At least 55 per cent of the world’s poor (about 770 million) people are living in dire condition and require urgent socio-economic relief, the World Bank Group’s 2015 state of social safety nets report says.

The report, released yesterday in Washington DC, US, says in spite of the number, more than 1.9 billion people in 136 low- and middle-income countries are now on beneficiary rolls of social safety net programmes from governments and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs).

Social safety nets are non-contributory transfer programmes to support the economically vulnerable people from falling into poverty traps in times of crisis.

Social scientists say social protection systems play an important role in poverty eradication and achieving inclusive development as they help redistribute wealth, guarantee social justice and ensure the right to a decent standard of living.

The report suggests that more developing countries are investing heavily in social safety nets to improve the lives and livelihoods of billions of vulnerable people to promote inclusion.

However, their efforts are not enough and, as a result, the report calls for more efforts to spread the benefits to an estimated 773 million people who are not benefiting from any form of social safety programme.

"Countries must take action to close this coverage gap,” says the new report.

The report follows the recent joint statement by the heads of the World Bank Group and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) that endorsed the goal of universal access to social protection by 2030.

Guy Ryder, the executive director of ILO, believes that the new development agenda that is being defined by the world community – the sustainable development goals (SDGs) – provides an unparalleled opportunity for both ILO and WB to join forces and make universal social protection a reality for ‘everyone, everywhere.’

In many countries, social protection programmes are in form of cash and in-kind transfers targeted to poor and vulnerable households, with the goal of protecting families from the impact of economic shocks, natural disasters, and other crises.

The programmes also ensure that children living in needy circumstances grow up healthy and can stay in school.In Africa alone, the report notes that the number of countries setting up social safety net programmes has doubled over the past three years.

Rwanda’s story

The report comes at a time when Rwanda is marking 21 years since the Rwanda Patriotic Army ended the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in which more than a million people were killed.

Two decades later, government still has to take care of thousands of Genocide orphans, widows and other survivors that were traumatised by its effects.

Today, many survivors continue to survive on social protection programmes from government and NGOs, for school, medical care, food, shelter and other basic necessities in life.

Vincent Munyeshyaka, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Local Government, said Rwf83 billion was spent on various social protection programmes in the 2014/15 financial year that ended last month.

"For the new 2015/16 fiscal year, the figure has been increased to Rwf97 billion,” said Munyeshyaka.

The Girinka (own a cow) programme is one of Rwanda’s famous social protection schemes aimed at liberating poor Rwandans living below the poverty line to be self reliant economically and socially.

At least 44 per cent of Rwandans are estimated to be currently living below the poverty line.

Through social protection programmes such as Girinka, the government hopes to reduce the number of Rwandans below the poverty line to below 30 per cent by 2017/2018.

But for such a noble ambition to be achieved, government requires support from other stakeholders such as NGOs who can help expand social protection cover to more people.

ActionAid, and NGO, provides relief to people displaced by war.

"Today, our annual investment in social protection programmes, including education, is Rwf1.12 billion and our activities benefit, on average, 20,000 people every year,” said Josephine Uwamariya, the Rwanda Action Aid country director.

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