Welcome to the first edition of the Inclusive Growth Bulletin of 2017, covering South-South Learning on innovative poverty reduction strategies.

The January/February issue presents new publications on topics ranging from human development and land tenure in Brazil, to the results of Phase II of the Purchase from Africans for Africa programme (PAA Africa).
There are also news and updates on the IPC-IG's policy dialogue activities, including participation in events.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue!

New Publications

In the Working Paper Human development and land tenure in Brazil, the authors Alexandre Arbex Valadares, (Institute for Applied Economic Research—Ipea), Fernando Gaiger Silveira (Ipea and IPC-IG), and Nikolas de Camargo Pirani (United Nations Development Programme—UNDP) propose to investigate how living conditions and human development in the rural environment might be linked to a structural characteristic of the Brazilian countryside: the high concentration of land ownership.

It offers statistical evidence that highlights how the markedly unequal land tenure structures in Brazil can affect the indicators of human development, especially of the rural population.

This publication is available in English, and an associated One Pager is also available in English and Portuguese.

In the One Pager Phase II of the PAA Africa Programme: results and lessons learned, the authors Ana Carla Miranda, Mario Gyoeri, and Fábio Veras Soares (IPC-IG) present a summary of the monitoring results of Phase II of the PAA Africa programme, which has been piloted in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, and Senegal from 2014 to 2016. PAA Africa was inspired by two Brazilian institutional procurement programmes: The Food Acquisition Programme (Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos—PAA) and the National School Feeding Programme (Programa Nacional de Alimentação Escolar—PNAE). PAA Africa began in 2012 as a partnership between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Government of Brazil and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). This One Pager is available in English, French, and Portuguese.

The One Pager Inequality and redistribution: taxes and transfers is the first publication in a series of One Pagers developed by the IPC-IG and HelpAge International. This publication, authored by both institutions, reflects on the eponymous webinar, held in September 2016 and hosted by the socialprotection.org platform. It explored and highlighted possible solutions for reducing inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean, evaluating the effects of fiscal policies on income distribution. This study is available in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.

In the One Pager Conceptualising shock-responsive social protection, Valentina Barca (Oxford Policy Management—OPM), based on work by Francesca Bastagli, Clare O’Brien and Cécile Cherrer as part of the Shock-Responsive Social Protection Systems study financed by UK Aid, analyses the concept of a ‘shock-responsive social protection system’ as referring implicitly to covariate shocks, those that affect large numbers of people and/or communities at once, rather than the idiosyncratic shocks such as the death of a breadwinner that may affect individual households or household members. The work presents options for adapting social protection systems for humanitarian crises. This publication is available in English.

Finally, the One Pager The unseen gender impact of conditionality: extra-official conditions, by Tara Patricia Cookson (University of Cambridge), examines how tasks perceived by beneficiaries, that do not actually figure in the original design of conditional cash transfer programmes in Peru and elsewhere, highlight the exacerbation of unequal power relations in the implementation of programmes intended to provide social protection. This study is available in English.

See our full list of publications here

Knowledge Sharing on PAA Africa

The IPC-IG team participated in the workshop Dialogues on the Brazilian South South Cooperation: Monitoring & Evaluation, conducted by the BRICS Policy Center., on 27 January.  Our Senior Research Coordinator, Fábio Veras, and Research Associate Mario Gyoeri delivered presentations, via Skype, on the work that the IPC-IG has been doing in the evaluation of the PAA Africa programme in Senegal and in the monitoring of the programme in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger and Senegal.

If you wish to learn more about the PAA Africa programme, in addition to the One Pager Phase II of the PAA Africa Programme: results and lessons learned, we suggest the study: Structured Demand and Smallholder Farmers in Brazil: The Case of PAA and PNAE, which details the two Brazilian programmes that have directly inspired PAA Africa.

