Social Assistance Programs and Household Welfare in Eswatini

Eswatini has notably high levels of poverty and inequality. Recurrent, negative shocks are an important contributing factor. This study assesses the performance of the largest social assistance programs in Eswatini, based on 2016/17 national househ...

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Main Authors:	Raju, Dhushyanth, Younger, Stephen D.
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:	SOCIAL ASSISTANCE COVERAGE INCIDENCE EFFECTIVENESS SAFETY NETS SHOCKS MICROSIMULATION
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/102961622793058313/Social-Assistance-Programs-and-Household-Welfare-in-Eswatini http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35747

id	okr-10986-35747
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-357472022-01-25T15:11:40Z Social Assistance Programs and Household Welfare in Eswatini Raju, Dhushyanth Younger, Stephen D. SOCIAL ASSISTANCE COVERAGE INCIDENCE EFFECTIVENESS SAFETY NETS SHOCKS MICROSIMULATION Eswatini has notably high levels of poverty and inequality. Recurrent, negative shocks are an important contributing factor. This study assesses the performance of the largest social assistance programs in Eswatini, based on 2016/17 national household survey data. It examines the coverage rates of these programs, and their incidence and effectiveness in reducing poverty and inequality. The study also examines the association between program participation and negative shocks reported by households, in particular, drought and food price shocks associated with the 2015-2016 El Niño event. Across programs, benefits are concentrated among poor households. However, the performance of programs in reducing poverty and inequality tends to be limited because of low intended or actual benefit levels and shortfalls in intended or actual coverage of the poor. Households that receive program benefits are more likely to report a drought shock. Except in the case of emergency food aid, which is provided ex post, we interpret this pattern to indicate that programs tend to provide ex-ante coverage to those vulnerable to this shock. At a minimum, enhancing the performance of programs in addressing poverty, inequality, and the adverse effects of shocks would require that actual benefit levels equal intended levels (for example, by procuring sufficient food commodities to meet the needs of the school feeding program) and that intended benefit levels are fully aligned with program aims (for example, by providing grant amounts to schools that are large enough to allow for tuition-free government secondary education for orphaned and vulnerable children). Absent greater budgetary allocations to programs, addressing these benefit-related disconnects may require improving the targeting of select program benefits to poorer households such as by using a proxy means test. We simulate the effects of programs on poverty and inequality reduction from such hypothetical reforms. 2021-06-14T15:43:15Z 2021-06-14T15:43:15Z 2021-06 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/102961622793058313/Social-Assistance-Programs-and-Household-Welfare-in-Eswatini http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35747 English Social Protection and Jobs Discussion Paper;No. 2106 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Working Paper Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) Eswatini
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	SOCIAL ASSISTANCE COVERAGE INCIDENCE EFFECTIVENESS SAFETY NETS SHOCKS MICROSIMULATION
spellingShingle	SOCIAL ASSISTANCE COVERAGE INCIDENCE EFFECTIVENESS SAFETY NETS SHOCKS MICROSIMULATION Raju, Dhushyanth Younger, Stephen D. Social Assistance Programs and Household Welfare in Eswatini
geographic_facet	Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) Eswatini
relation	Social Protection and Jobs Discussion Paper;No. 2106
description	Eswatini has notably high levels of poverty and inequality. Recurrent, negative shocks are an important contributing factor. This study assesses the performance of the largest social assistance programs in Eswatini, based on 2016/17 national household survey data. It examines the coverage rates of these programs, and their incidence and effectiveness in reducing poverty and inequality. The study also examines the association between program participation and negative shocks reported by households, in particular, drought and food price shocks associated with the 2015-2016 El Niño event. Across programs, benefits are concentrated among poor households. However, the performance of programs in reducing poverty and inequality tends to be limited because of low intended or actual benefit levels and shortfalls in intended or actual coverage of the poor. Households that receive program benefits are more likely to report a drought shock. Except in the case of emergency food aid, which is provided ex post, we interpret this pattern to indicate that programs tend to provide ex-ante coverage to those vulnerable to this shock. At a minimum, enhancing the performance of programs in addressing poverty, inequality, and the adverse effects of shocks would require that actual benefit levels equal intended levels (for example, by procuring sufficient food commodities to meet the needs of the school feeding program) and that intended benefit levels are fully aligned with program aims (for example, by providing grant amounts to schools that are large enough to allow for tuition-free government secondary education for orphaned and vulnerable children). Absent greater budgetary allocations to programs, addressing these benefit-related disconnects may require improving the targeting of select program benefits to poorer households such as by using a proxy means test. We simulate the effects of programs on poverty and inequality reduction from such hypothetical reforms.
format	Working Paper
author	Raju, Dhushyanth Younger, Stephen D.
author_facet	Raju, Dhushyanth Younger, Stephen D.
author_sort	Raju, Dhushyanth
title	Social Assistance Programs and Household Welfare in Eswatini
title_short	Social Assistance Programs and Household Welfare in Eswatini
title_full	Social Assistance Programs and Household Welfare in Eswatini
title_fullStr	Social Assistance Programs and Household Welfare in Eswatini
title_full_unstemmed	Social Assistance Programs and Household Welfare in Eswatini
title_sort	social assistance programs and household welfare in eswatini
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2021
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/102961622793058313/Social-Assistance-Programs-and-Household-Welfare-in-Eswatini http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35747
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Social Assistance Programs and Household Welfare in Eswatini

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