The social protection (SP) portfolio includes a number of operations that are focused on improving service delivery across a broad range of social services. These service delivery goals are typically oriented to improving access to and quality of social services, usually as part of broader...

Social Safety Nets (SSN) are defined as non?contributory transfer programs targeted to the poor or those vulnerable to poverty and shocks. About half of World Bank social protection projects in the reviewed cohort are SSN. They are mostly non?emergency investment operations with a higher...

Labor allocation to its most efficient use, promoting employment and human capital investment as well as functioning labor markets can contribute to long?term economic growth, poverty reduction and to help workers manage their risks. A labor market policy framework includes both regulations and...

This paper makes the case for why safety nets are an important tool for managing the risk of natural hazards. The use of safety nets is advocated both ex ante, to prevent and mitigate the impact of natural disaster and ex post, to cope with the impacts of natural shocks. Firstly, the paper...

Over the last decade, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs have become one of the most widely adopted anti-poverty initiatives in the developing world. Inspired particularly by Mexico's successful program, CCTs are viewed as an effective way to provide basic income support while building...

This paper presents a World Bank led and Russia trust fund financed work program to measure financial capability and the effectiveness of financial education in low and middle income countries. The two activities and their staging have been motivated by the lessons of high income countries with...

This note provides a general background of the main features of labor regulation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and benchmarks them against international best practices. The note compiles information on available labor laws and other legal acts concerning employment protection...

The purpose of this review is to canvas policies and, to the extent possible, practices of major multilateral and bilateral development agencies, aimed at including disability in development. Development that includes disability, as referenced in this review, is understood as development in...

This paper discusses the range of food-based transfers that are typically used in social safety net programs. The authors have tried to provide guidance as to the appropriate context for different kinds of programs, the necessary operational considerations in implementing them, and reasonable...

This paper relies on simple framework to understand the gender wage gap in Macedonia and then simulates how the gender wage gap would behave after the introduction of a minimum wage. First, it presents a new albeit simple decomposition of the wage gap into three factors: (i) a wage level factor,...