Art Appraisal Blog

Category - Regions

10/17/2022
COVID-19

The Role of Digital in the COVID-19 Social Assistance Response

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in vast numbers of people in need of social assistance, many of whom were not previously covered by social safety nets. To meet this unprecedented level of need, governments quickly scaled social assistance reaching over 1.7 billion people in low- and middle income countries. Scaling up social assistance presented two separate but related challenges: first, adapting targeting and registration to reach individuals not commonly included in...

Views 936
Read more
10/12/2022
Country Studies

Digitalization and Social Protection: Macro and Micro Lessons for Vietnam

The COVID-19 shock has underscored the importance of digital tools for enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of social protection systems. Cross-country evidence suggests that digital IDs linked with bank and/or mobile money accounts can improve the delivery of social protection programs and better reach eligible beneficiaries. Using data from the Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey, we present micro simulations on the welfare gains of digital social protection during the pandemic....

Views 1519
Read more
08/15/2022
Digital Payment Ecosystems

Africa’s Journey Towards an Integrated Digital Payments Landscape and How the EU Can Support It

This policy brief outlines why cross-border interoperability of payment platforms across Africa is important, where the opportunities and challenges lie, and how international partners such as the EU can support African efforts. It traces some of the solutions that are being applied both at the continental and at the regional levels, explores some of the lessons to be learned from these different cases, and proposes initial policy recommendations for the...

Views 1242
Read more
07/19/2022
Country Studies

Using Social Protection to Respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia

This case study synthesizes the social protection response to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia in 2020. It is part of six country case studies developed as part of the Social Protection Approaches to COVID-19 Expert Advice Helpline’s (SPACE) learning and documentation approach. By capturing country-level social protection responses to COVID-19, the case studies aim to inform the global audiences as to what has happened, what has...

Views 1075
Read more
05/27/2022
COVID-19

Social protection response to COVID-19 in rural LAC: The potential of digitalisation to build back better

This policy research brief analyses how digitalisation can facilitate rural populations’ access to effective and adequate social protection and economic inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean. It investigates the region’s social protection response to COVID-19 and highlights three good practices in providing digitalised social protection to vulnerable rural populations during the crisis. Based on this analysis and considering the local obstacles to digitalised social protection in rural areas, recommendations...

Views 647
Read more
03/29/2022
Digital Payment Ecosystems

South Asia’s Digital Opportunity: Accelerating Growth, Transforming Lives

The report presents both the opportunities of and the bottlenecks for furthering the digitization of South Asia’s economies. It emphasizes the importance of integrating digital ID, payments, and data sharing systems into “digital stacks,” as well as fostering digital businesses and skills. Within this broader framework, the report discusses the experiences of regional governments with digital g2p payments.

Views 2133
Read more
03/4/2022
Country Studies

Social Protection in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons from South Africa

This paper reviews South Africa’s social protection policies and their implementation during the COVID-19 crisis. Overall, the government reached over 30 million South Africans with cash-based relief measures. A distinctive feature of cash-based emergency relief was the use of digital technologies, especially in the application and verification process for the new SRD grant. The payment system, however, relied heavily on manual cash disbursements, thus failing to reflect the adoption of...

Views 585
Read more
03/4/2022
COVID-19

Social Protection Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Pacific: A Tipping Point for the Sector?

This paper produced by SPACE examines the social protection response to COVID-19 in the Pacific region, where such systems are emergent. It assesses how individual countries responded to the pandemic, and draws operational lessons. The Authors pay particular attention to Fiji’s experience, where the use of mobile money was prominent.

Views 639
Read more
01/27/2022
COVID-19

Adaptive But Not By Design: Cash Transfers in Latin America and the Caribbean Before, During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 crisis revealed that income support systems in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region were both fundamental and insufficient. This paper by the Inter-American Development Bank presents novel estimates of the coverage and beneficiary distribution of all non-contributory cash transfers both before and during the COVID-19 crisis. It also discusses the tools and methods used by individual countries in their response, placing digital G2P initiatives within a larger...

Views 546
Read more
01/21/2022
Beneficiary Identification, Targeting, Onboarding

Digitalization of Social Protection Systems Policy in Indonesia as a Step Towards Society 5.0

This paper discusses efforts to digitize Indonesia’s social protection systems in the context of Japan’s Society 5.0 initiative. It summarizes the trajectory of database development and use in Indonesia, as well as the country’s 2017 mandate that all government benefits be distributed in a cashless manner.

Views 830
Read more