Cunningham, Wendy

Person:
Cunningham, Wendy

Global Practice on Social Protection and Labor

Author Name Variants

Cunningham, Wendy, Cunningham, Wendy V., Cunningham, W.

Fields of Specialization

Labor economics, Development economics, Human development theory

External Links

RePEc
Research Gate

Departments

Global Practice on Social Protection and Labor

Last updated:November 28, 2025

Biography

Wendy Cunningham, a U.S. national, is a Lead Economist in the World Bank’s Social Protection and Labor Practice. In this role, she is responsible for working with client countries to develop and implement policies and programs to improve labor market access and success, particularly for more vulnerable populations. Her research focuses on measurement and programming around skills-for-the labor market, with a particular focus on socio-emotional skills. She has a strong publications record on labor markets, informal employment, gender, and youth development. Previously, she had been the World Bank’s Program Leader for Human Development and Poverty in Mexico and Colombia, and the Coordinator for the World Bank’s program on Child and Youth Development. She holds a Ph.D. in Labor Economics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/10986/38962

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Publication Search Results

Now showing1 - 10 of 45

What Do Small and Informal Household Enterprises Want?
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-10-20) Cerkez, Nicolas; Cunningham, Wendy; Gupta, Sarika; Lung, Felix
A large share of workers in Sub-Saharan Africa earn a living through informal, low productivity household enterprises. While structural transformation toward formal wage employment is viewed as the long-term path to improving livelihoods, progress has been slow. In the meantime, small enterprises will remain a key source of employment for many years to come, making it important to better understand how to help such enterprises thrive. This paper uses original survey data from 1,526 poor individuals across Liberia, Niger, and Senegal to examine the aspirations and constraints of urban household enterprise owners. The results suggest that most surveyed business owners voluntarily started their businesses, are satisfied with their jobs, and aspire to and have plans to expand their businesses. Most report that they earn more than they could as wage earners, with wage earners confirming the observations. However, a combination of family and business constraints and shocks may hinder their ambitions, ability to act on their goals, and realization of those goals. That said, two-thirds of micro-enterprise owners said they would accept a wage job if it offered wages on par with their current earnings. This suggests that households will continue to prefer firm ownership in the short run until structural transformation can improve earning potential of wage employment in the long term. The results suggest that household enterprise owners require a dual policy approach: one that improves current enterprise conditions while advancing longer-term structural reforms to expand access to quality wage employment.
Investing in Human Capital in South Africa: A Framework for a Coordinated Multi-Sectoral Approach
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-01-22) Dulvy, Elizabeth Ninan; Gebre, Tihtina Zenebe; Kika-Mistry, Jesal; Franz, Jutta; Lee, Yi-K young Lee; Kabubei, Kenneth Munge; Matsebula, Thulani; Monchuk, Victoria; Cunningham, Wendy
South Africa's economic growth and development agenda and to present a harmonized approach for investing in priority areas for human capital formation. The policy note first presents an in-depth diagnostic of the status of human capital in the country, applying a life cycle approach. The life cycle approach places a strong emphasis on investing in human capital development holistically, involving all relevant sectors, and as a continuum, following the trajectory of an individual's life. Focus is given to three critical stages of an individual's life, (i) early childhood; (ii) school age; and (iii) youth to adulthood. Based on the findings of the analysis, the policy note identifies the priority challenges and proposes a framework for action. The findings of this policy note aim to serve as a basis for a much-needed dialogue across key relevant government entities, including sector departments such as the Department of Health, the Department of Basic Education, the Department of Higher Education and Training, Department of Social Development, and others, such as National Treasury, Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, the Office of the Presidency as well as provincial government departments, on how best to invest in human capital, both in the short and medium-to-long term. The note could also be used to inform a range of stakeholders, including civil society, development partners, and the private sector of the human capital development challenges in South Africa and how certain gaps could be addressed through better coordination of interventions. Lastly, the note aims to motivate further research on key areas where there are information and knowledge gaps on human capital in South Africa.
Understanding the (Un)met Saving Needs of Poor Urban Liberians in the Informal Sector
(World Bank, 2023-10-30) Jain, Himanshi; Cunningham, Wendy
Gisela is among the large and diverse group of informal sector workers in urban Liberia who lack social protection coverage, have little interaction with formal financial institutions, and depend on informal saving groups to meet their financial needs. The financial vulnerability that this group faces not only puts their welfare at risk but also under‑mines the economy at large. Despite the potential risks, there is little systematic information on how the urban informal poor in Liberia save, their saving aspirations, and what they need to save better. This report explores the saving behavior and aspirations of urban informal households in Liberia by presenting the findings from a survey of 1000 households in Monrovia, supplemented by an assessment of Liberia’s existing informal savings institutions.
