Publication:
Uzbekistan Social Assistance Targeting Assessment

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (822.87 KB)
524 downloads
English Text (84.21 KB)
24 downloads
Other Files
Russian PDF (835.46 KB)
376 downloads
Published
2019-12-27
ISSN
Date
2020-01-13
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report presents the results of a diagnostic study on the targeting of social protection programs in Uzbekistan with a specific focus on low-income family allowances. The objective is to determine the extent to which current programs are reaching the poor and can reduce poverty, and consequently to identify ways to improve the current design features and implementation processes. The study is part of the collaboration between the Government of Uzbekistan and the World Bank in improving the effectiveness of social protection. Targeting is the overall process that enables the administration to inform potential beneficiaries through outreach activities, facilitate application procedures, and assess needs and eligibility to finally enroll beneficiaries. Therefore, targeting involves the delicate process of identifying and selecting beneficiaries. Key findings are that: 1) no common standards exist for outreach activities, and 2) there is a need to better define who belongs to the same household and for procedures to impute income, as well as to standardize the way living conditions are assessed and verified. Moreover, one of the main reasons for exclusion errors is the use of caps in budgeting and in the number of beneficiaries at the local level.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2019. Uzbekistan Social Assistance Targeting Assessment. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33163 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
    Social Assistance Transfers in Bosnia and Herzegovina : Moving Toward a More Sustainable and Better-Targeted Safety Net
    (Washington, DC, 2009-04-30) World Bank
    Public expenditures on non-insurance social protection cash transfers absorb a huge share of the entities' respective budgets. This level of spending requires buoyant public revenues. However, public revenues will be under continuing pressure in view of the impending economic crisis. Moreover, devoting a large proportion of public funds to social transfers has the effect of crowding out resources that could be devoted to public investments which will be increasingly needed to stimulate growth as the economy begins to sag under the impact of the world economic crisis. In addition, there is evidence that some rights based programs create disincentives for employment. This situation is fiscally unsustainable, economically inefficient, and socially inequitable. Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH) needs to completely overhaul it s non-insurance social protection cash transfer programs. There are many ways in which BH could reform these programs and put in place measures aimed at developing a social safety net that is: (a) less of a burden on public resources, (b) more efficient, and (c) better targeted to the poor. Specifically, it is recommended that the governments in BH consider a three pronged approach with measures to: 1) improve and introduce targeting mechanisms to better channel resources to the poor; 2) strengthen benefits administration and beneficiary registry systems; and, 3) rationalize disability-related benefit schemes. An increasingly widespread recognition of the need for rationalization of the non-insurance social protection cash benefits is discernible in both the decision-making circles and in the public discourse in BH.
  • Publication
    History and Evolution of Social Assistance in Indonesia
    (Washington, DC, 2012-02) World Bank
    Over the past 13 years, the Government of Indonesia (GOI) has moved from a set of temporary, crisis-driven social assistance initiatives towards a more permanent system of social assistance programs. This background paper aims to provide a brief history of the major developments in the GOI's household-targeted social assistance policy and programs with more limited discussion of supply-side and community social assistance initiatives. The note is organized chronologically with developments in social assistance presented together with information about the economic, political and social contexts in which these developments occurred. Indonesia's economic growth was also associated with substantial declines in the poverty, especially among rural households. The poverty headcount fell from 54.2 million to 34.5 million Indonesians and poverty incidence fell from 41.1 to 17.7 percent. While poverty reduction was not a policy objective in GOI documents until the early 1990s, the GOI's agricultural and rural development strategies and commitment to human capital investment through financing and provision of education and health services also contributed to poverty reduction. Furthermore, the GOI intervened in staple foods markets for the purpose of reducing domestic price volatility and increasing food security. During this era, when individuals or families employed in the informal sector required in-kind or financial assistance, they sought it from extended families, communities, or informal credit markets.
