Social inclusion in productive safety net programmes (GSDRC Helpdesk Research Report 1005)
This evidence is scattered and quite limited, with a heavy slant towards Ethiopia
Abstract
Query
What has worked in achieving social inclusion in labour-intensive productive safety net programmes in the agricultural sector? Consider analysis, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Where possible, draw on evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa.
Key findings
Evidence is scattered and quite limited, with a heavy slant towards Ethiopia. Multi-country literature offers the following on social inclusion:
- ### Lessons for projects, programmes and policies
- Community participation: beneficiary outreach is key. Participatory targeting, project selection and monitoring are useful, though attention needs to be paid to exclusion, corruption or elite capture.
- Each type of targeting can have positive or negative impacts; a combination tailored to context is useful.
- Supporting broader types of public works helps to include people who cannot take part in demanding or time-consuming physical labour.
- Implementation: lessons include addressing women and men’s experiences; strengthening staff skills and participatory design; training staff; maximising linkages between social protection and programmes for empowerment, capacity and skills; rigorous M&E; and dedicating resources to anti-discrimination.
- Transformation: strategies against political capture include clarity and transparency, a complaints mechanism and external oversight. Tailored interventions can counter inequalities inside households, e.g. individual entitlements for women.
- M&E is understudied. Capacity-building, community involvement and high-quality light evaluations are useful.
- Policies must be equity-based. Programmes have worked in low-income crisis or fragile contexts.
- ### Interventions for specific groups
- Women and children: policies can address gendered risks. Entry
points include quotas, the organisation of worksites (especially
childcare) and wage modalities. Targeting should disaggregate
households by individual.
- Other groups: solutions are identified for youth (e.g. skills
training), persons with disabilities (e.g. social assistance and
empowerment), and pastoralists (e.g. accounting for mobility).
A case study on Ethiopia offers lessons on: interventions for specific
groups (with regard to gender, HIV/AIDS, pastoralists); participation
and selection (the politics of inclusion, the selection of participants,
participation, graduation); and M&E.
Citation
Combaz, E. Social inclusion in productive safety net programmes (GSDRC Helpdesk Research Report 1005). Governance and Social Development Resource Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK (2013) 13 pp.
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