2025-04-20-世界银行-叫醒社会援助_一项未完成的扶贫任务_2025年社会保护状况报告背景文件_3（英）_78页_3mb

Analysis Summary: World Bank Discussion Paper on Social Assistance

Background

• Social assistance, a key component of social protection, has shown considerable progress in expanding coverage over the past decade, but significant gaps remain.
• The mission to reach the poor and broader populations is unfinished, particularly in low-income countries and fragile, conflict, and violence-affected settings.

Coverage

• Globally, social assistance coverage rose 9 percentage points to 42% of the population from 2006–2014 to 2015–2022.
• Despite progress, coverage is low in low-income countries and FCV settings, where needs are greatest, with social assistance benefiting fewer than half of the poorest quintile.
• Cash transfers are more progressive and female-preferring, with rural areas showing higher likelihood of receiving assistance.

Spending

• Global social assistance expenditure has plateaued at approximately 1.5% of GDP since 2010.
• Spending is countercyclical, increasing during crises (e.g., COVID-19) and scaling back afterward.
• Cash-based interventions dominate spending, with domestic resources being the primary financer, except in LICs and FCV settings where external grants play a large role.

Adequacy

• Benefit adequacy is low on average, at about 11% of beneficiaries' welfare, with higher levels in social pensions (17%) and lower in other instruments like fee waivers.
• Program adequacy varies widely, with some programs providing up to 93% of beneficiaries' welfare in certain countries.
• Remote regions and lower-income instruments show the lowest adequacy, limiting poverty-reduction impacts.

Impact on Poverty

• Social assistance transfers reduce extreme poverty by 37% and relative poverty by 11%, though impacts are limited in LICs due to scale and adequacy.
• Poverty reduction is greater in rural areas compared to urban areas, reflecting higher coverage and adequacy.
• Efficiency and targeting errors limit effectiveness, with many programs not lifting all beneficiaries out of poverty.

Conclusions and Recommendations

• Accelerate Coverage: Expand reach through efficient delivery systems, digitization, and better targeting, aiming to reach more of the poorest.
• Improve Benefit Adequacy: Incorporate regular adjustment mechanisms for benefits to maintain purchasing power amid inflation; enhance referrals to complementary services.
• Strengthen Financing: Leverage domestic resources, promote regressive subsidy reforms, and explore innovative funding avenues to increase sustainable investment.
• Build Adaptive Systems: Focus on scalability and integration with other social protection pillars to ensure resilience in normal and crisis periods.

This summary highlights that while social assistance is effective, urgent investment and policy reforms are needed to address gaps and enhance impact globally.