Publication: Adapting Social Safety Net Operations to Insecurity in the Sahel
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2020-11
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2020-11
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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.
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“Grun, Rebekka; Saidi, Mira; Bisca, Paul M.. 2020. Adapting Social Safety Net Operations to Insecurity in the Sahel. SASPP Operational and Policy Note Series, Note 1. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34896 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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It combines and exploits synergies between social protection, disaster risk management (DRM), and climate change adaptation. Adaptive Social Protection (ASP) plays a critical role in preventing or mitigating the negative impacts of shocks and boosting resilience for long-term development. The Sahel’s vulnerability and exposure to shocks and crises is set to increase with accelerating climate change, calling for a shift from often externally funded, ad hoc responses toward building sustainable, government-led system. Over the past decade, ASP has been on a remarkable trajectory in the Sahel, and this is an appropriate time to take stock of the situation. 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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 A Guide to Implementing Social Safety Nets in Fragile, Conflict, and Violent Contexts(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-23)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). 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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.
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Publication Targeting in Ultra-Poor Settings(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-10-21)The main insights of this note are as follows: first, to significantly reduce poverty higher budgets for safety net interventions are needed, and expanding coverage is far more important than fine-tuning targeting methods. After geographical targeting, most PMT and CBT methods perform close to a random allocation of benefits when trying to identify food insecure households. While PMT consistently outperforms CBT in identifying households with the lowest consumption, differences are small when distances to the poverty line are considered. While non-beneficiaries experience significant indirect economic benefits from the program, there is mixed and limited evidence on social cohesion and fairness perceptions of targeting methods. Finally, costs are relatively minor as a share of total resources transferred. The policy note concludes with policy and research implications for contexts with high poverty rates, low inequality levels, and insufficient budgets.Publication Disaster Risk Financing(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)Adaptive safety nets are cash transfer programs that can rapidly increase beneficiary coverage, or the cash amounts they provide in response to disasters. Disaster risk financing (DRF) provides a set of tools and instruments that can efficiently help finance the costs of such responses. In the West Sahel, where chronic food insecurity and vulnerability are high and safety net coverage, data availability, and government fiscal space often remain limited, some of the common approaches to DRF meet their limitations. This note draws out some of these limitations and suggests ways for policymakers to address them. Among these, it suggests that governments in the Sahel focus on building reliable social protection delivery systems before turning to DRF; design DRF strategies that account for continued external assistance; focus first on more frequent, lower severity shocks rather than the extreme ones; and start their DRF engagements with sectoral DRF strategies rather than comprehensive national ones that try to address all disaster risks, costs, and sectors.Publication Anticipating Large and Widespread Seasonal Deprivation in the Sahel(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2021-11)In addition to being regularly confronted with unpredictable shocks such as floods, droughts, or conflicts, Sahelian households have to deal with the effects of seasonality. This leads to a significant reduction in food and non-food consumption across the season, exposing the poor to transient food insecurity and malnutrition.Publication Preventing Early Childhood Undernutrition in the Sahel Region(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-07-06)This policy note presents evidence-based guidance for the effective design, implementation, and utilization of small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) interventions in the Sahel region. SQ-LNS are food supplements containing essential nutrients and are intended for daily consumption alongside standard age-appropriate diets. SQ-LNS effectively prevent child undernutrition and improve child growth and development. The key recommendations for modifying SQ-LNS interventions in Sahel country contexts to maximize their impact on child health are presented in the report.Publication Opportunities to Accelerate the Reduction of Childhood Undernutrition in the Sahel(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-07-06)This brief details the findings of research examining context specific determinants of growth faltering and childhood undernutrition in five Sahel countries - Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, and Senegal. Notably, this research underscores opportunities to strengthen nutrition action in the Sahel and, consequently, build and sustain human capital in the region. The authors detail the determinants that have the largest associations with childhood undernutrition in the Sahel; examine the findings in the context of existing research; and provide recommendations to improve the effectiveness of nutrition action in this region.