Assessing the Impact and Cost of Economic Inclusion Programs : A Synthesis of Evidence
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 evaluation...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/471531612369491284/Assessing-the-Impact-and-Cost-of-Economic-Inclusion-Programs-A-Synthesis-of-Evidence http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35109 |
| Summary: | 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. Additionally, the paper
presents analysis of costing data from 34 programs, surveyed
using a newly developed PEI Quick Costing Tool 2020. The
programs represent a range of sectors, geographies,
contexts, and target populations; were both nongovernmental
organization- and government-led; and represent programs
implemented through social safety nets, livelihoods and
jobs, and financial inclusion. Despite the challenges of the
small number of studies available and limited comparability
of impact and cost data, the findings indicate that a broad
range of economic inclusion programs show promising and
potentially sustained impact on a wide range of outcomes,
with a bundled set of interventions showing larger impact on
income, assets, and savings relative to stand-alone
interventions. In many cases, the overall cost of economic
inclusion programs is largely driven by a single component
-- most frequently, business capital or consumption support.
In its discussion, the paper explores drivers of impact and
cost optimization strategies, preparing a preliminary
understanding of cost-effectiveness of economic inclusion
programs. The paper also identifies key areas for further
research, including the need to shift the discussion on
program impact from stand-alone, nonprofit-led programs to
government-led programs; the opportunity to use a more
systematic evidence base with comparable impact and cost
outcomes and indicators; and prospects for using data,
including disaggregated cost data, to inform policy and
programming decisions more intentionally. |
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