New Frontiers of Social Policy – serie

This book examines the validity of a social guarantees approach as a framework for evaluating, monitoring, and improving the design of social policy. Social guarantees are defined as sets of policy mechanisms that determine citizens' entitlements related to basic services and ensure their fulfillment on the part of the state. The social guarantee concept gives operational expression to fundamental human rights principles by providing mechanisms for awareness, participation, equity, and redress in the delivery of social policy. In addition, the social guarantees approach responds to an emerging global need for a comprehensive social policy model - a new social contract between the state and its citizens - that can face up to the challenges of inclusive and sustainable globalization. The book includes analytical case studies from Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, South Africa, and the Caribbean region.

Climate change is arguably the most profound challenge facing the international community in the 21st century. It is as much a challenge for poverty reduction, growth and development as it is a global environmental issue. It could undermine or reverse progress in reducing poverty and attaining the Millenium Development Goals, thereby unraveling many of the development gains of recent decades. It already threatens the livelihoods, health and well-being of millions of people worldwide, and of the poorest and most vulnerable groups in particular. And it has potentially far-reaching implications for international relations and for personal, national and regional security.While significant uncertainties still remain, tremendous strides have been made over recent years in improving scientific understanding of the human processes driving global climate change and the likely impacts on world ecosystems. What is much less well understood is how these dynamics in the physical environment will interact with those of socio-economic systems, what the consequences will be for society, and how best to address them. In order to focus attention on these previously neglected and poorly understood social dimensions of climate change, the World Bank convened an international workshop in March, 2008, with the participation of community activists, former heads of state, leaders of Indigenous Peoples, representatives of non-governmental organizations, international researchers, and staff of the World Bank and other international development agencies.This edited volume brings together revised versions of many of the papers presented during that workshop, as an initial step in taking stock of existing knowledge on the social dimensions of climate change. Several new papers were also commissioned for this volume.

First, the report offers a definition of social inclusion as the ""process of improving the terms for individuals and groups to take part in society."" It unpacks different domains of society that excluded groups and individuals are at particular risk of being left out of—markets, services, and spaces. Second, the report discusses the most important global mega-trends such as migration, climate chnage, and aging of societies, which will impact challenges and opportunities for inclusion. Finally, it argues that despite these challenges, change towards inclusion is possible and offers examples of inclusionary policies.

Building and operating successful public institutions is a perennial and long-term challenge for governments, which is compounded by the volatile conditions found in fragile settings. Yet some government agencies do manage to take root and achieve success in delivering results earning legitimacy and forging resilience in otherwise challenging contexts.Drawing on mixed-method empirical research carried out on nine public agencies in Lao PDR, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Timor Leste, this volume identifies the shared causal mechanisms underpinning institutional success in fragile states by examining the inner workings of these institutions, along with the external operational environment and sociopolitical context in which they exist. Successful institutions share and deploy a common repertoire of internal and external operational strategies.In addition they connect this micro-institutional repertoire to the macro-sociopolitical context along three discernible pathways to institutional success. Institutional development is a heavily contextual, dynamic, and non-linear process but certain actionable lessons emerge for policy-makers and development partners.

Opening the Black Box: Contextual Drivers of Social Accountability fills an important knowledge gap by providing guidance on how to assess contextual drivers  of  social  accountability  effectiveness.  This  publication  aims  to more strategically support citizen engagement at the country level and for a  specific  issue  or  problem.The  report  proposes  a  novel  framing  of  social accountability  as  the  interplay  of  constitutive  elements:  citizen  action  and state action, supported by three enabling levers: civic mobilization, interface and information. For each of these constitutive elements, the report identifies 'drivers' of contextual effectiveness which take into account a broad range of contextual factors (e.g., social, political and intervention-based, including information  and  communication  technologies).Opening  the  Black  Box offers  detailed  guidance  on  how  to  assess  each  driver.  It  also  applies  the framework at two levels. At the country level, the report looks at 'archetypes' of  challenging  country  contexts,  such  as  regimes  with  no  formal  space  or full  support  for  citizen-state  engagement  and  fragile  and  conflict-affected situations. The report also illustrates the use of the framework to analyze specific social accountability interventions through four case studies: Sierra Leone, Pakistan, Yemen, and the Kyrgyz Republic.