Publication:
Risk and Vulnerability in Nepal: Findings from the Household Risk and Vulnerability Survey

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (1.91 MB)
1,305 downloads
English Text (354.67 KB)
122 downloads
Published
2019-11
ISSN
Date
2020-02-21
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report summarizes the findings of a unique panel survey of rural households in Nepal, conducted between 2016 and 2018 by the World Bank with financing from the UK Department for International Development (DfID). The survey covered six thousand households in rural and peri-urban areas nationwide. The objective of the survey was to better understand the exposure of households to major natural and socio-economic shocks, their means of coping with these shocks, and the impact of shocks on household welfare. While most households appear to be able to withstand a range of smaller shocks to assets and income, larger and more covariate shocks continue to pose a major risk to household assets, food security and overall welfare. These effects persist for up to two years following the shock. The authors findings point to the importance of having established formal social assistance to help the chronically poor build their resilience and assist other households that are normally non-poor to cope in the event of major shocks.
Link to Data Set
Citation
Walker, Thomas; Kawasoe, Yasuhiro; Shrestha, Jui. 2019. Risk and Vulnerability in Nepal: Findings from the Household Risk and Vulnerability Survey. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33365 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
    Pakistan - Towards an Integrated National Safety Net System : Assisting Poor and Vulnerable Households, An Analysis of Pakistan's Main Cash Transfer Program
    (Washington, DC, 2013-01-24) World Bank
    The vision of Pakistan's social protection strategy to reach the poor and vulnerable (2007) is 'to develop an integrated and comprehensive social protection system, covering all the population, but especially the poorest and the most vulnerable'. Consistent with this vision, the goals of the strategy are identified as: 1) to support chronically poor households and protect them against destitution, food insecurity, exploitation and social exclusion; 2) to protect poor and vulnerable households from the impacts of adverse shocks to their consumption and well-being that, if not mitigated, would push non poor households into poverty, and poor households into deeper poverty; and 3) to promote investment in human and physical assets, including health, nutrition, and education, by poor households capable of ensuring their resilience in the medium run and of interrupting the intergenerational cycle of poverty. This vision is fully consistent with the World Bank's social protection and labor strategy for 2012-2022, which recognizes that effective social protection and labor policies and programs help create the resilience, equity and access to jobs and opportunities essential to save lives, reduce poverty and promote sustainable growth. The focus of this report is Pakistan's main safety net program: the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), which is only one part of the broader poverty reduction and social protection interventions. In particular, social protection includes labor policy, contributory social insurance, and social care services as well as safety nets. Pakistan's social protection system comprises safety nets, social security and employment promotion and protection.
  • Publication
    Social Protection in Pakistan : Managing Household Risks and Vulnerability
    (Washington, DC, 2007-10-18) World Bank
    The report is the result of an inter-institutional collaborative effort between the Government of Pakistan, civil society, and international donors. This report finds that while Pakistan implements a wide array of social protection programs, the effectiveness of these programs could be significantly improved. The report finds that social protection programs in Pakistan face important constraints in terms of coverage, targeting, and implementation, and inability to respond to vulnerability, which will need to be overcome in order that they can more effectively protect the poor. The report suggests a two-pronged approach for social protection reform: (i) improving the ability of safety net programs to reach the poor, promote exit from poverty, and respond to natural disasters; coupled with (ii) a longer term approach for strengthening social security. Considering social protection as a system rather than a collection of different programs would allow the government to curtail fragmentation, improve the quality of social protection spending, and have higher impact. Given fiscal constraints, the report suggests that coverage expansion first exploits the opportunity for efficiency improvements in current programs, through better targeting and reduction in duplication and overlap. However, the decline in real spending on the two main safety net programs is worrisome. It is therefore welcome that the government is considering how best to ensure adequate yet fiscally affordable spending on safety nets as part of its draft social protection strategy.
