sustained improvements in the standard of living. Jobs have been created, but these are mainly in low-productivity activities, often in the informal sector. In addition, there are major inequalities in terms of labor market outcomes between population groups and across regions. The report, “Tajikistan Jobs Diagnostic: Strategic Framework for Jobs”, analyzes the main challenges the country faces in creating jobs at the macro, firm, and household levels. It also sets out policy recommendations to enable the country to create more and better jobs that are also more inclusive of women, youth, and other vulnerable population groups.
Kazakhstan Labor Market Outcomes: Achievements and Remaining Challenges
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016) Elzir, Angela; Strokova, Victoria; Margolis, David
This note presents a detailed analysis of jobs in Kazakhstan at the macro and individual levels, including regional and socio-economic disparities. At the macro level, it includes a diagnostic of the links between economic growth, jobs, and productivity across different economic sectors. At the individual level, the analysis focuses on labor market outcomes of women and men, young and adult workers, residents of urban and rural areas, and people in the bottom 40 percent of the consumption distribution. It also presents a detailed analysis of determinants of employment and wages. The rest of the note is organized as follows: section two discusses the relationship between economic growth, jobs, and productivity across different economic sectors. Section three discusses demographic trends and overall labor market outcomes. Section four focuses on assessing spatial and sectoral differences in access to jobs, including for those in the bottom 40 percent. Section five concludes with a discussion of challenges and broad policy implications.
Skills and Jobs: Lessons Learned and Options for Collaboration
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-05) Lord, Nick; Sanchez Puerta, Maria Laura; Perinet, Mathilde; Robalino, David A.; Strokova, Victoria
The accumulation of human capital through the acquisition of knowledge and skills is recognized as central for economic development. More-educated workers not only have better employment opportunities, they earn more and have more stable and rewarding jobs. They are also more adaptable and mobile. Workers who acquire more skills make other workers and capital more productive and, within the firm, they facilitate the adaptation, adoption, and ultimately invention of new technologies. This is crucial for economic diversification, productivity growth, and ultimately raising the living standards of living of the population. The structure of the note is as follows. First, it examines the different types of market failures, and subsequently reviews the role that governments have played in training systems around the world. Finally it offers a set of proposals for reforming and improving these systems to improve labor market outcomes.
Social Assistance and Labor Market Programs in Latin America : Methodology and Key Findings from the Social Protection Database
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-06) Cerutti, Paula; Fruttero, Anna; Grosh, Margaret; Kostenbaum, Silvana; Oliveri, Maria Laura; Rodriguez-Alas, Claudia; Strokova, Victoria
How much do countries spend on social protection? Do social protection programs cover all poor people? And, how well are they targeted? It is notoriously hard to find comprehensive cross-country data on social protection programs which can help answer such questions and allow to benchmark social protection systems. The World Bank s Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) Social Protection Database attempts to fill these knowledge gaps by collecting and systematizing data on social protection programs from both administrative sources and household surveys. The data assembled provides a powerful tool to study trends and analyze program performance as well as benchmark countries social protection systems. We found both expected and unexpected trends in spending on social protection and coverage of social protection programs across countries. Between 2000 and 2010 expenditure on social assistance nearly tripled. At a program level, conditional cash transfer programs ceased to dominate social assistance spending, with the exception of Mexico, and have come second to social pension spending in Brazil, Uruguay and Chile. Labor market programs remain small and fragmented, but show much more counter-cyclical patterns.
Social Safety Nets in Europe and Central Asia : Preparing for Crisis, Adapting to Demographic Change, and Promoting Employability
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-04) Williams, Penny; Larrison, Jennica; Strokova, Victoria; Lindert, Kathy
Social safety nets in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region responded to protect people's incomes during the global recession, especially in countries where systems were developed before the crisis. As population's age and labor forces shrink, the elderly will increasingly rely on general revenues to supplement contributory pensions, competing with assistance for other vulnerable groups. Social safety nets that link to employment and other services can help people transition from reliance on social transfers to employability. Countries should not wait to confront these challenges. To further strengthen social safety nets, governments in ECA should consolidate and harmonize benefits, invest in systems improvements for greater efficiency, link social assistance and employment services, and actively communicate these reforms to their populations.