Cover -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Structure of the Report -- Abbreviations -- Executive Summary -- Section 1. Inventory of Social Safety Net Programs -- Definitions -- Types and Coverage of Safety Net Programs -- Notes -- References -- Highlight 1. Safety Nets in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations -- Section 2. Spending on Social Safety Nets -- Spending Patterns -- Spending Composition -- Notes -- References -- Highlight 2. The Growing Role of Social Pensions -- Section 3. Policy, Institutions, and Administration -- Policies and Strategies -- Institutions -- Administration -- Highlight 3. Climate Change, Poverty, and the Importance of Leveraging Social Protection -- Section 4. Results and Evidence about Social Safety Nets -- Performance of Social Safety Net Programs -- Evidence from Impact Evaluations -- Notes -- References -- Highlight 4. Using Cash Transfers to Promote Early Childhood Development -- Section 5. Social Safety Nets in Urban Areas: Emerging Issues and Practices -- Notes -- Reference -- Highlight 5. Understanding Urban Poverty -- Appendixes -- A: Definitions, Methodology, and Data Sources -- B: Countries, Economies, and Territories Included in the Report -- C: Program Inventory -- D: Spending on Social Safety Net Programs -- E: Policies, Institutions, and Administration -- F: Performance Indicators (All Social Safety Nets) -- G: Coverage of Social Safety Nets, by Program Type -- Boxes -- 1.1 Types of Safety Nets -- 1.2 What "Conditionality" Really Implies -- 1.3 Response to the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa -- 2.1 Spending on Fuel Subsidies Is Often Greater than Spending on Social Safety Nets -- 4.1 ASPIRE Indicators Based on Household Surveys -- A.1 Coverage Considered from an Insurance or Actuarial Perspective -- Figures -- 1.1 How social safety nets fall within social protection and labor systems.

1.2 Social safety net programs have been rising steadily -- 1.3 School feeding programs are the most prevalent type of social safety net -- 1.4 Enrollment rates in social safety net programs vary by country, with over half not enrolling even the bottom fifth of the population -- 2.1 Countries and territories spend 1.6 percent of GDP on social safety net programs, on average, although the level varies by region -- 2.2 Variations in social safety net spending are higher in lower-income countries -- 2.3 Spending on social safety nets is weakly associated with income levels -- 2.4 The composition of social safety net spending varies by income level and the enabling environment -- 2.5 Spending composition varies by program type across regions -- 2.6 Old-age social pensions make up the highest share of worldwide spending on cash transfers -- B2.1.1 Fuel subsidies exceed social safety net spending in some countries -- 2.7 Half the world spends more on subsidies than on social safety nets, on average -- 2.8 Lower-income countries devote a higher share of their social safety net budgets to targeted programs -- 2.9 Many countries are below the cost-efficiency frontier of social safety nets -- 3.1 Status of social protection policies or strategies as of 2014 -- 3.2 Existing social protection policy or strategy as of 2014, by type -- 3.3 Most countries use one lead coordinating ministry to coordinate social protection policies -- 3.4 Many countries lack social protection and labor system administration tools -- 4.1 Results chain of a safety net system -- 4.2 Coverage of the poor differs greatly by different types of safety nets and income groups -- 4.3 Coverage by different components of the social protection system varies by region -- 4.4 Higher coverage of the poor is associated with higher enrollment in social safety nets.

4.5 The average transfer size does not fill the poverty gap -- 4.6 The adequacy of transfers for the poor varies by program type -- 4.7 Conditional cash transfers are among the best targeted type of safety net -- 4.8 The poverty reduction effects of social safety nets depend on both the coverage of the poor and the adequacy of social safety net transfers -- 4.9 Selected impacts of social safety nets on school enrollment rates -- 4.10 Selected impacts of social safety nets on school attendance rates -- 4.11 The proportion of social safety net beneficiary households owning a productive asset has grown -- 4.12 Social safety nets have high multiplier effects -- 5.1 Coverage of social safety nets is lower in urban areas than in rural settings, but urban dwellers are better covered by social insurance and labor market programs -- 5.2 The urban poor are less covered by social safety nets than are the rural poor -- 5.3 Problems with the initial enrollment process of the Familias Program in Bogotá prevented most people from enrolling -- Map -- 5.1 The Programa de Apoyo Temporal al Ingreso (PATI) in El Salvador is implemented in precarious urban settlements -- Tables -- 1.1 Number of Countries with at Least One Type of Social Safety Net Program, by Region -- 1.2 Number of Countries with at Least One Type of Social Safety Net Program, by Country Income Group -- 1.3 Top Five Social Safety Net Programs, by Scale -- 1.4 Top Five Social Safety Net Programs, Share of Population -- 3.1 Social Protection Policy/Strategy as of 2014, Low- and Middle-Income Countries -- 3.2 Type of Policy/Strategy for Countries with Active Social Protection Policy/Strategy as of 2014, Low- and Middle-Income Countries -- 3.3 Key Coordination Bodies of Social Protection as of 2014, Low- and Middle-Income Countries -- 3.4 Social Protection and Labor System Administration Tools as of 2014.

3.5 Selected Examples of Operational Social and Beneficiary Registries -- 3.6 Selected Examples of Operational Social and Beneficiary Registries Being Developed -- 4.1 Enrollment and Coverage of the Poor Rates, by Country Income Group -- 4.2 Impact Evaluations, 1999-2015 -- 4.3 Selected Recent Impact Evaluations of Social Safety Net Programs, 2014-15 -- A.1 Classification of Social Safety Net Programs -- A.2 Alternative Definitions of Coverage -- A.3 New Countries Included in the 2015 Edition (Household Surveys for 44 Countries) -- A.4 Household Surveys Used in the Report (105 Countries, Economies, and Territories).