Ugo Gentilini – författare

Every country provides some form of direct cash transfer to people in need, and this provision of money reaches hundreds of millions of people worldwide. But these provisions are often accompanied by heated debates on whether and how such assistance should be provided. Seeking a way to better understand the current global debates on cash transfers, Timely Cash provides a historical overview of the concept. It explores the 2,500-year history of cash transfers to trace the origins of cash transfer programmes, tracks how they have evolved over time and spread across the world, and considers the longstanding debates that surround them.By connecting these historical perspectives with the present day, identifying reoccurring patterns, and codifying diversity in experiences, Ugo Gentilini illuminates the roots of modern cash transfer dilemmas and reveals the surprising lessons the past can offer for these contemporary debates.

People affected by humanitarian crises are in need of support, but what form of assistance is more suitable? Giving people money can be important, but that there are also merits in providing in-kind assistance such as food and shelter. Why and where to use one form of aid or the other is the matter of this paper.

Most of the people in low and middle-income countries covered by social protection receive assistance in the form of in-kind food. The origin of such support is rooted in countries' historical pursuit of three interconnected objectives, namely attaining self-sufficiency in food, managing domestic food prices, and providing income support to the poor. This volume sheds light on the complex, bumpy and non-linear process of how some flagship food-based social protection programs have evolved over time, and how they currently work. In particular, it lays out the broad trends in reforms, including a growing move from in-kind modalities to cash transfers, from universality to targeting, and from agriculture to social protection. Case studies from Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Sri Lanka, and United States document the specific experiences of managing the process of reform and implementation, including enhancing our understanding of the opportunities and challenges with different social protection transfer modalities.

This white paper focuses on the policy interventions made to help people manage risk, uncertainty and the losses from events whose impacts are channelled primarily through the labour market.

Universal Basic Income (UBI) is one of the most hotly-debated ideas in development and social protection. Drawing from global evidence and experiences, this volume provides a compass to help navigate key issues and trade-offs, as well as offering new data and insights to better inform choices around the appropriateness and feasibility of UBI in different contexts. Structured around seven chapters and based on one of the most comprehensive reviews of the literature available, the book provides a framework to understand the interplay between objectives, design, incentives, micro-simulations, financing, political economy, and implementation of UBI as well as of social assistance more generally.