Support to social protection knowledge production and policy analysis for UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia (ROSA)
Description
This project aimed to produce knowledge, providing a comprehensive comparative overview of social protection systems in South Asia. Also, specifically for Afghanistan, the project provides technical assistance on a social protection policy and, specifically for Sri Lanka, on public expenditure fiscal space. Outputs include a series of comparative studies, one-pagers and technical assistance to all countries during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Partners
Region/Countries
South Asia
Afghanistan , Bangladesh , Bhutan , India , Maldives , Nepal , Pakistan , Sri LankaMain Pillar
Knowledge Production
Thematic Area
Social Protection
Sustainable Development Goals
Project Results
1. Development of knowledge products
a) Social spending in South Asia: An overview of government expenditure on health, education and social assistance.
- Research Report: Social spending in South Asia—an overview of government expenditure on health, education and social assistance, and accompanying One Pager
- Webinar on “Social expenditure, legislative frameworks and findings of impact evaluations of social protection in South Asia”
b) Overview of non-contributory social protection programmes in South Asia from a child and equity lens.
- Research Report : Overview of non-contributory social protection programmes in South Asia from a child and equity perspective, and two accompanying One Pagers (one focused on general features and other on child-sensitiveness)
- Webinar on “Non-contributory social protection in South Asia: An overview from a child, equity and gender perspective”.
c) Gender and social protection in South Asia: An assessment of the design of non-contributory programmes.
- Research Report: Gender and social protection in South Asia: an assessment of the design of non-contributory programmes, and accompanying One Pager.
- Webinar on “Non-contributory social protection in South Asia: An overview from a child, equity and gender perspective”.
d) Social protection legislative frameworks in South Asia from a child-rights perspective.
- Research Report: Social protection legislative frameworks in South Asia from a children's rights perspective, and accompanying One Pager.
- Webinar on “Social expenditure, legislative frameworks and findings of impact evaluations of social protection in South Asia”
e) Social assistance programmes in South Asia: an analysis of socio-economic impacts
- Research Report: Social assistance programmes in South Asia: an analysis of socio-economic impacts, and accompanying One Pager
- Webinar on “Social expenditure, legislative frameworks and findings of impact evaluations of social protection in South Asia”
f) Series of 8 One-pagers on country specific findings for each South-Asia country, considering legal and fiscal frameworks, overview, child and gender sensitive features of flagship programmes, and findings of impact evaluations and webinars.
- Afghanistan
- Bangladesh
- Bhutan
- India
- Maldives
- Nepal
- Pakistan
- Sri Lanka
- Webinar on “Profiles of the social protection systems of Nepal, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan prior to COVID-19 and snapshots of their responses to the pandemic”
- Webinar on “Profiles of pre-COVID-19 social protection system of India and Pakistan and a snapshot of their COVID-19 responses”
- Webinar on “Profiles of pre-COVID-19 social protection systems in Bhutan, Bangladesh and Maldives and a snapshot of their COVID-19 responses”
g) Socio-economic impacts of COVID-19, policy responses and the missing middle in South Asia.
- Research Report: Socio-economic impacts of COVID-19, policy responses and the missing middle in South Asia.
- Webinar on “Strengthening social contracts in South Asia in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis: the adequacy of social protection responses in the short term and the future role of universal social protection”
h) Series of 8 One Pagers on country specific summaries of social protection responses to the COVID-19 crisis.
2. Provision of technical assistance to all countries of the region in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis
- Draft proposal for a COVID-19 recovery cash transfer for Afghanistan and for India.
- Draft proposal for a COVID-19 mitigation/ emergency cash transfer for Maldives.
- Draft proposal for short-term monitoring system to keep track of welfare and livelihood losses during the COVID-19 pandemics in Maldives.
- Advocacy piece for UNICEF Nepal on the role and importance of child-sensitive cash transfer to tackle COVID-19.
- Adequacy and fiscal cost-benefit analysis of Pakistan’s core social protection responses to COVID-19 deployed.
- A policy brief on child-sensitive cash transfers in Bhutan.
- Outreach and communication support to UNICEF's Universal Child Grant agenda (blogpost and Newsletter)
- Working paper – Pakistan´s social protection response to the COVID-19 pandemic: the adequacy of Ehsaas emergency cash and the road ahead, and accompanying One Pager
- Support to the organization of a virtual booth on technical assistance provided by UNCIEF ROSA and the IPC-IG to UNCIEF country offices of South Asia, as part of the e-conference “Turning the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity: what is next for social protection?”
3. Provision of technical assistance to Afghanistan by facilitating a policy dialogue process to result in a new social protection policy, including studies to inform evidence-based decisions.
- Research Report: Afghanistan: Needs assessment and accompanying One Pager
- Research Report: Overview of Zakat practices around the world and accompanying One Pager
- Elaborating a mapping of the social protection system and its key programmes (not published)
- Elaborating training materials to inform a new Social Protection Policy (not published)
4. Provision of technical assistance to Sri Lanka by elaborating fiscal and reprogramming analyses to enhance the efficiency of existing programmes and identify funding possibilities to prepare for a roll out of a new Universal Child Benefit (UCB) proposed by UNICEF.
- Research Report: Public expenditure analysis for social protection in Sri Lanka and accompanying One Pager
- Policy Research Brief: Social protection responses to Covid-19 in Sri Lanka