  • Publication
    A Diverse and Dynamic Region : Taking Stock of Social Assistance Performance in East Asia and the Pacific
    (Washington, DC, 2013) World Bank
    East Asia and the Pacific is a particularly diverse region. It includes some of the largest and most populated countries in the world such as China and Indonesia as well as small Pacific islands. Over the past decade, there has been a growing interest in undertaking reforms to strengthen social protection systems in the region, not only as crisis response tools. The primary objective of this study is to provide a comparative review of the financing, structure and performance of social protection programs in the East Asia region. The region is very diverse and this study seeks to enhance understanding of regional expenditure patterns in social protection, and to provide insights in the performance of social assistance programs in particular. Regional studies of this kind are challenging for a number of reasons, and this particular study was no exception. The performance of social assistance programs will be measured in terms of coverage, targeting accuracy, generosity of the benefit levels and impacts on poverty and inequality. The report uses data from household surveys to assess the performance of social assistance programs. There are, however, some important data related caveats to keep in mind when interpreting the results.
  • Publication
    Peru : Social Safety Nets in Peru
    (Washington, DC, 2007-09-25) World Bank
    The report argues that the Peru's Social Safety Net (SSN) reform process needs to be anchored to a coherent national social safety net and poverty reduction strategy. The report suggests that the SSN interventions should be differentiated, as appropriate, between the urban and rural parts of Peru. For instance, workfare programs to deal with cyclical unemployment only make sense in urban areas; and a nationally-led small-scale infrastructure program (such as FONCODES) only makes sense for rural areas. The Report also argues that the implementation arrangements for the SSN strategy should be differentiated for rural and urban areas, due the differences in capacity between the municipal administrations in the major cities and the rest of the country. In the 30 biggest cities, SSN programs should be decentralized, to ensure better responsiveness to local needs and improved transparency. In the rest of the country, for the foreseeable future, strong national agencies will be needed to ensure that SSN programs are effective, but they should work with local governments, as appropriate. The present report provides an in-depth assessment of ways in which Peru's social safety net could be made better targeted and more effective. This complements the 2005 Poverty Assessment which estimated the potential impact on poverty levels of a broad set of policies, including a more efficient social safety net, but also including adequate taxation policies and well-targeted, effective programs in health, education, basic infrastructure and utility services.
  • 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.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Western Balkans 6 Country Climate and Development Report
    (Washington, DC: World Bank Group, 2024-07-16) World Bank Group
    This Regional Western Balkans Countries Climate and Development Report (CCDR) stands out in several ways. In a region that often lacks cohesive regional alliances, this report emphasizes how the challenges faced across countries are often common and interconnected, and, importantly, that climate action requires coordination on multiple fronts. Simultaneously, it illustrates the differences across countries, places, and people that require targeted strategies and interventions. This report demonstrates how shocks and stressors re intensifying and how investments in adaptation could bring significant benefits in the form of avoided losses, accelerated economic potential, and amplified social and economic spillovers. Given the region’s high emission and energy intensity and the limitations of its current fossil fuel-based development model, the report articulates a path to greener and more resilient growth, a path that is more consistent with the aspiration of accession to the EU. The report finds that the net zero transition can be undertaken without compromising the economic potential of the Western Balkans and that it could lead to higher growth than under the Reference Scenario (RS) with appropriate structural reforms.
  • Publication
    Unlocking the Power of Healthy Longevity
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-09-12) World Bank
    Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are among the major health and development challenges of our time. Every year, about 41 million people die due to NCDs. This makes up about 74 percent of all deaths globally, the majority of which are in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Countless more people live with NCDs every day. Yet, NCDs are largely treatable and preventable. The risk of developing NCDs and deaths from them can both be lowered with appropriate attention to prevention and treatment. However, weak health systems and limited access to affordable care and information, especially in LMICs, contribute to lapses in seeking and receiving appropriate and timely care. This compendium is a compilation of 18 chapters, each exploring a different but related topic in the nexus of NCDs, human capital, and productivity. It is based on a series of analytical work taken up by the World Bank to support the Healthy Longevity Initiative (HLI) - a collaborative effort between the World Bank, the University of Toronto, and key academic and development partners including the Harvard University and the University of Washington. The HLI presents one of a growing set of efforts to increase the urgency of policy response to NCDs across the world.