Profiling Green Jobs and Workers in South Africa: An Occupational Tasks Approach
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-05-21) Mosomi, Jacqueline; Cunningham, Wendy
To adequately prepare the labor force for the green economy, policy makers and workers require a detailed understanding of the nature of green jobs. This study profiles green jobs in the South African labor market. It uses labor force survey data and applies an occupational task-based approach to identify current green occupations and associated jobs, count them, and profile their workers and wages. The findings show that 5.5 to 32 percent of South Africa’s jobs can be labeled as “green,” where the former estimate uses a strict definition and the latter uses a broad definition. The share of strictly green jobs has not changed over the past eight years. While 65 percent of strictly green occupations can be classified as high (skill) occupations, only 55 percent of workers are in these occupations, reflecting numerous employment opportunities in mid-level and elementary green occupations. Strictly green occupations tend to be male-dominated and held by prime-age (25–44) workers with post-secondary school. However, the profile of those in the greenest of the green occupations shows that they are older (age 45–65) workers and Black Africans with lower than completed high school education. Policies to prepare South Africans to engage in the green economy include developing a strategy to teach new and existing workers to use green technologies; targeting green occupations in youth development programs; making a concerted effort to support women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; helping low-skilled green workers to organize and improve their work conditions; and continuing to collect and analyze data for better tracking South Africa’s progress in becoming a green labor force.
Urban Informality in Sub-Saharan Africa: Profiling Workers and Firms in an Urban Context
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-02-14) Cunningham, Wendy; Newhouse, David Locke; Ricaldi, Federica; Tchuisseu Seuyong, Feraud; Viollaz, Mariana; Edochie, Ifeanyi Nzegwu
This paper describes the state of informal sector work in urban Sub-Saharan Africa, using household surveys from 26 countries representing 61 percent of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa and firm surveys from three countries. Five main conclusions emerge. First, the urban informal sector is large and persistent in Sub-Saharan Africa. Approximately 56 to 65 percent of urban workers are informal, half of whom are self-employed. Data from five countries suggest little systematic reduction in the prevalence of informality during the 2010s. Second, heterogeneity in the African informal sector cuts along demographic lines. Women are overrepresented in informal self-employment, men in informal wage work, and youth in unpaid employment. Third, while the urban informal workers are, on average, poorer and in less-skilled occupations than formal sector workers, the majority are not extremely poor and are in mid-skilled occupations. Fourth, informal enterprises are small and are challenged to survive and grow into job-creating firms. Few find much benefit from registration given the costs, both monetary (taxes) and transactional (information about the registration process). Fifth, access to urban public services (utilities) is weakly associated with the probability of working in an informal job, although access to mobile phones is high across all job types. If thriving urban jobs are to contribute to economic and social development in Africa, it will be crucial for policies and programs to take into consideration the heterogeneity in jobs, the profile of workers, and the urban context.
Delivering Digital G2P Payments to Urban Informal Populations: Lessons and Future Policy Implications from COVID-19 Responses
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-10-03) Ubah, Ubah Thomas; Mukherjee, Anit; Webster, Brian; Cunningham, Wendy; Marin, Georgina
The COVID-19 response in many Sub-Saharan African countries included the rapid deployment of social protection programs leveraging digital systems to counteract the income losses that were disproportionately experienced by urban informal populations. Using data from three in-depth country case studies, this paper finds that these digital government-to-person (G2P) payments contributed to countries reaching beneficiaries quickly and safely and that G2P payments may be particularly viable in urban, as compared to rural, areas due to greater access to digital and financial infrastructure, creative use of big data, and population density that allows for mass communication. However, there are still pockets of exclusion in urban areas emerging from incomplete digital access, limited financial inclusion, underdeveloped financial ecosystems, and high population mobility. It is particularly challenging to identify, communicate with, assess, and deliver G2P services to informal workers in urban areas due to their non-registration status, variable income flows, the blending of the home and household enterprises into a single entity, and the governments’ limited experience in identifying eligible beneficiaries within this segment. While adopting a digital G2P architecture provides a promising avenue to strengthen the safety nets for this segment in the region, exclusion challenges remain. Given the ubiquity of urban informality in the region, countries will need to work to include the urban informal in foundational digital systems, such as national IDs and social registries, adopt flexible regulatory and hybrid delivery models to address the sector’s varied needs, and seek to foster robust digital payment ecosystems to maximize the potential for spillover benefits.
An Assessment of Gender Gaps in Liberia through a Women’s Empowerment Lens
