Art Appraisal Blog

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.

Integrating information for the purpose of articulating social protection policies is hard work. It requires a combination of political will, capacity for institutional cooperation, software development and direct communication channels with citizens. Because of this complexity, countries that pursue this objective often cooperate to exchange knowledge, and the Brazilian Single Registry (Cadastro Único), the backbone of some 20 social protection programmes, is frequently cited as a successful example of integration....

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 disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic complicated the delivery of social protection payments, while at the same time necessitating their use at unprecedented scale. Lowe, McCord, and Beazley analyze optimal approaches to distributing and expanding G2P transfers in 2020 by combining literature review with case studies of Nigeria, Peru, Sri Lanka, and Togo. Their findings highlight the importance of comprehensive ID systems, digital and financial inclusion, existing systems, and...

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.

The Philippines' Social Amelioration Program started in March of 2020 sought to provide cash assistance to 18 million households. The first tranche of payments experienced significant delivery challenges, leading to changes in the second tranche. This case study aims to document lessons learned from the second tranche.

Payments are central to how governments transfer and receive financial resources; however, the way such payments are made is often not mainstreamed in public financial management (PFM) despite the fact that many of the direct benefits from effective digitalization of payments are identitical to those traditionally expected from strong PFM systems. The digitalization of payments does not provide a silver bullet for solving PFM problems; therefore it needs to be approached in an integrated way, with leadership from central agencies, including the Ministry of Finance, to exploit the synergies between the many different types of payments facilitated by digital technology.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that countries which have disability identification mechanisms and registries already in place have been in a better position to provide fast relief and expand shock responsive support to persons with disabilities and their families.

How countries can create digital information systems for social protection in a way that is inclusive and right-based, leveraging technology without becoming a further barrier to inclusion?