The Pacific island countries (PICs) are some of the most exposed to frequent natural disasters and climate shocks, and their vulnerability is increasing due to mounting effects of climate change as well as demographic and economic forces. Natural disasters hit the poorest hardest and have...

Most safety net programs in low and middle-income countries have hitherto been conceived for rural areas. Yet as the global urban population increases and poverty urbanizes, it becomes of utmost importance to understand how to make safety nets work in urban settings. This paper discusses the...

This report provides an initial stocktaking of the characteristics, environment and performance of public and private pensions and elderly assistance programs in Sub-Saharan Africa. It identifies key challenges and suggests reform options for consideration. Considerations for future work and...

This policy paper presents key findings and suggestions on Malaysia s old-age financial protection system within the context of the country s broader social security framework. The trademark policy approach focusing on job creation instead of expanding social security programs served the country...

This paper examines China's rural minimum living standard guarantee (dibao) program, one of the largest targeted transfer schemes in the world. Using household survey data matched with published administrative data, the authors provide background on the patterns of inequality and poverty in...

The Skills Towards Employability and Productivity (STEP) program was designed to better understand the interplay between skills on the one hand and employability and productivity on the other. The STEP program developed survey instruments tailored to collect data on skills in low- and...

How much do countries spend on social protection? Do social protection programs cover all poor people? And, how well are they targeted? It is notoriously hard to find comprehensive cross-country data on social protection programs which can help answer such questions and allow to benchmark social...

Using a simple framework, this paper discusses the underlying reason of the variation of threshold level in developed countries, from the least generous 20 percent to around 60 percent of median wage, with an average of 35 percent. The generosity of minimum guarantee social assistance programs...

This paper takes stock of methods to profile the unemployed in public employment services (PESs) in OECD countries, in order to single out suitable approaches for PES in emerging economies. Profiling should enable PESs to segment jobseekers into groups with similar risk of work-resumption, and...

This review examines World Bank support to social safety nets between FY2007-13, including both financing and knowledge services. During this time period World Bank financing for safety nets totaled just over United States (U.S.) 12 billion dollars, 273 financing activities in 93 countries, the...