This paper examines the rise of the social protection agenda in Zambia, and demonstrates that this has two alternative drivers: shifting dynamics within Zambia's political settlement and the promotional efforts of a transnational policy coalition. We compare the cases of social cash transfers...

Targeting of national anti-poverty programs in low-income countries commonly relies on statistical procedures involving household-level survey data, while small-scale poverty-alleviation programs often employ so-called community-based targeting, where village communities themselves identify...

Conditionality can prevent poor households from receiving cash transfers. Re-analyzing five randomized evaluations of conditional cash transfers, we find: (1) non-compliers -- households that do not meet education conditions -- are common, representing 4.6% to 37% of eligible households; (2)...

The Kufuor (New Patriotic Party) administration of 2000-2008 implemented substantial reforms of the contributory social insurance system (including the introduction of a national health insurance scheme and a new 'three tier' pensions system), and introduced a range of social assistance schemes...

Targeting of national anti-poverty programs in low-income countries commonly relies on statistical procedures involving household-level survey data, while small-scale poverty-alleviation programs often employ so-called community-based targeting, where village communities themselves identify...

A body of recent studies has compared the ability of proxy-means testing (PMT), a data-driven poverty targeting procedure, and community-based targeting (CBT), a participatory method, to identify consumption-poor households. Motivated by the facts that targeted benefits typically reach...