Prefunding of pension commitments in OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development) economies is increasingly seen as a central strategy to cope with the aging of their populations. This paper argues that investments in emerging markets can help at the margin but are unable to solve...

This report provides an overview of the provision of social protection to refugees and asylum seekers from Sub-Saharan Africa in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). This includes analyzing the legal framework and levels of implementation, as well as proposing policy directions on...

This paper reviews the role of safety nets in transition economies within the context of a social risk management framework. The report discusses the objectives of safety nets, the legacyof pre-transition programs, developments during the transition period, strategic choices facing countries,...

The case studies were developed in order to help Bank task team leaders, and their client country counterparts, design and support effective microfinance components, within social funds. The case studies aim to highlight best practice, as well as challenges for designing, and implementing a...

This paper is about the evolution of an innovative in-service training program and its effects in Korea. In many developing countries, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play important roles in outputs, exports, and employment. Therefore, governments have used various policy instruments to...

In 1995, Save the Children/US-Malawi introduced a small pilot project called COPE-Community-based Options for Protection and Empowerment, to provide direct services to prevent, and mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on children, families, and communities in one district. Over the past six years,...

The objective of this policy note is to assist the Chinese government in assessing implementation of the unemployment insurance (UI) program to date, identifying key challenges, and exploring possible policy responses. The note begins with a background section on recent developments in the...

In this paper the authors present, and confront two approaches to modeling child labor. The first assume that parents are altruistic towards their offspring, while the second sees children as an asset to parents, especially in terms of old age security. The paper also extends the analysis to...

Arguably, the most important public policy initiative underway today in the Dominican Republic is the reform of its social security programs. The reform is taking place in the context of an economic crisis that will make a complex implementation process even more difficult in the first few...

This case study is part of six country case study reports that were commissioned in 2003 by the World Bank specifically for the purposes of a summary report on the design and implementation of household targeting systems in the following countries: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil and...