Publication: Zambia : Using Social Safety Nets to Accelerate Poverty Reduction and Share Prosperity
Loading...
Date
2013-03
ISSN
Published
2013-03
Editor(s)
Abstract
Despite robust annual growth of 5.7 percent in the recent past, poverty in Zambia remains stubbornly high. The poverty headcount rate is 60 percent (as of 2010), and 39 percent of the population live in extreme poverty, with insufficient consumption to meet their daily minimum food requirements. Chronic malnutrition remains very high, with 47 percent of children under the age of 5 being stunted in 2010, close to the high levels of the early 1990s. The report recommends a unified National Safety Net Program comprising cash transfers and public works to reach the poorest 20 percent of the population. The estimated cost is about US$100 million per year. This is less than 2 percent of public spending and around 15 percent of the current subsidies programs benefiting the non-poor.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Tesliuc, Cornelia; Smith, W. James; Sunkutu, Musonda Rosemary. 2013. Zambia : Using Social Safety Nets to Accelerate Poverty Reduction and Share Prosperity. Social protection and labor discussion paper;no. 1413. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20140 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Tanzania Poverty, Growth, and Public Transfers : Options for a National Productive Safety Net Program(Washington, DC, 2011-09-21)Tanzania has made significant economic progress in the recent past, with per capita national income almost doubling from United States (U.S.) 230 dollars equivalent in the late-1990s to U.S. 440 dollars. This report explores the role safety nets and transfers can play in reducing poverty more rapidly in Tanzania. It presents the potential need and costs, to inform a debate of options. The report reviews existing programs, and provides recommendations for an action plan to strengthen the current system and develop a more unified national program, one which will have a greater impact on poverty levels at reasonable cost, in line with the Government's poverty reduction strategy, known by the Swahili acronym MKUKUTA. The report looks at transfers to the poor, including public works employment, subsidies, food distribution programs, cash and in-kind transfers, and vouchers. This paper is organized in following chapters: chapter one gives introduction; attempts to lay out what the options might be, within an analytical assessment of the nature of poverty and shocks faced by the poor in Tanzania is given in chapter two; chapter three examines the effectiveness of existing transfer programs; at a strategic level it then evaluates the capacity of the state to spend on transfers, and how safety net programs can fit into the wider national development agenda is given in chapter four. The paper concludes by discussing some of the institutional and administrative concerns that effect program design in chapter five; and outlines for a series of immediate steps to improve the effectiveness of existing programs; as well as a medium-term strategy for moving towards a more unified national program is discussed in chapter six.Publication Liberia : A Diagnostic of Social Protection(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-12)Safety Nets are limited in Liberia and, although as a share of GDP, expenditures are higher than the regional average, the average benefit amount is equal to only 7-20 percent of the poverty line. The current system focuses on the country s most vulnerable populations but that the system is fragmented. Food insecurity is mainly addressed through food transfers aimed at preventing starvation and malnutrition. Unemployed people, including the large portion of the population engaged in informal employment, are targeted primarily by public works. Scaling-up Liberia s safety nets would require significant investments, which are not viable at the moment given the country s financial constraints. Efforts should hence focus on improving the overall safety net system within the existing budget.Publication For Protection and Promotion : The Design and Implementation of Effective Safety Nets(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008)All countries fund safety net programs for the protection of their people. Though an increasing number of safety net programs are extremely well thought out, adroitly implemented, and demonstrably effective, many others are not. This book aims to assist those concerned with social policy to understand why countries need social assistance, what kind of safety programs will serve those best and how to develop such programs for maximum effectiveness. Safety nets are part of a broader poverty reduction strategy interacting with and working alongside of social insurance; health, education, and financial services; the provision of utilities and roads; and other policies aimed at reducing poverty and managing risk. Though useful, safety nets are not a panacea, and there are real concerns over whether they are affordable and administratively feasible or desirable in light of the various negative incentives they might create. In most settings where there is political will to do so, such concerns can be managed through a number of prudent design and implementation features. Much information and innovation exist on these topics; this book summarizes, references, and builds on this knowledge base to promote well-crafted safety nets and safety net policy.Publication Burkina Faso Social Safety Nets(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-01)This report provides an inventory of safety net programs in Burkina Faso and suggests policy measures that could increase their coverage, efficiency, and sustainability. It shows that the scope and coverage of the existing safety nets is too limited. Most interventions are small and temporary. On average, excluding subsidies, annual spending on safety nets constituted only 0.6 percent of GDP while about 20 percent of the population is food-insecure and chronically poor. Food transfers are the main safety net program, accounting for 69 percent of total spending and over 80 percent of all beneficiaries. Most of the financing for safety nets is external. The report recommends developing a safety net system that adequately responds to the needs of the poor.Publication Burkina Faso - Social safety nets(World Bank, 2011-01-31)Burkina Faso is a poor landlocked country with a narrow natural resource base and a rapidly expanding population of 15.8 million. This report, with the technical support of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), provides a detailed, updated inventory of the existing social safety net programs and suggests policy measures that could improve their coverage, efficiency, relevance, and financial sustainability. This report shows that the scope and coverage of the existing social safety net system is too limited and that most interventions are fairly small in scale and designed as temporary programs. On average, excluding fuel subsidies, spending on social safety net programs was about 0.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 2005 to 2009 - from 0.3 percent in 2005 to 0.9 percent in 2009, while about 20 percent of the population is food insecure and lives permanently in chronic poverty. Universal fuel subsidies are very expensive (0.7 percent of GDP in 2007) and have a very limited impact on the poorest docile (84 percent of the benefits go to the non poor). Among the remaining programs, food transfers are the main form of social safety net programs in Burkina Faso, accounting for 69 percent of total Social Safety Net (SSN) spending and over 80 percent of all estimated SSN beneficiaries in 2009 (excluding fuel subsidies). However, most of the financing for social safety net programs comes from external resources.