  • Publication
    Reducing Vulnerability and Increasing Opportunity : Social Protection in the Middle East and North Africa
    (Washington, DC, 2002-01) World Bank
    Despite social, and economic diversity within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, social protection systems share common characteristics. This report develops a framework for a more integrated approach to social protection, and proposes general strategic lines of actions to guide the reform of social protection systems in the MENA region. It argues that, while during the 1970s and 1980s, economic growth rates outweighed growth rates in other regions, and social indicators improved dramatically, the model of development was not sustainable. It further, discusses key features, and major weaknesses of the social protection systems in the MENA countries, by defining an alternative framework for social protection. However, it also argues that traditional social protection schemes, cannot constitute the sole mechanism to protect vulnerable population groups, help the poor, or increase social welfare. Actions outside the traditional social protection system, suggest promoting prudent macroeconomic management, improving governance, rethinking regulatory institutions, and reforming education, and health systems. Concurrently, actions within the traditional social protection system, include improvements in the financial sustainability of social insurance systems, reforming training systems, and designing safety nets as developmental, and community-based, not just assistance, and centrally administered schemes.
  • Publication
    Addressing Vulnerability in East Asia : A Regional Study
    (Washington, DC, 2012-06) World Bank
    The East Asian and Pacific region has achieved tremendous progress in poverty reduction in recent years. However, further progress in poverty reduction may be undermined by the high levels of vulnerability in many countries across the region. The term vulnerability is viewed from an economic context, where it is conceived as the likelihood of suffering from future deteriorations in standard of living which may result in a state of poverty, or inability to meet basic needs. Therefore, vulnerability is stated as an ex-ante measure of well-being, reflecting not so much how well off a household (or an individual) currently is, but what its future prospects are. In thinking about poverty and vulnerability, it is important to realize that there are two groups of households: a) those who are vulnerable to transitory poverty if exposed to adverse shocks; and b) those who are structurally or chronically poor-many of those households have been affected by shocks in the past, and have limited long-term income generating capacity. To better protect household from shocks one must also better understand how households face and manage risks.
  • Publication
    Timor-Leste Social Assistance : Public Expenditure and Program Performance Report
    (Washington, DC, 2013-06-24) World Bank
    The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste is a young, post-conflict nation endowed with significant oil revenues. Timor-Leste has one of the highest birth rates in the world (2.41 percent population growth) with over 44 percent of the population below 15 years of age (Timor-Leste Census, 2010). Since the 2006 crisis, the Government of Timor-Leste has shown a clear commitment to social assistance. Globally, poverty persistence is closely related to major life-cycle disadvantages resulting in low human capital outcomes, and yet large-scale poverty remains unaddressed by current social protection efforts. This expenditure review and performance evaluation report is part of the technical assistance provided to Timor-Leste's Ministry of Social Solidarity (MSS) in response to the lack of any national level evaluation of the safety nets system since its inception. To that end, this study seeks to assess the social assistance policy, as well as the performance of the main MSS social assistance programs. More specifically, the aims are to: (1) determine whether existing programs are efficient, effective and sufficient in addressing main vulnerabilities; (2) assess the adequacy and composition of the allocation of financial resources for delivery of government social assistance; (3) review operational and administrative issues; and (4) make recommendations for improving the delivery of social safety nets. Some of the questions that this report seeks to answer include: what are the main risks facing the vulnerable groups in Timor-Leste?; what types of programs are in place to address those risks?; is the range of programs and their financial allocations appropriate for the country's needs?; is the institutional arrangement adequate?; are these programs effective and reaching the intended beneficiaries?; and are they implemented cost-effectively? The report is organized as follows: chapter one gives context, purpose and conceptual framework. Chapter two describes the attributes of the poorest 40 percent and the main vulnerabilities and risks that low-income families in Timor-Leste face. Chapter three provides a historical overview of the social assistance policy and programs that emerged after the 2006-2007 conflict. A summary of levels and trends in aggregate public expenditure on safety nets, composition of spending as well as program-specific budget analysis is presented in chapter four. Chapter five assesses performance of the safety nets by analyzing coverage, targeting effectiveness, and generosity. Chapter six examines impact and targeting efficiency using simulation techniques. Chapter seven assesses implementation capacity, and business processes, and in particular, the following: ID systems, enrollment, payments arrangements and monitoring and evaluation. Chapter eight concludes with implications for social response and policy considerations.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    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
    Groundswell
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-03-19) Rigaud, Kanta Kumari; de Sherbinin, Alex; Jones, Bryan; Bergmann, Jonas; Clement, Viviane; Ober, Kayly; Schewe, Jacob; Adamo, Susana; McCusker, Brent; Heuser, Silke; Midgley, Amelia
    This report, which focuses on three regions—Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America that together represent 55 percent of the developing world’s population—finds that climate change will push tens of millions of people to migrate within their countries by 2050. It projects that without concrete climate and development action, just over 143 million people—or around 2.8 percent of the population of these three regions—could be forced to move within their own countries to escape the slow-onset impacts of climate change. They will migrate from less viable areas with lower water availability and crop productivity and from areas affected by rising sea level and storm surges. The poorest and most climate vulnerable areas will be hardest hit. These trends, alongside the emergence of “hotspots” of climate in- and out-migration, will have major implications for climate-sensitive sectors and for the adequacy of infrastructure and social support systems. The report finds that internal climate migration will likely rise through 2050 and then accelerate unless there are significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and robust development action.
