This report documents the discussion and sharing which took place at the South South Knowledge Collaboration workshop on Designing and Implementing Social Protection Programs for Employment, hosted by the Government of the Philippines, German Development Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, GIZ, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation), and DFAT in Manila in May 2017.

Households living in poverty have a double burden when the adverse impact of natural disasters disrupts their livelihoods. Additionally, households relying on climate-sensitive sectors, such as agriculture and natural resources, have fewer resources to cope with climate change. Subsequently, external support, such as social protection, is needed to protect their assets and livelihoods.

This chapter of the DIME report "Reducing Poverty 2,0" examines the effectiveness of a government-led graduation program in Nigeria that targeted the ultra poor. The author finds that the program was highly cost-effective and positively impacted household consumption, food security, revenue, income, and women’s psychosocial well-being.

The changing poverty landscape in Bangladesh and the COVID-19 pandemic have left marginalized populations, including widows, elderly, persons with disabilities, and ethnic minorities, even more vulnerable than before. This In Focus from the team Bangladesh, a PEI grantee, outlines the current policy framework considerations within the country, as well as the extent and inclusiveness of its primary social protection programs for marginalized groups, offering an analysis on how the Government can implement Economic Inclusion interventions that leverage its expansive social safety nets&nb

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the socio-economic prospects for the youth in Bangladesh. In response, the Government of Bangladesh launched in 2021 the World Bank-financed Recovery and Advancement of Informal Sector Employment (RAISE) program. RAISE aims to provide services that can improve earning opportunities for 375,000 low-income urban youth, micro-entrepreneurs affected by COVID-19, and returning migrants. This policy note draws on lessons from global economic inclusion programs to illustrate the rationale and design considerations in the RAISE program.

Despite significant economic gains in recent decades, Bangladesh lags behind in child malnutrition, contributing to poor human capital development outcomes in the long run. While the National Social Security Strategy in Bangladesh prioritizes programs that address life-cycle risks, early childhood interventions are limited in coverage. Based on global and local evidence, comprehensive social protection programs can improve child development outcomes and improve their long-term economic potential in Bangladesh.

This study is one of five undertaken by the FAO and the Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation Centre of Excellence in Food Security (CoE-FS) at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa to understand the role of social protection programs’ design, outcomes and impacts on food system transformation.

In Bangladesh, economic inclusion programs are primarily  implemented by civil society organizations. Yet, the government has an opportunity to leverage its strong and expansive social safety net (SSN) system. This report examines three groups of SSN beneficiaries in Bangladesh - working-age widows, people with disabilities, and households with young children - to understand their potential to benefit from economic inclusion programming.

This study presents the results of a multi-arm randomized evaluation of the Government of Zambia’s Supporting Women’s Livelihoods (SWL) program, which included business and skills training, a productive grant, saving groups support and mentoring. Researchers found that the multifaceted program yielded increases in consumption, food security, assets, household income, and mental health, without negative economic spillovers on non-beneficiaries.

 This In Practice paper shares insights and learning from four non-governmental organizations on the potential to scale up government-led Graduation programs for people living in extreme poverty. It contributes to the growing policy space around economic inclusion and identifies good practices for designing and implementing government-led Graduation programs. It makes recommendations and identifies key considerations for governments on how to identify, reach, and deliver impactful programming to individuals and households facing socioeconomic exclusion and marginalization.

There is strong operational demand to better understand the cost drivers, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability of economic inclusion (EI) programs, including how these interventions interact with other services targeting the poor. The unique design and institutional characteristics of EI programs makes costing them both more challenging and more important than it is for traditional safety net programs. This note provides a standardized approach to costing EI programs using the Quick Costing Tool from the Partnership for Economic Inclusion.

This report reviews the experiences of market linkage programs implemented globally, particularly those focused on poor smallholders, including women, as beneficiaries and farmers who participated in government social safety net schemes. The report highlights lessons learned by program implementers, governments, and other stakeholders related to efforts to link extremely poor households to productive markets.

This note examines the experience of economic inclusion programs that serve forcibly displaced people, including internally displaced people, refugees, and their host communities. It also examines the emerging lessons learned in program design and delivery based on new data on the footprint of economic inclusion programs and a review of evidence on forced displacement and economic inclusion programming.

This research brief shows how refugees take advantage of their freedom of movement to establish trade networks and engage with the Rwandan economy, explores some of the differences between refugee enterprises in Mahama and Kigali, and includes recommendations for policymakers and development and humanitarian actors for enhancing the feasibility and impact of entrepreneurship support for refugees in Rwanda.

This paper uses experimental data to investigate whether an increase in exogenous income through the Child Grants model of the Social Cash Transfer programme in Zambia fosters economic inclusion among rural women. Authors find a strong evidence of direct impacts of the Grant on the productive capacity, financial inclusion, and psychological assets of rural women. In addition to these direct impacts, researchers implement a mediation analysis to explore the potential mediating role of psychological assets in affecting the other pillars of economic inclusion.

Home-grown school feeding (HGSF) programs have the potential of strengthen local food systems by encouraging local production and creating both on- and off-farm jobs across the school meal value chain. This report documents the results and challenges of HGSF program in Kenya and proposes changes in the design of its modality to realize its full potential.

This brief shared the lessons learned of designing a graduation program in the Philippines launched in April 2021, known as the Padayon Sustainable Livelihood Program (Padayon SLP). The project - that targeted over 2,700 people over a period of 21 months - was composed of multiple services including income, savings, financial management skills, food security, nutrition, health, and hygiene behavior, as well as access to local resources.

As gender equity becomes more central to social and economic development, practitioners are increasingly focused on women and girls’ empowerment as a sustainable way to enhance well-being and close gender gaps. This literature review intends to provide a curated set of examples of interventions in developing countries that aim to affect the context and agency factors impeding women’s and girls’ empowerment. The report includes examples from programs  that include life skills training, savings and self-help groups and entrepreneurship, to mention a few. 

Economic inclusion (EI) approaches can play an important role in addressing the challenges at the intersection of climate resilience and poverty reduction. This publication explores the links between climate change and economic inclusion and proposes pathways through which EI programs can more strategically support climate resilience. It presents a framework for Climate-Resilient Economic Inclusion that can help inform the design of both existing and new EI programs and provides practical examples of how EI programs align their design and operations with the framework.

This two-page brief summarizes the main recommendations of the publication "Pathways to Climate-Resilient Economic Inclusion A Framework for Integrating Climate Action in Economic Inclusion Programs".