Publication: Lesotho : A Safety Net to End Extreme Poverty
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2013-06
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2014-07-22
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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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“Smith, W. James; Mistiaen, Emma; Guven, Melis; Morojele, Morabo. 2013. Lesotho : A Safety Net to End Extreme Poverty. Social protection and labor discussion paper;no. 1409. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18967 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Lesotho : A Safety Net to End Extreme Poverty(Washington, DC, 2006-10-16)The objective of this study is to help the government to decide what role safety net and transfer programs should play in the coming 5 to 10 years. It seeks to answer following three questions: (i) can increased spending on transfers accelerate poverty reduction in the medium to long term?; (ii) which groups and aspects of poverty will it make sense to target with transfers?; and (iii) which programs will have the greatest impact at an affordable cost? This study examined such programs in Lesotho both ones that currently exist, and the potential scope for using instruments that may not currently exist. It also widened its scope to examine all programs that transfer public resources directly to households such as agricultural subsidies and university bursaries. 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Chapter five presents options for a long-term package of social safety nets and associated costs, makes some recommendations for strengthening existing programs, and suggests which type of programs it might be cost-effective to expand.Publication Lesotho : A Safety Net to End Extreme Poverty(Washington, DC, 2013-06-13)The objective of this study is to help the government to decide what role safety net and transfer programs should play in the coming 5 to 10 years. It seeks to answer following three questions: (i) can increased spending on transfers accelerate poverty reduction in the medium to long term?; (ii) which groups and aspects of poverty will it make sense to target with transfers?; and (iii) which programs will have the greatest impact at an affordable cost? This study examined such programs in Lesotho both ones that currently exist, and the potential scope for using instruments that may not currently exist. It also widened its scope to examine all programs that transfer public resources directly to households such as agricultural subsidies and university bursaries. It analyzed them through the lens of their impact on the poor because it is important to evaluate public spending and trade-offs in the context of where public funds are currently being spent and what distributional impact they are having. The assumption underlying this analysis throughout the report is that the over-riding objective of both the government and its development partners is to reduce the high levels of poverty and inequality that persist in Lesotho. This report is organized as follows: chapter one explores the country context and fiscal space for public expenditure on social safety nets. Chapter two examines the dynamics of poverty in Lesotho and the characteristics of the major vulnerable groups and discusses which of these groups it will make most sense for the social safety net to target. 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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 Zambia : Using Social Safety Nets to Accelerate Poverty Reduction and Share Prosperity(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-03)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.
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