Art Appraisal Blog

Social Protection in Bangladesh began in the 1970’s and has been evolving ever since. This in-depth World Bank report examines the current state of social protection in Bangladesh, including efforts to digitize payments, and recommendations for future improvements through digitization.

This report from the Asian Development Bank details the Philippines’ social protection response to COVID-19. It explores the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s efforts to distribute payments, the challenges it encountered, and the role of digital technologies in overcoming them.

The Philippines’ Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is a conditional cash transfer program that aims to provide short-term poverty alleviation for poor households. As the program grew quickly and in volume and geography, so did the challenges faced in getting payments quickly and efficiently to recipients. This case study examines the design and implementation of the 4Ps program, explains the experiences of stakeholders and presents lessons learned.

Digital payments offer a fast and transparent way to distribute cash aid to households that have been economically hard hit by the pandemic. In the Philippines, researchers conducted a survey to learn about the experience of recipients of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP), an emergency cash transfer program implemented by the government. Results revealed that recipients were highly satisfied with their withdrawal experience of digital cash transfers, however, account awareness...

This case study by the Cash Learning Partnership (CaLP) examines Togo’s Novissi program, focusing on the collaborative role of the non-profit GiveDirectly. It includes discussions of remote targeting and data responsibility.

In April 2020, Togo launched Novissi, a fully digital unconditional cash transfer program to assist informal workers whose livelihoods were upended by the coronavirus pandemic. This case study details the program’s design process and implementation, highlighting lessons learned on the use of mobile money to support fully digital social assistance.

Colombia's Ingreso Solidario COVID-19 cash transfer program increased eligible households’ probability of maintaining an income source during the pandemic and did not disincentivize labor market participation.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic caused countries throughout the world to adapt their social protection systems to a radically new environment. This Maintains report uses literature reviews and informant interviews to document the social protection response in Kenya, evaluating it in terms of its adequacy, coverage, and comprehensiveness. As of its writing, the government of Kenya was expected to deliver social protection to over 700,000 households as part of...

The COVID-19 lockdown provides a test of whether these investments in digital infrastructure would pay off and help the government deliver relief quickly, efficiently and equitably.

This technical brief explains how Namibia was able to successfully execute its emergency program with remarkable efficiency, distributing a one-time benefit to 747,000 screened applicants, requiring only 72 hours to process each application. The case highlights the value of having invested in an integrated digital National Population Register, housing the Civil Registry and the ID Production System with a very high coverage, and linking it with other government electronic databases.