Publication: Swaziland - Using Public Transfers to Reduce Extreme Poverty
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2012-11
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2013-02-12
2018-09-28
2018-09-28
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The report focuses on the social safety net, particularly cash and in-kind transfers. The safety net can play an important role in addressing poverty and vulnerability; however, the process by which the safety nets have been developed in Swaziland has produced a fragmented system that leaves many Swazis unprotected by the safety net. Improvements in efficiency and effectiveness are both necessary and possible. Poverty and extreme poverty in Swaziland are both overwhelmingly rural phenomena. The incidence of poverty is 73 percent in rural areas but only 31 percent in urban areas. Eighty-eight percent of the poor and 95 percent of the extreme poor live in rural areas, and the average consumption of the urban poor is 33 percent below the poverty line while it is 51 percent below the poverty line among the rural poor. Also, poverty is deeper in rural areas than it is in urban areas. The objective of this study is to identify viable ways to make the safety net more relevant and efficient through an in-depth analysis of poverty and vulnerability and of the efficacy of current safety net programs. The report focuses on publicly financed social transfers in Swaziland, including cash and in-kind transfers. This includes programs funded by either national or official international aid. Chapter two explores the risks faced by the Swazis, including but not limited to poverty. Chapter three reviews current social net programs and expenditures and analyzes the efficiency and effectiveness of social transfers. Chapter four analyzes ways to target safety net programs, and chapter five discusses options to increase the relevance and efficiency of the safety net, particularly in light of the recent financial crisis.
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“World Bank. 2012. Swaziland - Using Public Transfers to Reduce Extreme Poverty. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12321 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Swaziland : Using Public Transfers to Reduce Extreme Poverty(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-11)Swaziland has a number of social transfer programs, but these are not well coordinated and there is a need to better define the overall priorities of the overall safety net. Swaziland spends a significant amount on safety nets but there is room to increase the efficiency of spending by: (i) improving coordination between programs; (ii) making adjustments to program design and implementation; and (iii) removing some inefficient programs. Social transfers could play a larger role in reducing poverty but there are gaps in how well the safety net supports extremely poor households with children and/or unemployed household members. The assessment recommends that Swaziland should consider adopting a national child grant program and a public works program to fill these gaps.Publication Botswana Social Protection(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-12)The report lays out options to use social safety nets to meet the goal set by the Government of Botswana to eradicate extreme poverty by 2016 and in a budget neutral way. Introducing a Family Support Grant is argued to be a more efficient way to address absolute poverty by offering a family benefit to all the families in absolute poverty. Reforms in the Ipelegeng public works program would allow addressing existing shortcomings associated with coverage, targeting, generosity, and wrong labor incentives. 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This is less than 2 percent of public spending and around 15 percent of the current subsidies programs benefiting the non-poor.Publication Botswana Social Protection Assessment(Gaborone, Botswana, 2013-12)Botswana is a small, landlocked, upper-middle-income country with a gross domestic product (GDP) of United States (U.S.) 17.3 billion dollars in 2011. Despite high levels of economic growth over the past two decades, poverty and inequality persist in Botswana and unemployment is high. The Government of Botswana (GoB) has developed and approved key strategic documents that articulate its long-term development objectives, including those in the social protection sector. The purpose of this assessment is to inform Botswana's future social protection and labor strategy and policies and help to achieve the goals of vision 2016. The assessment concentrates on social assistance programs as major reforms are already taking place or being considered for active labor market programs (ALMP) and social insurance programs. As social assistance programs are a significant draw on the GoB's budget and revenues from mining are projected to decline over the medium term, it will inevitably be necessary to increase the cost-effectiveness of existing programs. This assessment draws on the World Bank's Africa social protection strategy for 2012-2022 which, in addition to the issues addressed by the overall World Bank social protection strategy, stresses the need to focus on the targeted delivery of social services and on issues of good governance, efficient program design and delivery, and country-driven system development. To meet its objectives, the assessment is organized as follows: chapter one gives a brief discussion of the conceptual framework, chapter two discusses the principal vulnerable groups in Botswana and the risks that they face. Chapter three reviews the principal policies and programs that are already in place to address the risks that have been identified as well as the existing informal social protection arrangements. Chapter four assesses the adequacy of the social protection system by analyzing spending; program coverage, overlaps, and gaps; program generosity; targeting efficiency; cost-effectiveness; incentive compatibility and sustainability; monitoring and evaluation; and institutional arrangements. Chapter five contains recommendations.Publication Lesotho : A Safety Net to End Extreme Poverty(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-06)This report shows that while more inclusive growth is the ultimate solution to poverty in Lesotho, the country can and should use selective social transfers to reduce poverty more rapidly among the extreme poor. But because the majority of the transfers are received by people who are not among the extreme poor there is room for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of spending on safety nets which. These programs should be productive and concentrate on the extreme poor Basotho. In the long run, Lesotho should move towards a more consolidated safety net and strengthen existing programs, such as the Child Grants Program, that already provide some important and positive outcomes and enjoy strong popular and political support.
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