SAFETY NETS

Better understanding of how these informal support mechanisms function can provide important policy implications for who may need additional support from formal social protection programs.

Ethiopia offers an encouraging case for designing more effective policies and interventions to combat food and nutrition insecurity during COVID-19 pandemic.

India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is one of the largest public works programs globally. The new study analyses impact of NREGS on key welfare measures of its beneficiaries - consumption expenditure, nutritional intake, and asset accumulation.

An IFPRI analysis of the Bangladesh's Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) program, which provides assistance to poor women in rural areas, revealed flaws in the standards used to target recipients and recommended new criteria, which the government will begin using in 2019.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is widespread globally, with estimates showing that nearly 1 in 3 adult women worldwide have experienced some form of IPV. South Asia has among the highest regional rates in the world, with 41 percent prevalence of IPV. In Bangladesh, one survey found that 72.6 percent of married women reported experiencing violence at the hands of their husbands, and another showed that 74 percent of men reported inflicting violence on their wives.

PIM’s research on social protection, led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in partnership with governments and development agencies, has supported increased investment in social protection programs, reaching roughly 8 million beneficiaries in Ethiopia, more than one million beneficiaries in Bangladesh, and more than one million in Tanzania. The new PIM Outcome Note summarizes these achievements. 

Millions of smallholder farmers around the world lack access to affordable insurance - their farms are often too small and too remote for insurers to economically verify damage. In collaboration with the private sector and the development community, researchers have been looking for alternative types of insurance that do not require insurance companies to verify damage on a case-by-case basis.