Ep. 16 | The trade-offs of targeting

Targeting is one of the most widely debated topics in social protection. Who should receive support from social protection systems? How do we identify the ‘right’ people, and reach them?

The way countries choose to target programmes involves weighing up a complex set of issues, including cost and coverage, the likely degree of ‘error’ over who is excluded and included, the need to respond dynamically to changing circumstances and shocks, and the need to build political support for investments, as well as trust and community cohesion.

In the meantime, our targeting toolkit is still made up of a handful of fundamental methods and approaches, each with their strengths and weaknesses, when it comes to the critical task of selecting and reaching people in need.

In this episode we introduce some of the key trade-offs most frequently invoked when making decisions about targeting social protection and ask our guests about the latest thinking on how to reconcile these challenges and dilemmas.

 

Our guests for this episode are:

Rachel Sabates-Wheeler — Research Fellow, IDS

Matthew Wai-Poi — Senior Economist, World Bank

 

Plus, to contribute to our monthly segment of ‘Quick Wins’ which highlights news, achievements, and research that have shaped recent developments and sparked our interest, we heard from:

Nazanin Akhgar, Chief of Social Policy/PME, UNICEF Iran

 

Resources
Book co-authored by speaker Matt Wai-Poi - Revisiting Targeting in Social Assistance : A New Look at Old Dilemmas

Quick wins resources

Webinar - Iran's Welfare System: Towards an Integrated Social Protection System for children and adolescents

UNICEF's Global social protection programme framework

Programme Guidance: Strengthening Shock-Responsive Social Protection Systems

Rolling out cash plus in selected provinces in Iran