Shielding the Poor: Social Protection in the Developing World Book

The poor in developing countries are particularly vulnerable to adverse shocks. They have little or no access to public social insurance, are unlikely to save in adequate amounts to rely fully on self-insurance or informal insurance, face restricted access to private market insurance or credit mechanisms, and have little or no political voice to demand the protection of safety net programs. In this book, the authors analyze the best ways to help the poor manage risks such as health shocks, unemployment, sudden drops in income, and old age. Unemployment benefits, employment programs, means-tested social assistance, social investment funds, and micro-finance for consumption-smoothing purposes are the leading options considered.

The book provides a careful assessment of issues that governments need to address in the process of designing appropriate safety nets.

About the Author:
Nora Lustig is senior advisor and chief of the Poverty and Inequality Advisory Unit at the Inter-American Development Bank, a non-resident senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies program at the Brookings Institution, a senior associated fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue, and president of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association. Her previous books include Mexico: the Remaking of an Economy, second edition (Brookings, 1998).