We study a government program in Uganda designed to help the poor and unemployed become self-employed artisans, increase incomes, and… Read more thus promote social stability. Young adults in Uganda’s conflict-affected north were invited to form groups and submit grant proposals for vocational training and business start-up. Funding was randomly assigned among screened and eligible groups. Treatment groups received unsupervised grants of $382 per member. Grant recipients invest some in skills training but most in tools and materials. After four years, half practice a skilled trade. Relative to the control group, the program increases business assets by 57%, work hours by 17%, and earnings by 38%. Many also formalize their enterprises and hire labor. We see no effect, however, on social cohesion, antisocial behavior, or protest. Effects are similar by gender but are qualitatively different for women because they begin poorer (meaning the impact is larger relative to their starting point) and because women’s work and earnings stagnate without the program but take off with it. The patterns we observe are consistent with credit constraints. Read less ...

This study uses a social exclusion lens to analyse the effects of the Chars Livelihoods Programme in the chars, the… Read more Vulnerable Group Development in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh. It tests assumptions about the role social protection can play in contributing to social inclusion, poverty reduction. The study used mixed methods, employed a quasi-experimental impact evaluation. The findings show that both the programmes have some positive effects on the immediate outcomes of social exclusion, poverty, particularly in terms of strengthening livelihood opportunities, improving food security,, strengthening social participation. However, limitations to the impact of these programmes on tackling the structural causes of exclusion, poverty are evident. Read less ...

Sub-Saharan Africa has just experienced one of the best decades of growth since the 1960s. Between 2000 and 2012, gross… Read more domestic product (GDP) grew more than 4.5 percent a year on average, compared to around 2 percent in the prior 20 years (World Bank various years). In 2012, the region's GDP growth was estimated at 4.7 percent- 5.8 percent if South Africa is excluded (World Bank 2013). About one-quarter of countries in the region grew at 7 percent or better, and several African countries are among the fastest growing in the world. Medium-term growth prospects remain strong and should be supported by a rebounding global economy. The challenge of youth employment in Africa may appear daunting, yet Africa's vibrant youth represent an enormous opportunity, particularly now, when populations in much of the world are aging rapidly. Youth not only need jobs, but also create them. Africa's growing labor force can be an asset in the global marketplace. Realizing this brighter vision for Africa's future, however, will require a clearer understanding of how to benefit from this asset. Meeting the youth employment challenge in all its dimensions, demographic, economic, and social, and understanding the forces that created the challenge, can open potential pathways toward a better life for young people and better prospects for the countries where they live. The report examines obstacles faced by households and firms in meeting the youth employment challenge. It focuses primarily on productivity, in agriculture, in nonfarm household enterprises (HEs), and in the modern wage sector, because productivity is the key to higher earnings as well as to more stable, less vulnerable, livelihoods. To respond to the policy makers' dilemma, the report identifies specific areas where government intervention can reduce those obstacles to productivity for households and firms, leading to brighter employment prospects for youth, their parents, and their own children. Read less ...

This book looks back both at how the Great Recession affected employment outcomes in developing countries and at how governments… Read more responded. The chapters bring together a unique compilation of data and analysis from very different sources, including an inventory of policies implemented during the crisis among countries in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. The overall story is that the impacts of the crisis varied considerably. The effect depended on the size of the original shock, the channels through which it was manifested, the structure of institutions in the country -- especially labor institutions -- and the specific policy responses undertaken by countries in response to the shock. While these factors led outcomes to differ across the countries studied, a few common patterns emerged. In terms of impacts, overall adjustments involved reductions in earnings growth rather than employment growth, although the quality of employment was also affected. Youth were doubly affected, being more likely to both experience unemployment and reduced wages. Men seemed to have been more strongly affected than women. In most countries where data are available, there were no major differences between skilled and unskilled workers or those living in urban or rural areas. In terms of policy responses, this crisis was characterized by a high prevalence of active interventions in the labor market and the expansion of income protection systems, as well as countercyclical stimulus. Countercyclical stimulus measures in a number of countries, when timed well and sufficiently large to mitigate the shock, were effective in reducing adverse employment effects. Specific sectoral stimulus policies also had positive effects when well-targeted. But social protection and labor market policy responses were often ad-hoc and not in line with the types of adjustments that were taking place. As a result, these policies and programs did not necessarily reach those who needed them the most and typically were biased toward formal sector workers. In retrospect, there is a sense that developing countries were not well prepared to deal with the effects of the Great Recession, suggesting room for important reforms to social protection and labor policies moving forward. Read less ...

Concern Worldwide launched a programme called ‘Enhancing the Productive Capacity of Extremely Poor People’, also known as the ‘Graduation Programme’,… Read more in two districts of southern Rwanda – Huye and Nyaruguru – in May 2011. The Programme supports extremely poor households with a sequenced package that includes: cash transfers to meet basic needs, skills development and asset transfers to improve livelihood options, and savings facilities to buffer risk and fund investments in productive activities, with the goal of facilitating sustainable exits from extreme poverty. The monitoring and evaluation (M&E) component aims to generate useful learning in support of the Government of Rwanda’s Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme and the National Social Protection Strategy. Read less ...

Factsheets on linking social assistance and productive inclusion programs in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Mexico,… Read more Peru, and the Philippines Read less ...

In Peru, researchers partnered with implementing organizations Plan International-Peru and Asociación Arariwa. The study focused on households in the rural… Read more communities of Canas and Acomayo, located in the department of Cusco, which is among the poorest departments in Peru. To select the poorest members of the communities, the project team conducted a Participatory Wealth Ranking, in which villagers collectively ranked households according to their wealth during a community meeting. Asociación Arariwa conducted a short survey afterwards to verify the results of the ranking. Read less ...

In Ethiopia, researchers partnered with the Relief Society of Tigray (REST) and the Dedebit Credit and Savings Institution (DECSI). The… Read more study focused on participants in Ethiopia’s food-for-work program who belonged to households without any outstanding loans and with at least one member capable of work. A local food security task force narrowed eligibility further by choosing those they considered to be the poorest members of their community. Within the sample, the median total per capita consumption was 2014 PPP US$1.22 per day, with two-thirds of households consuming less than US$1.25 per day. Two-thirds of households reported that not everyone in the household got enough food. Read less ...

In Ghana, researchers partnered with implementing organizations Innovations for Poverty Action and Presbyterian Agricultural Services (PAS). The study took place… Read more in the Northern and Upper East regions of Ghana, a region that is disproportionately poorer than the coastal south. Fifty-three percent of households in the study were living on US$1.25 a day or less when the study began in 2011, compared to 29 percent in Ghana as a whole. To select the poorest members of the communities, the project team conducted a Participatory Wealth Ranking, in which villagers collectively ranked households according to their wealth during a community meeting. PAS conducted a short survey afterwards to verify the results of the ranking. Read less ...

In India, researchers partnered with Bandhan, a local microfinance institution. The study focused on households with an able-bodied woman that… Read more were not associated with any microfinance institution and received below a certain threshold of government aid. Households commonly had little land, no non-land productive assets, and relied on informal labor for income. Bandhan further narrowed eligibility by conducting a participatory rural appraisal to identify the poorest community members. Within the sample, the median total per capita consumption was 2014 PPP US$1.15 per day, with 73 percent of households consuming less than US$1.25 per day. Around 90 percent of households reported that some adults sometimes had to skip meals, and 40 percent reported the same for children. Read less ...