Poverty and crises are rapidly “urbanizing†. Yet experience with operationalizing cash transfers in urban areas is limited. This paper captures early lessons from a new generation of urban cash transfer responses to Covid-19 in eleven African countries. The analysis contextualizes...

With nearly 420 million children reached worldwide, school meals are among the largest-scale social protection interventions. This paper traces the evolution of school meals programs globally, examines the empirical evidence underpinning them, reviews select implementation practices with an...

The multiplier effects of cash transfers are receiving renewed attention globally. The existence of multipliers-or the generation of additional dollars for every one dollar injected as cash transfers-illuminates new aspects of the impacts of social assistance and holds the potential to redefine...

During the recent Covid-19 shock (2020/21), most countries used cash transfers to protect the livelihoods of those affected by the pandemic or by restrictions on mobility or economic activities, including the poor and vulnerable. While a large majority of countries mobilized existing programs...

The report explores modeling approaches, designs, and impacts of CGE modeling exercises carried out for energy subsidy reforms in different country settings. The report reviews approaches used as part of operational and analytical engagements supported by the World Bank, including those funded...

This paper provides an overview of the Trung Son hydropower project preparation experience and highlights the innovative features of the project, primarily focusing on the adoption of new approaches in project design and integration of social and environmental concerns. Through disseminating the...

This report aims to contribute to the global knowledge base on energy subsidy reform by exploring how poverty and distributional analyses have been used tosupport energy subsidy reform efforts. To this end, this report reviews select country-specific activities supported by the Energy Sector...

By examining the broad range of variations in design and implementation of energy trading models around the world, our evaluation showed that sometimes the pure Single Buyer is actually the only alternative, particularly in distressed power systems. Even under dire circumstances, it is still...

This report takes stock of political economy analysis (PEA) and communications in the context of country-specific technical assistance activities supporting energy subsidy reforms that benefited from financial and technical support from ESMAP. Initiated as part of a retrospective assessment of...

This report summarizes the findings of a review aimed at understanding emerging approaches to energy subsidy reform, discerning trends, and identifying major strands of thinking and research in the field, as reflected in major policy and academic journals relevant to the subject. The review was...