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-11) Cunningham, Wendy; Gupta, Sarika; Johansson de Silva, Sara; Gupta, Sarika
Advancing gender equality by strengthening women’s empowerment is essential for improving development outcomes in Liberia. This report draws on existing literature and data review, as well as new qualitative evidence collected in Liberia. It shows that despite some progress, significant gender gaps still hold back the individual well-being of half of the population. Although abject poverty is part of the story, formal and informal institutions that shift the balance of decision-making power and access to resources away from women also disempower. Eliminating institutional and resource constraints and strengthening women’s ability to make choices to improve their lives can leverage women’s skills and talents and enhance their contributions to a more prosperous and sustainable Liberia. This report is grounded in the concepts underlying women’s and girls’ empowerment - namely, a process whereby women and girls who have been denied the ability to make choices and realize them acquire such an ability. The analysis is focused on identifying the constraints Liberian women face in achieving better outcomes in education, health, and productive employment, through the lens of the three pillars of empowerment: context, resources, and agency.
The Coal Transition: Mitigating Social and Labor Impacts
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-05) Cunningham, Wendy; Schmillen, Achim
Realizing the objectives of the Paris Agreement on climate change will necessitate a timely transition of the global energy system out of coal, but evidence from Europe, China, and the United States shows that the coal transition can lead to massive job losses. This paper develops a comprehensive policy approach to assist affected workers and communities. Based on a conceptual framework that distinguishes between pre-layoff planning, pre-layoff assistance and post-layoff assistance, it discusses the main instruments for mitigating social and labor impacts, in particular income support and active labor market policies. In addition, it considers the institutional context, the dynamics of change, and implementation issues. The paper argues that while challenges resulting from the coal transition should not be minimized, the sound management of job displacements can contribute to mitigating the social consequences, strengthen morale and productivity, and improve the efficiency of structural change.
Liberian Women Count: Evidence from a Macrosimulation of the Gender Dividend
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-05-01) Karra, Mahesh; Del Bono, Mitja; Wilde, Joshua; Cunningham, Wendy; Gupta, Sarika
Liberian women make significant economic contributions yet are constrained from contributing even more due to their exclusion from productive opportunities. This study develops a macrosimulation model of the Gender Dividend that estimates the economic contributions of women and the societal costs incurred by excluding them. Using macroeconomic, demographic, and survey data from Liberia, the analysis finds that women were responsible for 39 percent of market-based output produced annually in 2020, equal to US$1.08 billion, and contributed another US$530 million in non-tradable sources of production, namely, housework and domestic chores. Using the macrosimulation model, the study estimates that if the gender gaps in labor force participation, intra-sectoral wages, and sector of employment were closed, gross domestic product would be 11.5 percent higher. If further reforms were undertaken to equalize education and reduce fertility rates to a net-reproduction rate, gross domestic product would be 23.7 percent higher. Finally, if the model also accounts for the value of non-tradable production, gross domestic product would be US$5.89 billion, or 45.3 percent higher than today’s estimates, with women being responsible for 53 percent of the labor market output. These estimates reinforce the need for a unified policy agenda that actively invests in women’s human capital and work-related opportunities simultaneously.
How Did Urban Household Enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa Fare during COVID-19 ?: Evidence from High-Frequency Phone Surveys
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-03) Cunningham, Wendy; Tchuisseu, Feraud; Viollaz, Mariana; Edochie, Ifeany; Newhouse, David; Ricaldi, Federica
While the impact of COVID-19 on Sub-Saharan African labor markets is well documented, there is suggestive evidence that urban households may have fared particularly poorly. This paper uses data from high-frequency phone surveys in 27 Sub-Saharan African countries to investigate which kinds of urban household enterprises were most affected, what coping strategies were utilized, and heterogeneity by sociodemographic characteristics in the short and medium run. Using linear probability models, the paper finds that households that relied on income from non-farm enterprises were hit particularly hard during the early stage of the crisis, with 20-26 percent reporting income declines, and women experiencing even greater losses. Few coping strategies were utilized in the short run to counterbalance the loss of enterprise income. As the crisis progressed, wage employment recovered more quickly than self-employment, with faster gains for non-farm household enterprises, less poor households, and those headed by males and adults. Women, adults, and non-poor self-employed household heads were more successful at leveraging external sources of support early in the pandemic, but these supports largely dropped off by August 2020. These results demonstrate the vulnerability of non-farm household enterprises in urban Sub-Saharan Africa to the COVID-19 shock and highlight the need to expand publicly and privately financed coping mechanisms, particularly for women, youth, and poor household heads who are self-employed.