Lack of Social Safety Nets to World’s Ppoorest says World Bank

About 55 percent of the world’s poor or 773 million people with acute needs still lack safety net coverage, even though growing number of developing countries are investing in social safety nets to improve the lives of billions of poor and vulnerable people, the World Bank has said.

 

These people reside, especially in lower-income countries and in urban areas, and countries must take action to close this coverage gap, the bank said in its latest report released Monday.

Nigeria rates among countries with very low human development indicators, and unfortunately lacks a comprehensive social safety net programme that holistically addresses the challenges except for pockets of such projects run by different development partners, federal and state governments, but usually in an uncoordinated manner.

Yet, past and present governments had made bogus promises of programmes to take care of huge poor population.

President Muhammadu Buhari and its All Progressives Alliance (APC) government, for instance, promised to pay N5,000 hand-out to Nigeria’s poorest if voted into power, but there are no signals yet to the commencement.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was quoted recently to have given assurances that the government was still working out the best ways to implement the programme, but such promise appears vague at least in the short term.

Nigeria, yet do not have comprehensive data and proper identification tools to know who is eligible for such. Another major challenge is the present tight income of government.

The World Bank indicates in its State of Social Safety Nets 2015, that over 1.9 billion people in 136 low- and middle-income countries are now on beneficiary rolls of social safety net progammes.

In Africa alone, the number of countries setting up social safety net programmes has doubled over the past three years, as evidenced by rigorous evaluations that prove these programmes work.

But three quarters of the poorest people in low- and lower-middle income countries, and more than one- third of the poorest people in middle-income countries, lack safety net coverage and remain at risk.

The report follows the recent joint statement by the heads of the World Bank Group and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), endorsing the goal of universal access to social protection including safety nets by 2030.

The Third Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa next week is an opportunity to ensure that the international community has the means to make this vision a reality.

“The World Bank Group and the ILO share a vision of social protection for all, a world where anyone who needs social protection can access it at any time,” said Jim Yong Kim, World Bank Group president, and Guy Ryder, executive director, ILO, in their joint statement.

“The new development agenda that is being defined by the world community the sustainable development goals (SDGs) provides an unparalleled opportunity for our two institutions to join forces to make universal social protection a reality, for everyone, everywhere,” they said.