Safety nets are noncontributory transfer programs targeted to the poor or vulnerable. They play important roles in social policy. Safety nets redistribute income, thereby immediately reducing poverty and inequality; they enable households to invest in the human capital of their children and in...

This first World Bank Knowledge Report launches what is intended as a series of World Bank Knowledge Reports. Although knowledge is a fundamental to the Bank s overall mission, and informs all of the Bank s development activities, it has not received the same degree of attention from management...