The state of social safety nets 2015

Over the last decade, a policy revolution has been under way in the developing and emerging world. Country after country are systematically providing noncontributory transfers to poor and vulnerable people, in order to protect them against economic shocks and to enable them to invest in themselves and their children. Social safety nets or social transfers, as these are called, have spread rapidly from their early prominence in the middle-income countries of Latin America and Europe increasingly to nations in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East-and today, more than 130 developing countries have made investments in social safety nets an important pillar of economic development policies. The State of Social Nets 2015 documents the state of the social safety net agenda in low- and middle-income countries. It compiles, analyses, and disseminates data and developments at the forefront of the social safety net agenda drawing heavily from the survey and administrative data in the World Bank’s Atlas of Social Protection: Indicators of Resilience and Equity (ASPIRE), a comprehensive international database.