World Bank blog on how best to help displaced populations integrate into the labor market in the ir host communities.… Read more Some of the solutions should involve digital means. Read less ...

As part of the Colombian government’s strategy to support the armed-conflict victims, a Graduation Program called “Transformando Mi Futuro” (Transforming my… Read more future) was implemented. Unlike other graduation programs, this one targets the urban population and has no assets transfers. To evaluate this program, a Results Evaluation (Before/After) approach was performed using the information collected before and after implementing the program. The main results show positive changes in well-being and a reduction in the gap between the actual perception of well-being and the expectations for two and five years, and positive changes in labor income and savings. These results suggest that the program contributed to improving the living conditions of participating households. However, heterogeneity analysis shows that impacts are differentiated according initial status of participants. This exercise is part of the set of evaluations carried out within the Platform for Evaluation and Learning of the Graduation Program in Latin America (www.plataformagraduacionla.info). Read less ...

With the support of the MetLife Foundation, Trickle Up delivered a multidimensional intervention with elements of financial inclusion to economically… Read more empower vulnerable and marginalized women in Bangladesh, Mexico, and Vietnam. In Mexico, the project Empowering Women and Youth through the Graduation Approach and Financial Inclusion was contracted in September 2017, but due to operational and contextual challenges was implemented between July 2018 and May 2021 among indigenous communities in the states of Chiapas and Yucatan. This research brief outlines the main results and lessons from this project, emphasizing insights for replication and scaling in the Mexican context. These include targeting and selection methods, coaching models, productive activities, gender issues and empowerment. Read less ...

A rapidly urbanizing world presents enormous economic opportunities for the poor and vulnerable but also presents significant barriers to their… Read more economic inclusion. About two thirds of the world’s population is expected to live in urban centers by 2050, with nearly 90 percent of this increase in Asia and Africa. Section two is a summary of the urban context and challenges. Section three then describes a framework for fostering urban economic inclusion, and section four examines the current landscape of economic inclusion programs, starting with the policy impetus driving their emergence. Section 5 turns to the case for scaling up urban programs by synthesizing evidence on costs and impacts. Section 6 draws conclusions. This note draws heavily on the framework and analysis provided in The State of Economic Inclusion (SEI) Report 2021: the potential to scale (Andrews et al. 2021), especially the PEI 2020 Landscape and Costing Surveys, an updated World Bank portfolio (2021) review, and an updated review of impact evaluations of urban economic inclusion programs. Read less ...

The ultra-poor need to stop being invisible to policymakers. We need to pay closer attention to the poorest and the… Read more unique set of challenges they face, for without a better understanding of the lived reality of ultra-poverty, we will fail to live up to the promise of “leaving no one behind.” Without programs tailored for people in these circumstances, the extreme poverty rate will become increasingly hard to budge. We are already starting to see this reflected in global poverty data. This chapter seeks to advance an understanding of the microeconomic and psychological reality of what it means to be ultra-poor, while pointing to an emerging set of scalable, science-based solutions that can break the trap. “The poor” are not a homogenous group, and even the term “extreme poor” is often used to lump together people facing very different circumstances. Using the graduation approach pioneered by BRAC as one example, this chapter will highlight ways to tackle ultra-poverty through the emerging “science of hope,” which posits that when coupled with skills and material support, an injection of well-founded hope and optimism into the lives of the ultra-poor can break the poverty trap. Read less ...

Based on a literature review and case studies of various urban cash transfer schemes that were implemented in response to… Read more Covid-19 across LMICs (with primary case studies from Madagascar, Peru and Nigeria), this paper explores the successes and challenges of implementing cash transfers in urban settings in response to a large, covariate shock. It also considers the expected longer term implications and lessons learned for building capacity to respond to future shocks and for social protection system-strengthening more broadly. Read less ...

This paper examines the extent to which social protection responses to the crisis have recognised and addressed the gendered impacts… Read more of the crisis. Drawing on case studies from South Africa and Kerala, India, the paper looks at the design and implementation features of the social protection response from a gender perspective, and offers policy recommendations for strengthening gender in social protection and crisis response in the future. Read less ...

A brief on the Gender angle of the "Graduating to Resilience Initiative."  An initiative being implemented in the Kamwenge District… Read more of Western Uganda. The Activity selects a woman and/or youth in the household to engage in programming as a primary participant. The approach also builds space to engage the whole household, inclusive of men. Read less ...

The international community cannot work in silos and expect to end extreme poverty. Poverty is multidimensional. The most effective and… Read more powerful interventions that empower people to escape the poverty trap address the lives of people living in poverty holistically. A truly holistic approach leverages stakeholders from all parts of society collaborating to uplift people from the most marginalized communities. This is a matter of social justice, not of charity. And, this is urgent. By the end of 2021, COVID-19 will have forced approximately 150 million more people into extreme poverty. Despite dire circumstances, we can still make meaningful progress on poverty eradication. Before the pandemic struck, global extreme poverty was consistently falling. From 2011 to 2019 alone, it fell from 1.1 billion people to 691 million. Read less ...

Blog post on behavioral, social and emotional side of refugee integration into the labor market that is often overlooked… Read more Read less ...