Publication: A Guide to Implementing Social Safety Nets in Fragile, Conflict, and Violent Contexts: Adaptive Strategies and Approaches to World Bank Safety Net Delivery Amid Challenges
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2025-07-23
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2025-07-23
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This Guidebook provides practical operational guidance for designing, delivering, and implementing World Bank-supported social safety nets in contexts affected by fragility, conflict and violence (FCV). It identifies the unique challenges faced in these environments and presents a set of operational adaptations to ensure the continuity, effectiveness, and impact of safety net interventions under challenging conditions.
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“Fuselli, Silvia; Niebuhr, Mona; Saidi, Mira; Agostini, Sara. 2025. A Guide to Implementing Social Safety Nets in Fragile, Conflict, and Violent Contexts: Adaptive Strategies and Approaches to World Bank Safety Net Delivery Amid Challenges. Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/43487 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication The Impact of Social Safety Nets on Economic, Social, and Political Outcomes in Fragile, Conflict, and Violent Contexts(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-13)Global peace has significantly declined over the past 15 years, with the 2023 Global Peace Index highlighting a notable erosion of peace since 2008, affecting 95 out of 163 countries. The impacts of conflict disproportionately affect the poorest and most vulnerable groups, threatening to roll back progress in economic and human development efforts. Social safety nets (SSNs) have emerged as a primary policy instrument in Fragile, Conflict, and Violence (FCV). Safety nets encompass a variety of non-contributory programs, primarily cash and in-kind transfers, accompanying measures, labor-intensive public works (LIPWs), and economic inclusion interventions aimed to provide regular, targeted, and predictable support to the poorest and most vulnerable households. SSNs can be designed and implemented as adaptive and flexible tools to respond to shocks and crises, expanding to reach more individuals or increasing support for current beneficiaries. In conflict settings, often marked by emergencies and limited government response capacity, safety nets can play a critical role in addressing urgent needs and preserving human capital and productive assets in the long term. Despite their increased use in fragile and conflict countries, the impacts of SSNs in such contexts are still not fully understood. This study, part of a broader analytical and research agenda supported by the World Bank's Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program, reviews and synthesizes available literature to better understand the impacts of SSNs on economic, social, and political outcomes in FCV settings. It explores the effects of SSN programs on household well-being, social cohesion and conflict or shaping attitudes toward state institutions, among others. The findings aim to inform the operational design and implementation of SSNs to promote positive outcomes and avoid exacerbating conflict risks.Publication Safety Nets in Contexts of Violence, Fragility and Forced Displacement(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-08-21)The rapid expansion of social safety nets in contexts affected by violence, fragility and forced displacement raises questions about whether such programs can relieve the worst forms of insecurity and vulnerability in affected communities. To answer this question, the authors analyze 394 qualitative interviews from Burkina Faso and Cameroon (West and Central Africa). As the first study of its kind conducting cross-country comparative research in varied security contexts, the authors posit three channels – material, social, and political – through which social protection can shape experiences of violence, fragility and forced displacement. The authors found that social assistance, or social safety nets, built resilience by smoothing consumption and relieving the pressure of unanticipated shocks while programs were ongoing. However, because many of the most vulnerable inhabitants directed transfer spending towards immediate subsistence needs, safety nets rarely resulted in additional income-generating opportunities or enduring material effects beyond the program’s conclusion. Although trends diverged across regions and security contexts, the authors identified tentative evidence of social and political effects, in the form of expanded social networks, cohesion and interdependence among some beneficiary groups, and greater confidence in existing institutions when beneficiaries attributed the safety net to the government. The authors examined these impacts across regions facing distinct levels and types of insecurity.Publication How to Maximize the Impact off Adaptive Social Protection in Contexts of Fragility, Conflict, and Violence(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-14)In recent years, violent conflict has spiked significantly, affecting low-income countries in particular, and shaping an increasingly complex fragility landscape. By 2030, over half of the world’s extreme poor are expected to live in countries experiencing fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV). Conflict and poverty are strongly interconnected; not only does conflict compound experiences of poverty, but economic instability, resource scarcity, and state weakness also exacerbate conflict dynamics. In the Sahel, one of the poorest and most conflict affected regions in the world, countries additionally face high vulnerability to climate change and other shocks, and a growing influx of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) is placing further strain on limited services and resources.Publication Adapting Social Safety Net Operations to Insecurity in the Sahel(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-11)Adaptive Social Protection programs are increasingly implemented in fragile and insecure contexts in the Sahel. This paper provides a framework, key principles, and a repertoire of options for adapting social safety net projects to unprecedented levels of insecurity. It fills an operational knowledge gap regarding project design, implementation, and supervision under insecurity as called for by the World Bank Group’s strategy for fragility, conflict and violence 2020-2025. Based on a mix of desk research and field insights, the authors map operational security risks and identify ingredients for an appropriate response in risk assessment, design, beneficiary targeting, and payment systems.Publication Social Safety Nets in Iraq(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-11)Iraq, once a relatively skilled and economically prosperous society, has seen its development thwarted by decades of conflict and economic decline. Today it is an upper middle-income, resource-rich, yet fragile and conflict-riven country. Progress on the twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity is inevitably an uphill struggle in such a context. Indeed, there has been no overall movement towards either poverty reduction or reduced income equality in Iraq since 2007; headcount poverty measured in 2014 has remained virtually unchanged at 22.5 percent. What limited gains in poverty reduction were achieved through 2012 had been reversed by 2014, as a result of a resurgence in violence and the worsening of the economic environment. More than four million Iraqis have been displaced by the country’s various conflicts.
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Publication How Bribery Distorts Firm Growth : Differences by Firm Attributes(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-04)How corruption affects economic performance has been studied for over a decade. Yet the lack of detailed firm-level data has limited research regarding who is carrying the real burden of corruption. This study shows that for firms in the Latin America and Caribbean region, bribery significantly distorts firm growth. Firms that pay bribes when conducting business transactions -- such as applying for permits, electricity, or water connections -- have 24 percent lower annual sales growth than firms that do not face such solicitations. Moreover, these distortions are more severe for low-revenue-generating and young firms. Using the instrumental variables method, the authors show that these results are robust to different specifications and the use of different sub-samples.Publication Cameroon Social Safety Nets(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-06)This report lays the groundwork for a safety net system that can address the needs of the poor in Cameroon. Cameroon does not have a coordinated system of safety nets; rather, small, isolated interventions which together do not address the needs. Moreover, food and fuel price subsidies which mainly benefit the rich cost around 2 percent of GDP/year much more than total safety net spending. There is a need for a social protection strategy and an effective safety net system to address chronic poverty and food insecurity in Cameroon. This strategy should identify risks and vulnerabilities so they can be addressed by appropriate programs. Investments in human capital and in geographic areas most affected by poverty the North and Far North should be priority.