IPC-IG attends DFID Steering Committee Meeting on Brazil & Africa

The IPC-IG attended the meeting of the steering committee for the DFID-financed project “Brazil & Africa: fighting poverty and empowering women via South-South Cooperation”, held in Brasilia, on 16 February. The goal of this working meeting with Brazilian counterparts, such as the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) and implementing partners, was to assess the results of the project so far and to plan future actions.

The DFID contracted the IPC-IG to carry out the implementation of outcomes 1 and 2 of the project. Recently, the Centre published its Progress Report on the implementation of outcome 1, which comprised producing knowledge related to social protection and gender issues, aimed at Brazilian and African policymakers and practitioners, and promoting the sharing of knowledge among them. You can find the reports here. The Centre also published its Progress Report on the implementation of outcome 2. It is focused on designing and implementing a course in monitoring and evaluation (M&E), oriented towards academics and policymakers in Mozambique. Read the report here.

News

Social protection monitoring and evaluation course in Mozambique

Furthering the IPC-IG’s work in capacity strengthening, the Centre will deliver a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) course on social protection systems in Maputo, Mozambique, from 27 February to 3 March. The course was tailor-made for policymakers of the Mozambican Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Action (MGCAS), the Institute for Social Action (INAS), provincial authorities and the National Institute for Statistics (INE), to provide participants with a solid understanding of M&E practices for the social protection sector, as well as day-to-day functions and activities. The IPC-IG’s delegation will include Senior Research Coordinator Fabio Veras, Senior Project Management Officer Lívia Nogueira, Ipea Researcher and IPC-IG Research Associate Antonio Claret Neto, and Ipea Researcher Joana Mostafa. The course was developed under the scope of a new project between the IPC-IG and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

News from socialprotection.org

The socialprotection.org platform started the year will a full agenda of activities, and during the first two months of the year has already organised four webinars on topics ranging from “Old age social protection in an ageing Asia: Current trends and future directions” to “Constituency Building and Fiscal Space for Social Protection—Navigating Political Space”.

The next webinar will be on the “Design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation systems: the cases of Brazil and Mexico”, on 23 February. Organised by the Brazil Learning Initiative for a World Without Poverty (WWP), it will be held in Spanish and will share experiences regarding the implementation of a monitoring and evaluation system for social policies. It is an opportunity to learn more about the remarkable experience of Mexico’s National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL) as well as the experience of policy practitioners in Mexico and Brazil. Read more here.

If you missed a webinar hosted by socialprotection.org, it is good to know that all recordings and summaries of the past webinars are made available on the platform after each session.

The platform also recently announced the launch of a new Blog area, where members can share their knowledge and opinions on issues related to social protection by posting their own articles, comments and questions. This area is available from the Learn tab. The inaugural blog posts summarise the last webinars recently hosted by the platform. We invite you to read and blog here.

It is never too late to become a member of socialprotection.org. We invite you to join a large network of social protection practitioners!

Social protection in Africa

It is now much easier to search for over 120 programmes from 39 African countries that were gathered, mapped and profiled in the study titled Social Protection in Africa: inventory of non-contributory programmes, published by the IPC-IG.

This publication offers a broad overview of the existing non-contributory social protection programmes in Africa in order to support a better general understanding of interventions in the region and their main design choices and features. The study was produced as part of the DFID-supported project: "Brazil & Africa: fighting poverty and empowering women via South-South Cooperation", and is the result of a partnership between the IPC-IG, UNICEF and socialprotection.org.

Aiming at fostering knowledge sharing on this topic, socialprotection.org presents each of these programmes individually under the “Programme Search” tab. In this area, you can also find information on other social protection programmes from around the globe.

IPC-IG Seminar Series

The Centre is pleased to announce the launch of its 2017 Seminar Series, an opportunity to share knowledge and promote debates around current issues of the global development and distributive agendas. This year’s inaugural session will host, on 17 February, a presentation by IPC-IG Research Associate, Pedro Arruda, who will present an ongoing study conducted by the Centre on HIV-inclusive aspects of African social protection systems in Malawi and Zambia. The one-hour seminar sessions will be held on the last Friday of each month, at the IPC-IG office.