Person:
del Ninno, Carlo
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Social protection
Degrees
Departments
Global Practice for Social Protection and Labor, The World Bank
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Carlo del Ninno is a senior economist in the Social Protection Africa Unit of the World Bank, working on several aspects of safety net policies and programs. He previously worked in the Social Protection and Labor practice of the Human Development Network at the World Bank. Over the past 10 years, he has worked on analytical and operational issues on safety net programs covering several countries in Africa and South Asia. Before joining the World Bank, he worked on food security for the International Food Policy Research Institute in Bangladesh, and on poverty analysis in several countries for the Policy Research Division of the World Bank and Cornell University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and has published on safety nets, food policy, and food security.
Publication Search Results
1 - 3 of 3
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Publication
Improving Payment Mechanisms in Cash-Based Safety Net Programs
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-08)Cash transfers have proliferated in the past decade as key policy instruments to tackle vulnerability and inequality. Payment mechanisms (PMs), the backbone of cash transfers, are the channels through which cash travels from the funding source to the hands of beneficiaries. In theory, the harmonization of payment flows in PMs with other program processes is critical to delivering the right benefit to the right people at the right time while minimizing costs. In reality, however, PMs tend to remain disconnected, rendering payments inefficient and plagued by error, fraud and corruption. In recent years, program operators, financial institutions, and technology innovators have developed strategies for streamlining payment flows. These innovations, if properly integrated into program management through a Management Information System (MIS) and supported by rigorous outreach, can not only promote efficiency and transparency but also ensure effectiveness. This paper provides a framework for integrating PMs within program management. It walks the reader through seven basic steps to process payments. It does so by articulating the flow of beneficiary information and funds from the point of beneficiary enrollment to payment reconciliation and grievance redress. It also looks at the framework through the lenses of different cash transfer interventions and the cases of Kenya, Rwanda, and Mexico. The paper concludes that to execute successful PMs it is key to: (i) integrate payments within an MIS; (ii) adopt a cost-effective mix of traditional and technology instruments suitable to the country's context in the short and long run; (iii) decentralize the control and accountability of service provision across government levels; (iv) understand the capacity and incentives of stakeholders; (v) provide manuals, training and information to key players; and (vi) enforce payment parameters and penalize their violation. -
Publication
How to Make Public Works Work : A Review of the Experiences
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-09)Public work programs (PWPs) have been an important safety nets instrument used in diverse country circumstances at different points in time in both middle income and low income countries. Well-designed and implemented PWPs can help mitigating income shocks; the programs can also be used to reduce poverty. This paper reviews the experience with PWPs in several countries over the past 20 years to delineate use patterns and to determine the factors contributing to its use as a successful safety net program. This is done by reviewing cross-country variations in the design, implementation procedures and delivery models followed by an assessment of methods for monitoring and evaluation specific to public works. -
Publication
Public Works as a Safety Net : Design, Evidence, and Implementation
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013)From the Victorian poor laws in nineteenth century Britain to the post-war recovery of the 1940s, public works programs have historically played an important role as countercyclical interventions to address seasonal and short-term unemployment. In recent times, the role of public works has broadened, because globalization and economic integration, while expanding opportunities for all, has also increased the exposure to and transmission of risk, especially to the poorest. Public works are now being used increasingly across the developing world as an essential part of the social protection toolkit to respond to risk and persistent poverty. And recent flagship public works programs in Argentina, Ethiopia, India, and elsewhere have sparked even greater interest in their effective use in other developing-country contexts. This book provides a comprehensive overview of public works programs as a safety net instrument and their impacts. It also provides a practical review of program design features and implementation methods, and a compendium of operational and how-to knowledge, combining technical expertise with ongoing country experiences. The book thus fills a major knowledge gap in this field. To date, much attention has been devoted to making the case for improved public works, with less attention paid to the how-to aspects. The target audience of the book includes policy makers and practitioners in national and sub-national governments, donors and international organizations, and nongovernmental organizations, particularly those working in countries where a new wave of social protection interventions has been seen in recent years (e.g., Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda) or is likely to emerge in the future (e.g., countries emerging from the Arab Spring in the Middle East, like the Arab Republic of Egypt).