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,...

This paper reports on a rapid assessment of Malawi’s integrated social registry, known as the Unified Beneficiary Registry (UBR). The timing of the assessment was ripe given the upcoming round of continued expansion of the UBR and a planned shift in registration targets (from 50 percent to 100...

The Government of India has recently announced a dramatic expansion of social pension schemes both in terms of coverage and benefit levels. Yet relatively little is known about how these programs are administered or how well they achieve their objectives. This paper assesses the performance of a...

Myanmar has an important opportunity to improve the health status and education outcomes of its people after decades of underspending and institutional neglect in the social sectors. Low access to health, education and social protection services has severely worsened human development outcomes,...

Several government and development partner programs employ different approaches to ensure the inclusion of poor and vulnerable areas and people in Myanmar’s development. Buildingon this experience, this note aims to identify feasible options to effectively reach these groups, as government...

Many countries develop systems to identify the poor and vulnerable in order to direct program resources to these areas and groups, often to ensure their inclusion in social service provision orcommunity development. Determining eligibility typically depends on the overall program objectives,...

Myanmar has a mix of contributory and non-contributory programs providing some elements of social security but for a very small section of the population. The government is considering reformsto its pension and other social security schemes. Strengthening systems and ensuring fiscal...

Myanmar is a country in transition with great regional diversity. It is still a relatively young country with the highest share of its population at active working age. Myanmar’s more pressing needs are the following: a) reducing the incidence of poverty and improving human development...

This paper examines the link between trade protection and industry wage premia in India using a unique dataset combining employment survey data with industry-level data for various years between 1983 and 2000. The author finds that India's trade reforms were not distributionally neutral. The...