A legacy of the command economy in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union is a social protection system that emphasizes institutional care for vulnerable individuals. It has been well established that in many cases institutionalization can be more expensive per client served and...

The authors consider the question of what role safety net transfers should play in very low income countries where a large population live in absolute poverty, and the state has limited resources to fund transfers. The number of people living below minimum acceptable consumption levels will...

This paper focuses on the experience of the transition countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, in providing adequate safety nets for the poor during the last ten years. The paper discusses the problem of poverty, and vulnerability, and looks at the typical types of interventions offered by...

This paper uses data from the Bulgarian Integrated Household Surveys, and the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) to examine the multiple aspects of vulnerability in the labor market in Bulgaria, in the late 1990s. The paper starts by examining the links between poverty, and labor...

The conventional wisdom in mainstream development policy circles is that income transfers to the poor, and safety net policies more generally, are at best a short-term palliative and at worst a waste of money. They are not seen as a core element of an effective long-term poverty reduction...

The purpose of this paper is to gather information in both developed and developing countries, on design and delivery of community based social service initiatives. While the field is sufficiently new that best practice may not yet be fully identifiable, there are many initiatives funded by...

The theoretical literature has pointed at the importance of access to credit market in determining the household decisions concerning children's activities and the reaction of households to adverse shocks. In this paper we address these issues making use of a unique data set for Guatemala that...

This paper reviews the first generation of Social Safety Net Assessments (SSNAs) conducted in Central America, including those of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The World Bank supports SSNAs to help identify strengths and weaknesses in social protection policies and...

This paper looks at youth labour market trends concentrating on developing and transition countries. Questions relating to the integration of young people into decent work have in recent times once again begun to occupy a central position in Government Policy issues. Recently coordinated efforts...

Croatia's transition toward independence, and the market economy in the 1990s, exacerbated problems in the pay-as-you-go (PAYG) system, and ultimately led to its financial collapse. Although a comprehensive three-pillar reform was initiated in late 1995, implementation of the reform only began...