Toolkits

Determining how well a safety net functions is a common, but somewhat complex task.  We offer three resources below to assist.

1. The Social Protection Chapter of the Public Expenditure Review Toolkit contains three elements:

• A checklist of issues that might be included in analysis;
• Notes with elaboration or references to standards, methodological guidance or international comparators; and
• Examples of the treatment of each specific issue drawn from a large body of analytic work done within the World Bank.

The chapter covers social protection as a whole, but all of the issues mentioned are applicable to the subset of social protection comprised by safety net programs, and many of the examples and comparators provided are for safety nets.  The guidance is divided into two parts: consideration of the system of complementary programs and analysis of how well each individual program functions.

2. A Toolkit for Calculating Indicators of Coverage, Generosity and Incidence of Programs

ADePT SP is part of the suite of software toolkits freely available from the World Bank’s research department that produce rapid diagnostics of poverty, labor market, gender, and social protection based on STATA/SPSS routines.  The module creates about 15 standardized benefit incidence publication-ready tables and graphs based on household survey data.

3. Reference to analysis for other than the target country can provide helpful ideas and comparators.  Extensive references, with links to the source documents, are available in:

"Spending on Social Safety Nets: Comparative Data Compiled from World Bank Analytic Work" (1.3mb excel)  provides comparative figures on expenditures for safety nets and social protection.  The information is provided in a manipulable spreadsheet to assist in new comparative analyses.

"Safety Nets in World Bank Lending and Analytic Work: FY2002-2007" (1.1mb pdf) provides a comprehensive list of all such work.