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COVID-19 G2P Cash Transfer Payments: Philippines Case Study

The Philippines' Social Amelioration Program started in March of 2020 sought to provide cash assistance to 18 million households. The first tranche of payments experienced significant delivery challenges, leading to changes in the second tranche. This case study aims to document lessons learned from the second tranche.

Digital Cash Transfers for Stranded Migrants: Lessons from Bihar’s COVID-19 Assistance Program

Coping with COVID-19 in Uganda

Social Cash Transfer Payment Systems in sub-Saharan Africa

The Future of G2P Payments: Expanding Customer Choice in Zambia

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Digitalization and Social Protection: Macro and Micro Lessons for Vietnam

  • Amr Hosny and Alexandre Sollaci

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....

Using Social Protection to Respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia

  • Madhumitha Hebbar, Sinta Satriana, Jonathan Ammoun

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...

Can Digital G2P Transfers Drive Financial Inclusion and Digital Payments? Evidence from India

  • Alan Gelb, Anit Mukherjee, Brian Webster

Does channeling government-to-person (G2P) payments through bank accounts encourage financial inclusion and use? This paper explores the factors that have driven the adoption of digital payments in India by beneficiaries of PMGKY, the large-scale COVID-19 relief program launched in May 2020. India’s 2013 move to pay social benefits through direct transfers into bank accounts significantly increased account ownership, but uptake of digital payments has been slower, although it has accelerated...

COVID-19 and Social Assistance in the Philippines: Lessons for Future Resilience

  • Yoonyoung Cho and Doug Johnson

This note describes the phases of the COVID-19 SP response in the Philippines and assesses the performance with a focus on social assistance. It provides estimates of the coverage, adequacy, targeting accuracy, timeliness, and payment delivery of COVID-19 social assistance in the Philippines based on several household surveys and studies. The note pays special attention to the Philippines’ flagship social protection program, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), and the...

Beyond India’s Lockdown: PMGKY Benefits During the COVID-19 Crisis and the State of Digital Payments

  • Alan Gelb, Anurodh Giri, Anit Mukherjee, Ritesh Rautela, Mitul Thapliyal, and Brian Webster

India imposed a lock-down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 and began a gradual re-opening in June. A telephonic survey in April examined the early effectiveness of information and the massive PMGKY social protection program (Policy Paper 217). This paper analyzes a second-round survey, conducted six months later. Logistical and information constraints had relaxed, and incomes and jobs had begun to stabilize for some. There were not...

National Digital Payments Roadmap – Bangladesh 2022-2025

  • Keyzom Ngodup Massally, Nabila Khurshed, Camilo Tellez-Merchan, Azizur Rahman, Vikas Singh, Anir Chowdhury, Dewan Md. Humayun Kabir

Investment in the digital infrastructure of the country has been a priority for the Government of Bangladesh in the past decade, ever since the vision for Digital Bangladesh was launched. Digital payments are critical to the government’s vision and ensuring these are scaled responsibly is now critical. The National Digital Payments Roadmap (‘the Roadmap’) provides a high-level plan to expand the adoption of responsible digital payments in a way that...

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