Publication: Increasing Social Inclusion through Social Guarantees : A Policy Note
Loading...
Published
2007-09-24
ISSN
Date
2013-10-03
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This policy note seeks to contribute to the consideration of social guarantees as tools for the design and/or monitoring of social policy and service delivery. It proposes a range of options to improve the delivery of and access to social services that can further social inclusion and democratic governance. The application of a social guarantee framework to social policy could significantly enhance the effectiveness of policy implementation in Latin America and the Caribbean, and can have a direct and positive impact on poor and vulnerable groups. This policy note is not intended as a blueprint for developing a social guarantee approach to social policy design and service delivery. Rather, it discusses the principles that could guide such undertaking, and it provides examples of how different countries have developed and implemented social programs using this approach. Social policy plays a critical role in promoting inclusion and strengthening democratic governance. As such, it contributes to the realization of normative human rights commitments. This document suggests that a social guarantee approach can be used to strengthen the delivery and monitoring of social programs. It highlights the importance of understanding and building upon the existing socio-political context of each country. This policy notes suggests that a system of social guarantees provides a way of addressing these concerns by enabling the state to provide: a) clarity of minimum standards, which can be revised on an ongoing basis; b) a framework for equity between those who receive services from different providers (public, private, voluntary); c) a framework for redress if minimum standards are not met; and d) a process for citizen participation in public and private provision.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2007. Increasing Social Inclusion through Social Guarantees : A Policy Note. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16079 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Realizing Rights Through Social Guarantees : An Analysis of New Approaches to Social Policy in Latin America and South Africa(Washington, DC, 2008-02)This paper examines the experiences in four Latin American countries and South Africa in the application of a human rights approach to social policy. The paper applies an analysis based on a social guarantees framework -- an innovative approach to integrate a rights-based perspective into social policy. The social guarantees approach moves beyond a purely normative framework to give concrete meaning to economic, social, and cultural rights and hence to allow for their operationalization into policies and programs. This document suggests that a social guarantee approach can be used to strengthen the delivery and monitoring of social programs. Firstly, it implies an institutional design that emphasizes synergy and coordination among agencies and providers to help social programs achieve their full potential. Secondly, this approach contributes to reducing gaps in opportunity among citizens by promoting universal access to, and a basic quality standard for, essential services. Thirdly, the social guarantee approach contributes to strengthening democratic governance, as it requires the achievement of a non-discriminatory agreement among all members of society as to the level of basic entitlements of each individual or collective. In other words, social guarantees are safeguards that society provides to all its members, ensuring their access to essential opportunities and well-being.Publication Inclusion Matters : The Foundation for Shared Prosperity(Washington, DC, 2013-10-18)Today, the world is at a conjuncture where issues of exclusion and inclusion are assuming new significance for both developed and developing countries. The imperative for social inclusion has blurred the distinction between these two stylized poles of development. Countries that used to be referred to as developed are grappling with issues of exclusion and inclusion perhaps more intensely today than they did a decade ago. And countries previously called developing are grappling with both old issues and new forms of exclusion thrown up by growth. Nonlinear demographic transitions, global economic volatility, shifts in the international balance of power, and local political movements have had a large part to play in these shifting sands. These changes make social inclusion more urgent than it was even a decade ago. This report tries to put boundaries around the abstraction that is "social inclusion." Placing the discussion of social inclusion within such global transitions and transformations, the report argues that social inclusion is an evolving agenda. It offers two easy-to-use definitions and a framework to assist practitioners in asking, outlining, and developing some of the right questions that can help advance the agenda of inclusion in different contexts. This report builds on previous analytical work, especially by the World Bank, on themes that touch upon social inclusion, including multidimensional poverty, inequality, equity, social cohesion, and empowerment. There are seven main messages in this report: (1) excluded groups exist in all countries; (2) excluded groups are consistently denied opportunities; (3) intense global transitions are leading to social transformations that create new opportunities for inclusion as well as exacerbating existing forms of exclusion; (4) people take part in society through markets, services, and spaces; (5) social and economic transformations affect the attitudes and perceptions of people. As people act on the basis of how they feel, it is important to pay attention to their attitudes and perceptions; (6) exclusion is not immutable. Abundant evidence demonstrates that social inclusion can be planned and achieved; and (7) moving ahead will require a broader and deeper knowledge of exclusion and its impacts as well as taking concerted action. The report is divided into three parts. Part one is framing the issues. Part two focuses on transitions, transformations, and perceptions. Part three is change is possible.Publication Information and Service Delivery(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-12)This monograph probes the role of information in service delivery by focusing on key sectors in Kenya and Ethiopia. Findings from comparative studies done in 2005-06 in the health, education, and water and sanitation sectors plus public and private partnerships (PPPs) illustrate the significance of information access to delivery of quality services. Linking information access to service delivery is instructive to deepen institutional reforms around transparency and governance. This volume contends that three constraints-governance, trust, and technology deficits-impede information flows for service delivery in Ethiopia and Kenya. Although these constraints are formidable, the cases reveal that reforms in the governance arena have began to make a difference in the domain of service delivery. Using local researchers for this study has contributed to the World Bank's vision and mission of strengthening knowledge production by local institutions, particularly in Africa, where the low rate of the input of indigenous voices in the development debates is a growing concern. Augmenting the corpus of knowledge about African issues by Africans also fits into the objective of capacity building: providing local experts the opportunities to research and highlight experiences on the ground. As more countries embark on public sector reforms that deepen transparent information mechanisms and better service delivery, the need for more of these studies will increase. What the authors of this study have articulated is a rich research agenda that ties information access and service provision-research that should help advance policy dialogue with actors involved in public sector and governance reforms.Publication Delivering Services in Multicultural Societies(World Bank, 2010)The last two decades have witnessed a growing recognition of the importance of taking cultural and ethnic diversity into consideration when designing and implementing development programs. As societies around the world have become more culturally diverse, and the role culture plays in the formation of identity has become better understood, governments are beginning to pay greater attention to the management of cultural diversity and are becoming more sensitive to issues of cultural exclusion. This book explores how taking cultural diversity into account can affect the delivery of services both positively and negatively, and how local governments can respond to the challenge of programming for and around diversity. The following chapter presents the current debate on the role of governments, at all levels, in managing cultural diversity. Chapter three takes a more in-depth look at specific areas in which the demand for recognition of cultural practices in the delivery of services is strongest. Chapter four examines policies pertaining to basic service delivery that can address and support cultural diversity. Finally, chapter five summarizes the lessons learned from the design of culturally sensitive policies for delivering services to a diverse population.Publication Participation, Social Accountability and Transparency Mechanisms in Development Policy Loans in Latin America, 2000-2003(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-06)A document review of development policy lending projects in the Latin America and Caribbean Region, approved in fiscal years (FY) 2000-03 at the World Bank, reveals increasing civil society involvement in loan design and goals, context, and activities supported by the loans. This study examines the tools used by the World Bank to promote public transparency, community participation, social auditing, and accountability in development policy lending during the past four years, and assesses the extent to which these objectives have been met.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022(Washington, DC, 2022-11)The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.