  • Publication
    World Development Report 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-08-01) World Bank
    Middle-income countries are in a race against time. Many of them have done well since the 1990s to escape low-income levels and eradicate extreme poverty, leading to the perception that the last three decades have been great for development. But the ambition of the more than 100 economies with incomes per capita between US$1,100 and US$14,000 is to reach high-income status within the next generation. When assessed against this goal, their record is discouraging. Since the 1970s, income per capita in the median middle-income country has stagnated at less than a tenth of the US level. With aging populations, growing protectionism, and escalating pressures to speed up the energy transition, today’s middle-income economies face ever more daunting odds. To become advanced economies despite the growing headwinds, they will have to make miracles. Drawing on the development experience and advances in economic analysis since the 1950s, World Development Report 2024 identifies pathways for developing economies to avoid the “middle-income trap.” It points to the need for not one but two transitions for those at the middle-income level: the first from investment to infusion and the second from infusion to innovation. Governments in lower-middle-income countries must drop the habit of repeating the same investment-driven strategies and work instead to infuse modern technologies and successful business processes from around the world into their economies. This requires reshaping large swaths of those economies into globally competitive suppliers of goods and services. Upper-middle-income countries that have mastered infusion can accelerate the shift to innovation—not just borrowing ideas from the global frontiers of technology but also beginning to push the frontiers outward. This requires restructuring enterprise, work, and energy use once again, with an even greater emphasis on economic freedom, social mobility, and political contestability. Neither transition is automatic. The handful of economies that made speedy transitions from middle- to high-income status have encouraged enterprise by disciplining powerful incumbents, developed talent by rewarding merit, and capitalized on crises to alter policies and institutions that no longer suit the purposes they were once designed to serve. Today’s middle-income countries will have to do the same.
  • Publication
    World Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees, and Societies
    (Washington, DC : World Bank, 2023-04-25) World Bank
    Migration is a development challenge. About 184 million people—2.3 percent of the world’s population—live outside of their country of nationality. Almost half of them are in low- and middle-income countries. But what lies ahead? As the world struggles to cope with global economic imbalances, diverging demographic trends, and climate change, migration will become a necessity in the decades to come for countries at all levels of income. If managed well, migration can be a force for prosperity and can help achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. World Development Report 2023 proposes an innovative approach to maximize the development impacts of cross-border movements on both destination and origin countries and on migrants and refugees themselves. The framework it offers, drawn from labor economics and international law, rests on a “Match and Motive Matrix” that focuses on two factors: how closely migrants’ skills and attributes match the needs of destination countries and what motives underlie their movements. This approach enables policy makers to distinguish between different types of movements and to design migration policies for each. International cooperation will be critical to the effective management of migration.
  • Publication
    World Development Report 2021
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-03-24) World Bank
    Today’s unprecedented growth of data and their ubiquity in our lives are signs that the data revolution is transforming the world. And yet much of the value of data remains untapped. Data collected for one purpose have the potential to generate economic and social value in applications far beyond those originally anticipated. But many barriers stand in the way, ranging from misaligned incentives and incompatible data systems to a fundamental lack of trust. World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives explores the tremendous potential of the changing data landscape to improve the lives of poor people, while also acknowledging its potential to open back doors that can harm individuals, businesses, and societies. To address this tension between the helpful and harmful potential of data, this Report calls for a new social contract that enables the use and reuse of data to create economic and social value, ensures equitable access to that value, and fosters trust that data will not be misused in harmful ways. This Report begins by assessing how better use and reuse of data can enhance the design of public policies, programs, and service delivery, as well as improve market efficiency and job creation through private sector growth. Because better data governance is key to realizing this value, the Report then looks at how infrastructure policy, data regulation, economic policies, and institutional capabilities enable the sharing of data for their economic and social benefits, while safeguarding against harmful outcomes. The Report concludes by pulling together the pieces and offering an aspirational vision of an integrated national data system that would deliver on the promise of producing high-quality data and making them accessible in a way that promotes their safe use and reuse. By examining these opportunities and challenges, the Report shows how data can benefit the lives of all people, but particularly poor people in low- and middle-income countries.