  • Publication
    Taxes, Spending, and Equity: International Patterns and Lessons for Developing Countries
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-17) Wai-Poi, Matthew; Sosa, Mariano; Bachas, Pierre
    Taxes and public spending underpin the basic administration of government and finance the human capital and infrastructure investments needed for economic growth. They can also have a significant and immediate impact on poverty and inequality. The question of how public finance can support longer-term growth objectives while promoting equity has become even more important in recent years, given the high fiscal deficits and debt levels most countries emerged with in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. These included the increasing cost of debt and the need to restart environmentally sustainable growth while helping households address the learning losses and other social scars caused by the pandemic. This paper examines the global evidence on which households pay which taxes and who benefits from what spending, and critically, the net effect on different households across the income distribution. The aim is to identify the patterns and lessons that emerge for designing progressive fiscal policies. A global dataset of 96 countries is assembled, spanning all regions of the world and all national income levels, grounded in the Commitment to Equity (CEQ) approach to fiscal incidence.
  • Publication
    Alternative Cash Transfer Delivery Mechanisms : Impacts on Routine Preventative Health Clinic Visits in Burkina Faso
    (2012-01-01) Akresh, Richard; de Walque, Damien; Kazianga, Harounan
    The authors conducted a unique randomized experiment to estimate the impact of two alternative cash transfer delivery mechanisms on household demand for routine preventative health services in rural Burkina Faso. The two-year pilot program randomly distributed cash transfers that were either conditional or unconditional, and the money was given to either mothers or fathers. Families enrolled in the conditional cash transfer schemes were required to obtain quarterly child-growth monitoring at local health clinics for all children under five years old. There was not such a requirement under the unconditional programs. Compared with control group households, conditional cash transfers significantly increased the number of preventative health care visits during the previous year, while unconditional cash transfers did not have such an impact. For the conditional cash transfers, money given to mothers or fathers showed beneficial impacts of similar magnitude in increasing routine visits.
  • Publication
    Know Thy Foe
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-18) Baquié, Sandra; Behrer, A. Patrick; Du, Xinming; Fuchs, Alan; Nozaki, Natsuko K.
    Middle-income countries host the majority of the world’s population exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution, and the majority of this population lives in urban environments. This study investigates the impact of information provision on household behavior in connection with indoor and outdoor air pollution in a middle-income country’s major urban center — Tbilisi, Georgia. The study implemented a randomized controlled trial to assess whether providing households with different levels of pollution information changes their knowledge of air pollution and avoidance behavior with respect to air pollution, and improves their health outcomes. The study evaluates three treatments: a pamphlet with general information on pollution, the pamphlet combined with daily text messages about local outdoor pollution, and the pamphlet with messages about both indoor and outdoor pollution levels, supplemented with an indoor air pollution monitor. The findings show that while the pamphlet alone did not lead to behavioral change, daily text messages significantly enhanced knowledge about pollution, led to increased avoidance behaviors, and improved health outcomes. The study also examined infiltration rates throughout the city and document three facts: indoor air pollution levels are generally higher than outdoor ones, infiltration rates are high on average, and their variation is driven primarily by behaviors.