Publication:
Zambia : Using Social Safety Nets to Accelerate Poverty Reduction and Share Prosperity

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (5.4 MB)
997 downloads
English Text (517.58 KB)
258 downloads
Published
2013-03
ISSN
Date
2014-09-15
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.
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

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) World Bank
    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) Borgarello, Andrea; Figazzolo, Laura; Weedon, Emily
    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) Tesliuc, Emil; Grosh, Margaret; Ouerghi, Azedine; del Ninno, Carlo
    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) Cherrier, Cecile; del Ninno, Carlo; Razmara, Setareh
    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) World Bank
    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
    Vietnam
    (World Bank, Hanoi, 2020-05-01) World Bank
    Following from Vietnam’s ratification of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in late 2018 and its effectiveness from January 2019, and the European Parliament’s recent approval of the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and its subsequent planned ratification by the National Assembly in May 2020, Vietnam has further demonstrated its determination to be a modern, competitive, open economy. As the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis has clearly shown, diversified markets and supply chains will be key in the future global context to managing the risk of disruptions in trade and in supply chains due to changing trade relationships, climate change, natural disasters, and disease outbreaks. In those regards, Vietnam is in a stronger position than most countries in the region. The benefits of globalization are increasingly being debated and questioned. However, in the case of Vietnam, the benefits have been clear in terms of high and consistent economic growth and a large reduction in poverty levels. As Vietnam moves to ratify and implement a new generation of free trade agreements (FTAs), such as the CPTPP and EVFTA, it is important to clearly demonstrate, in a transparent manner, the economic gains and distributional impacts (such as sectoral and poverty) from joining these FTAs. In the meantime, it is crucial to highlight the legal gaps that must be addressed to ensure that national laws and regulations are in compliance with Vietnam’s obligations under these FTAs. Readiness to implement this new generation of FTAs at both the national and subnational level is important to ensure that the country maximizes the full economic benefits in terms of trade and investment. This report explores the issues of globalization and the integration of Vietnam into the global economy, particularly through implementation of the EVFTA.
  • Publication
    Africa - Ebbing Water, Surging Deficits : Urban Water Supply in Sub-Saharan Africa
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-06) Skilling, Heather; Banerjee, Sudeshna; Briceno-Garmendia, Cecilia; Foster, Vivien; Chfadi, Tarik; Morella, Elvira
    With only 56 percent of the population enjoying access to safe water, Sub-Saharan Africa lags behind other regions in terms of access to improved water sources. Based on present trends, it appears that the region is unlikely to meet the target of 75 percent access to improved water by 2015, as specified in the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The welfare implications of safe water cannot be overstated. The estimated health and time-saving benefits of meeting the MDG goal are about 11 times as high as the associated costs. Monitoring the progress of infrastructure sectors such as water supply has been a significant by-product of the MDG, and serious attention and funding have been devoted in recent years to developing systems for monitoring and evaluating in developing countries. Piped water reaches more urban Africans than any other form of water supply-but not as large a share as it did in the early 1990s. The most recent available data for 32 countries suggests that some 39 percent of the urban population of Sub-Saharan Africa is connected to a piped network, compared with 50 percent in the early 1990s. Analysis suggests that the majority of those who lack access to utility water live too far away from the distribution network, although some fail to connect even when they live close by. Water-sector institutions follow no consistent pattern in Sub-Saharan Africa. Where service is centralized, a significant minority has chosen to combine power and water services into a single national multi-utility urban water sector reforms were carried out in the 1990s, with the aim of creating commercially oriented utilities and bringing the sector under formal regulation. One goal of the reforms was to attract private participation in the sector.
  • Publication
    Free Movement and Affordable Housing
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-01) Seitz, William
    Uzbekistan has one of the lowest rates of internal migration in the world, leading to persistent economic imbalances. Drawing from a unique monthly panel survey called Listening to the Citizens of Uzbekistan and a survey experiment, this paper focuses on two factors that prevent domestic mobility: (i) restrictive propiska registration policies, and (ii) the exceptionally high cost of urban housing. Registration rules prohibit migration to urban centers, and urban housing costs push up the cost of living to as much as 550 percent of the national average, levels severely unaffordable for almost all rural residents. But the proposed government reforms in 2019 to address these challenges are very popular. The results show that about 90 percent of people support lifting all registration restrictions and over 80 percent favor increasing urban housing construction. The results of the experiment show that reform popularity increases when propiska rules and housing costs are referenced in randomly assigned vignettes. However, views may also be sensitive to perceptions of fairness. Recent high-profile involuntary demolitions coincided with a doubling of the share responding that policies are unfair. The increase was further associated with declining optimism and lower support for the wider government national development program, beyond urbanization issues.
  • Publication
    Democratic Republic of Congo Urbanization Review
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018) World Bank; Ranarifidy, Dina
    The Democratic Republic of Congo has the third largest urban population in sub-Saharan Africa (estimated at 43% in 2016) after South Africa and Nigeria. It is expected to grow at a rate of 4.1% per year, which corresponds to an additional 1 million residents moving to cities every year. If this trend continues, the urban population could double in just 15 years. Thus, with a population of 12 million and a growth rate of 5.1% per year, Kinshasa is poised to become the most populous city in Africa by 2030. Such strong urban growth comes with two main challenges – the need to make cities livable and inclusive by meeting the high demand for social services, infrastructure, education, health, and other basic services; and the need to make cities more productive by addressing the lack of concentrated economic activity. The Urbanization Review of the Democratic Republic of Congo argues that the country is urbanizing at different rates and identifies five regions (East, South, Central, West and Congo Basin) that present specific challenges and opportunities. The Urbanization Review proposes policy options based on three sets of instruments, known as the three 'I's – Institutions, Infrastructures and Interventions – to help each region respond to its specific needs while reaping the benefits of economic agglomeration The Democratic Republic of the Congo is at a crossroads. The recent decline in commodity prices could constitute an opportunity for the country to diversify its economy and invest in the manufacturing sector. Now is an opportune time for Congolese decision-makers to invest in cities that can lead the country's structural transformation and facilitate greater integration with African and global markets. Such action would position the country well on the path to emergence.
  • Publication
    Zambia Economic Brief, June 2015, Issue 5
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06-01) World Bank Group
    After several years of strong economic performance, Zambia now confronts several important challenges that must be managed carefully to ensure sustained and inclusive growth in the future. On the one hand, the economy grew by an estimated 5.5–6.0 percent in 2014, somewhat above the average for African economies. Monthly copper production increased by an average of 8 percent during the second half of 2014, reversing the sharp slide in early 2014. Inflation fell to 7.2 percent in March and April, helped both by falling world oil prices and by the Bank of Zambia’s monetary tightening. In the first half of 2015, the authorities adjusted several key economic policies to respond to serious problems: revising rules on VAT refunds in February, announcing a new mining fiscal regime in April, and raising fuel prices in May so that the government could recover import costs. On the other hand, the kwacha has come under renewed pressure. It lost 17 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar from December 2014 through the end of March 2015. Since then it has recovered somewhat, but foreign exchange markets remain volatile. Interest rates have been rising since September 2014, due in part to increased government borrowing and in part to steps taken by the Bank of Zambia to tighten credit. Over the medium term, growth should hold steady in 2015 and then accelerate to around 6–7 percent per year in 2016–2018. Although inflation is expected to rise towards the end of 2015, it should resume falling in 2016. Low commodity prices, a more stable exchange rate, and adequate local harvests would help contain inflationary pressures and boost real disposable incomes. The resulting pick-up in private consumption, coupled with increasing copper exports, should help strengthen growth prospects.