Stephen Kidd, Diloá Athias & Idil Mohamud
Development Pathways collaborated with the Church of Sweden to examine the utility of the so-called “social registry”, a database that determines people’s eligibility for welfare programmes within social protection.
Their report highlights the high errors produced by these social registries, which leads to people being wrongfully excluded from social protection programmes.
Various countries in and around the Middle East and North Africa have used social registries in their distribution of social protection cash tranfers, such as Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, The West Bank and Yemen.
The widespread use of these social registeries in the MENA region means that the poorest and most vulnerable in these societies may be being failed and excluded from much-needed social assistance.
This reports underscores the acute need in MENA countries to reconsider the reliance on inaccurate poverty-targeted programmes to fill gaps when they could instead prioritise inclusive lifecycle social protection systems.
Read the report here
