Photo: Village Enterprise

What we do

Current Initiatives

The Partnership on Economic Inclusion (PEI) seeks to help increase the income and assets of extremely poor and vulnerable people through two interrelated objectives: the development and scale-up of government-led economic inclusion programs for that population and the creation of a cutting-edge platform for global learning and knowledge.

PEI has the potential to link economic inclusion programs to the diverse portfolio of national programs that are funded in part by the World Bank, giving the Partnership the potential to affect the lives of millions of citizens globally.

To help achieve this, PEI’s work is based on three mutually reinforcing priorities:

Country Engagement

Image of a handshake under the image of a globe

The heart of PEI’s work is helping governments design, adapt, and manage scalable programs that directly benefit extremely poor and vulnerable people. We do this by collaborating with an international network of practitioners, policymakers, development partners, and research organizations and linking economic inclusion programs to a wide portfolio of World Bank investments in government programs.


We offer technical grants to support innovative economic inclusion programs led by governments. We announced the first grants in October 2019 following a highly competitive Call for Proposals that drew interest from 38 countries.


Our first round of grant awards were issued to economic inclusion programs led by World Bank task teams in 10 countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iraq, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Panama, Uzbekistan, and Zambia. Each grant supports diagnostics and data collection, assistance with strategy development, identification of good practices, and in-country coordination with development partners, as required.

 

PEI also offers technical support through a help-desk function, providing information, materials, and research and connecting governments, organizations, and individuals across the broad range of our constituents.

Innovation and Learning

Image of the profile of a human head, with a lightbulb and gear inside

PEI works with our national and international collaborators to collect, generate, and share evidence of how economic inclusion programs work in a broad range of settings. The central goal of this research is to determine how economic inclusion programs can be made effective and sustainable at large scale while being appropriately tailored to local conditions.

 

Research over the past decade shows that economic inclusion programs help strengthen resilience and expand opportunity for people living in poverty and vulnerability, which ultimately leads to increases in their income and assets and improvements in well-being. Economic inclusion programs are also found to work in a variety of settings and with different population groups.

 

PEI now aims to support a new generation of innovation and learning to support adaptation, innovation, and scaling of government-supported programs, both within partner countries and globally. To support this effort, PEI has established a new PEI Data Portal, which is a platform to share information on over 200 economic inclusion programs in 74 countries. Users can search country-level data on economic inclusion programs and explore global trends.

 

The PEI Data Portal also enables policymakers and implementers to submit data on new programs and their costs to ensure the dashboard reflects the latest information.

 

Global Knowledge Sharing

Image of a global in the palm of an extended hand

A central role of the Partnership for Economic Inclusion is collecting and disseminating practical knowledge about economic inclusion programs. PEI provides governments and other partners in our network with the latest, best-available information about what works—and what doesn’t—in various settings around the world.

 

PEI released in 2021 its first-ever State of Economic Inclusion Report, which provided a global assessment of economic inclusion programs and identifies emerging trends and needs. The comprehensive report’s conclusions are based on a global survey of 204 unique, ongoing programs in 74 countries. In addition, four detailed case studies illustrate how economic inclusion programs are working in Bangladesh, India, Peru, and West Africa. 

 

PEI hosts webinars presenting the methodologies and results of on-going economic inclusion programs, program responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and highlighting organizations' approaches  to work with specific population groups or contexts.

 

See our Community Events below to join future PEI and partner activities and find recordings and summaries of select past activities. 

Community Events

Past Event

#15 PEI Open House + PPSAS | Booster les opportunités - Inclusion productive et PSA dans le Sahel

Tue April 25, 2023 09:30:00 AM to Tue April 25, 2023 11:00:00 AM
Location: Online
Past Event

#14 PEI Open House | Economic Inclusion in an Aging World: Opportunities and Challenges

Thu March 16, 2023 09:30:00 AM to Thu March 16, 2023 11:00:00 AM
Location: Online
Past Event

#13 PEI Open House | Reaching the Poorest and Moving to Scale

Wed February 22, 2023 09:30:00 AM to Wed February 22, 2023 11:00:00 AM
Location: Online
Past Event

#12 PEI Open House | Scalable Coaching Approaches for Economic Inclusion Programs

Thu December 8, 2022 09:30:00 AM to Thu December 8, 2022 11:00:00 AM
Location: Online
Past Event

#11 PEI Open House x ASPect Series | How can Economic Inclusion contribute to Climate Resilient Development?

Tue November 29, 2022 09:00:00 AM to Tue November 29, 2022 10:30:00 AM
Location: Online
Past Event

#10 PEI Open House | Economic Inclusion and Savings for the Poorest

Thu October 27, 2022 09:30:00 AM to Thu October 27, 2022 11:00:00 AM
Location: Online
Past Event

#9 PEI Open House | Making Markets More Inclusive

Wed September 21, 2022 09:30:00 AM to Wed September 21, 2022 11:00:00 AM
Location: Online
Past Event

#8 PEI Open House | Working for Inclusion: Economic Inclusion in Contexts of Forced Displacement

Tue June 14, 2022 09:30:00 AM to Tue June 14, 2022 11:00:00 AM
Location: Online