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Changing the Face of the Waters : The Promise and Challenge of Sustainable Aquaculture(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)This study provides strategic orientations and recommendations for Bank client countries and suggests approaches for the Bank's role in a rapidly changing industry with high economic potential. It identifies priorities and options for policy adjustments, catalytic investments, and entry points for the Bank and other investors to foster environmentally friendly, wealth-creating, and sustainable aquaculture. The objectives of the study are to inform and provide guidance on sustainable aquaculture to decision makers in the international development community and in client countries of international finance institutions. The study focuses on several critical issues and challenges: 1) Harnessing the contribution of aquaculture to economic development, including poverty alleviation and wealth creation, to employment and to food security and trade, particularly for least developed countries (LDCs); 2) Building environmentally sustainable aquaculture, including the role of aquaculture in the broader suite of environmental management measures; 3) Creating the enabling conditions for sustainable aquaculture, including the governance, policy, and regulatory frameworks, and identifying the roles of the public and private sectors; and 4) Developing and transferring human and institutional capacity in governance, technologies, and business models with special reference to the application of lessons from Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.Publication Climate Change and Migration : Evidence from the Middle East and North Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2014-07-15)Climate change is a major source of concern in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and migration is often understood as one of several strategies used by households to respond to changes in climate and environmental conditions, including extreme weather events. This study focuses on the link between climate change and migration. Most micro-level studies measure climate change either by the incidences of extreme weather events or by variation in temperature or rainfall. A few studies have found that formal and informal institutions as well as policies also affect migration. Institutions that make government more responsive to households (for example through public spending) discourage both international and domestic migration in the aftermath of extreme weather events. Migration is often an option of last resort after vulnerable rural populations attempting to cope with new and challenging circumstances have exhausted other options such as eating less, selling assets, or removing children from school. This study is based in large part on new data collected in 2011 in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Syria, and the Republic of Yemen. The surveys were administered by in-country partners to a randomly selected set of 800 households per country. It is also important to emphasize that neither the household survey results nor the findings from the qualitative focus groups are meant to be representative of the five countries in which the work was carried, since only a few areas were surveyed in each country. This report is organized as follows: section one gives synthesis. Section two discusses household perceptions about climate change and extreme weather events. Section three focuses on migration as a coping mechanisms and income diversification strategy. Section four examines other coping and adaptation strategies. Section five discusses perceptions about government and community programs.Publication Making Monitoring and Evaluation Systems Work : A Capacity Development Toolkit(World Bank, 2009)There are constant and growing pressures on governments and organizations around the world to be more responsive to demands from internal and external stakeholders for good governance, accountability and transparency, greater development effectiveness and delivery of tangible results. Governments, parliaments, citizens, the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil society, international organizations, and donors are all among stakeholders interested in better performance. As demands for greater accountability and results have grown, there is an accompanying need for useful and useable results-based monitoring and evaluation systems to support the management of policies, programs, and projects. Governments and other organizations have many different kinds of tracking systems as part of their management toolkits: good human resource systems, financial systems, and accountability systems. They also need good feedback systems. A results-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system is essentially such a feedback system; it is a management tool to measure and evaluate outcomes, providing information for governance and decision making. Many management systems have been missing a feedback component to enable them to track the consequences of actions. Building an M&E system gives decision-makers an additional management tool by providing feedback on performance as a basis for future improvement.Publication Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2016-04-06)This book focuses on maternal conditions, childhood illness, and malnutrition. Specifically, the chapters address acute illness and undernutrition in children, principally under age 5. It also covers maternal mortality, morbidity, stillbirth, and influences to pregnancy and pre-pregnancy. It also includes the transition to older childhood, in particular, the overlap and commonality with the child development volume.Publication Early Child Development, From Measurement to Action : A priority for Growth and Equity(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)The World Bank recently hosted a symposium on the priority of early child development (ECD) for economic growth and equity. The participants urged application of population-based tools and measures to assess the outcomes of children's early years and children's readiness for school. This study is derived from the symposium and is a valuable resource for policy makers, economists, donors, and investors, as well as researchers and practitioners in early child development. It summarizes the current neuroscience on early child development and major longitudinal studies, the rationale and urgency for greater investment, and countries' innovative funding strategies. The report consists of 15 chapters authored by ECD experts and leaders in the field. The chapters are grouped into five main parts relating to the: business imperative and societal benefits of ECD investments; lessons from evaluation of longitudinal ECD interventions; countries' experiences in monitoring ECD interventions; innovative approaches to countries' financing of ECD initiatives; and next steps on the ECD agenda for the next 5 years. A theme highlighted at the symposium and enlarged upon here is the urgent need for evidence- and population-based instruments and measures to monitor, evaluate, and compare ECD interventions over time and across settings.