This policy brief discusses: Social assistance is critical to counter the insecurity and vulnerability experienced by chronically poor people. Evidence shows that as well as preventing people from sliding into poverty, social assistance supports human development, helps people to access...

To meet development objectives, aid recipients and their donor partners need to effectively manage the macroeconomic effects of aid. Aid can improve the economy's supply-side and raise growth. But if the macroeconomic impact of aid is not managed well it can distort and sometimes undermine...

There is a growing consensus that vulnerability undermines growth and human development progress, and so social protection to prevent downward mobility and poverty is an important third policy leg. This paper argues that nowhere in the current mainstream policy discourse is there a strong or...

Aid is not generally aimed at the poorest people, though most multilateral or bilateral agencies would like to think they get included. However, donors’ strategies are generally blind to differentiation among the poor, and have not improved in this respect. The special provisions for the least...