The State of Social Safety Nets 2015

Over the last decade, a policy revolution has been underway in the developing and emerging world. Country after country is systematically providing non-contributory transfers to poor and vulnerable people, in order to protect them against  economic  shocks  and  to  enable  them  to  invest  in  themselves  and their children. Social safety nets or social transfers, as these are called, have spread rapidly from their early prominence in the middle-income countries of Latin America and Europe increasingly to nations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East - and today, over 130 developing countries have made investments in social safety nets an important pillar of economic development policies.The statistics and analysis in The State of Social Safety Nets 2015 capture this revolution, and reveal it in many dimensions at the country, regional, and international levels. This latest edition of a periodic series brings together a large body of data that was not previously available, drawing on the World Bank's  ASPIRE  database  and  other  sources.  Why  have  so  many  countries made a firm commitment to incorporate social safety nets as part of their social and economic policy architecture? Because social safety nets work. This  report  also  reports  on  the  rigorous  evidence  that  demonstrates  their impact,  and  also  points  the  way  to  making  them  even  more  efficient  and effective at meeting their development goals.This latest edition of a periodic series brings together a large body of data that was not previously available, drawing on the World Bank's ASPIRE database and other sources to examine trends in coverage, spending, and safety nets program performance.