Art Appraisal Blog

The COVID-19 shock has underscored the importance of digital tools for enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of social protection systems. Cross-country evidence suggests that digital IDs linked with bank and/or mobile money accounts can improve the delivery of social protection programs and better reach eligible beneficiaries. Using data from the Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey, we present micro simulations on the welfare gains of digital social protection during the pandemic....

This case study synthesizes the social protection response to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia in 2020. It is part of six country case studies developed as part of the Social Protection Approaches to COVID-19 Expert Advice Helpline’s (SPACE) learning and documentation approach. By capturing country-level social protection responses to COVID-19, the case studies aim to inform the global audiences as to what has happened, what has...

This paper produced by SPACE examines the social protection response to COVID-19 in the Pacific region, where such systems are emergent. It assesses how individual countries responded to the pandemic, and draws operational lessons. The Authors pay particular attention to Fiji’s experience, where the use of mobile money was prominent.

This paper discusses efforts to digitize Indonesia’s social protection systems in the context of Japan’s Society 5.0 initiative. It summarizes the trajectory of database development and use in Indonesia, as well as the country’s 2017 mandate that all government benefits be distributed in a cashless manner.

The use of cash as a modality for delivering humanitarian and social protection assistance in Lao PDR is nascent. Up until recently, cash in hand has been the only feasible way to deliver transfers to targeted recipients. This scoping exercise highlights how mobile money could redress some of the drawbacks linked to cash in hand for both cash actors and beneficiaries. These include: access constraints, lack of traceability, and the...

This report summarizes a 2021 workshop hosted by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Asian Development Bank on the experience of Asian and Pacific countries in using digitized social protection in response to COVID-19. It includes discussions of mass digital registration, interoperable data systems, and the use of earth observation data in early warning. The report concludes by emphasizing the potential for enhancing the value...

The Philippines’ Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is a conditional cash transfer program that aims to provide short-term poverty alleviation for poor households. As the program grew quickly and in volume and geography, so did the challenges faced in getting payments quickly and efficiently to recipients. This case study examines the design and implementation of the 4Ps program, explains the experiences of stakeholders and presents lessons learned.

Digital payments offer a fast and transparent way to distribute cash aid to households that have been economically hard hit by the pandemic. In the Philippines, researchers conducted a survey to learn about the experience of recipients of the Social Amelioration Program (SAP), an emergency cash transfer program implemented by the government. Results revealed that recipients were highly satisfied with their withdrawal experience of digital cash transfers, however, account awareness...

COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on women must be urgently addressed through the provision of digital financial literacy and access.

During the pandemic, Duong Thi Thuy, a mobile money agent in the Quang Ninh province, improvised her business to help her community follow the guidelines on social distancing and government norms. This is her story about the adoption of DFS and how it changed her life.