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Asia and Pacific > India

You are looking at 1 - 3 of 3 items for :

  • Type: Journal Issue x
  • Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health x
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Cover IMF Notes
Expanding and Improving Social Safety Nets Through Digitalization: Conceptual Framework and Review of Country Experiences
Nicolo Bird
and
Emine Hanedar
Social safety nets (SSNs) are focal policies that support poor and vulnerable households, most prominently through cash transfers. However, strong discrepancies persist across countries in terms of spending, coverage, and targeting of SSNs, with larger gaps often found in low-income countries. Digital technologies can prove vital in supporting a rapid expansion of SSNs around the world. Governments need to do three things for this: identify, verify, and pay. This note explains how countries can make considerable improvements across these three dimensions despite differences in capacity levels. It examines six case studies of countries―Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Pakistan, Togo, and Türkiye―that used and adapted digital technologies in different ways due, in large part, to variations in digital SSN infrastructures in place before the onset of COVID-19. These case studies illustrate how (1) innovative digital technologies can help overcome lack of government capacity to implement SSNs, even in countries with a lack of digital infrastructure or capacity, and (2) countries with stronger digital infrastructure or investments in SSNs before COVID-19 were able to complement existing policies to reach more people and to provide stronger responses than countries without preexisting SSN frameworks.
Keywords:
social safety nets; digitalization; COVID-19; fiscal sustainability
Cover IMF Working Papers
Education and Health for Inclusiveness
Mr. Nikola Spatafora
We discuss existing shortfalls and inequalities in the accumulation of human capital—knowledge, skills, and health. We analyze their immediate and systemic causes, and assess the scope for public intervention. The broad policy goals should be to improve: the quality, and not just the quantity, of education and health care; outcomes for disadvantaged groups; and lifelong outcomes. The means to achieve these goals, while maximizing value for money, include: focusing on results rather than just inputs; moving from piecemeal interventions to systemic reform; and adopting a “whole-of-society” approach. Reforms must be underpinned by a robust evidence base.
Keywords:
Inclusive Growth.; WP; primary care; transfer program; basic education; health outcome; complement teacher training; computer-assisted learning; good health; secondary education; Education; Health; Inclusive Growth; Human capital; Health care; Labor force; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Global Risks and Collective Action Failures: What Can the International Community Do?
Ms. Inci Ötker
Abstract What do climate change, global financial crises, pandemics, and fragility and conflict have in common? They are all examples of global risks that can cross geographical and generational boundaries and whose mismanagement can reverse gains in development and jeopardize the well-being of generations. Managing risks such as these becomes a global public good, whose benefits also cross boundaries, providing a rationale for collective action facilitated by the international community. Yet, as many public goods, provision of global public goods suffer from collective action failures that undermine international coordination. This paper discusses the obstacles to addresing these global risks effectively, highlighting their implications for the current juncture. It claims that remaining gaps in information, resources, and capacity hamper accumulation and use of knowledge to triger appropriate action, but diverging national interests remain the key impediment to cooperation and effectiveness of global efforts, even when knowledge on the risks and their consequences are well understood. The paper argues that managing global risks requires a cohesive international community that enables its stakeholders to work collectively around common goals by facilitating sharing of knowledge, devoting resources to capacity building, and protecting the vulnerable. When some countries fail to cooperate, the international community can still forge cooperation, including by realigning incentives and demonstrating benefit from incremental steps toward full cooperation.
Keywords:
WP; country; risk; international community; authority; financial crisis; Global risks; Collective action; Climate change; Crises; Pandemics; Globalization; assists country; climate change risk; risk-management capacity; risk awareness; contagion risk; mismanaged risk; public goods; pool resource; low income; health risk; poverty risk; International cooperation; Communicable diseases; Global financial crisis of 2008-2009; Global