Like many low-income countries, Timor-Leste faces challenges in providing employment for and increasing the skills of its labor force-challenges made more acute by high fertility rates, a very young population, and the capacity constraints of a new nation. However, there is limited information...

Many public policies are impossible to implement without adequate administrative systems in place. This is true for modern pension schemes and in particular, notional defined contribution (NDC) schemes. Today these systems must be digital yet most pension systems predate computerization and must...

In recognition of the growing inequality of opportunity for ethnic minorities, the Government of Vietnam has expanded the social assistance system to explicitly cover ethnic minorities. However, ethnic minorities, particularly women, often face barriers of access to these programs. This paper...

This note is one of two designed to serve as a resource for policy makers and practitioners aiming to introduce or scale up economic inclusion programs in urban and peri-urban areas. The first note explores the potential of economic inclusion programs to promote the social and economic inclusion...

A rapidly urbanizing world presents enormous economic opportunities for the poor and vulnerable but also presents significant barriers to their economic inclusion. About two thirds of the world's population is expected to live in urban centers by 2050, with nearly 90 percent of this increase in...

This paper analyzes global evidence on the impact and costs of economic inclusion programs to transform the economic lives of households and communities living in extreme poverty. The analysis uses 107 quantitative and qualitative impact evaluations from 80 economic inclusion programs....

The State of Economic Inclusion Report 2021 sheds light on one of the most intractable challenges faced by development policy makers and practitioners: transforming the economic lives of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people. Economic inclusion programs are a bundle of coordinated,...