This report summarizes and consolidates the findings of three Bank studies on poverty issues in Mexico, written as part of the second phase of this work: Urban Poverty, Rural Poverty, and Social Protection. It also expands on how Mexico will seek to use social protection policy as a vehicle for redistribution. Discussed in Chapter 1, the state has a clear role in providing risk-pooling mechanisms where private insurance markets fail (e.g., old age and health insurance), but the role of social protection policy in promoting redistribution is more an issue of national choice. That choice, however, has clear consequences for equity and poverty reduction outcomes. The economic trade-off between growth and equity, and thus between growth and redistribution, has been refuted by both theoretical advances, and international experience in recent years. International experience points to examples where redistribution has been achieved in a wide variety of ways. The choice is two fold: how much distribution; and through which means. The relative importance given to redistribution, and the role assigned to the social protection system in achieving equity objectives is a question of national objectives, but is crucial to guiding the direction of social protection policy reform. To summarize, the report finally focuses on four key emerging issues within social protection in Mexico: a) social security reform, b) health risks among the poor, c) old age poverty, and, d) the need to balance public risk management mechanisms with a more integrated strategy to combat chronic poverty. In order to tackle these challenges, Mexico faces a range of political choices.
This report presents an update on the economic challenges facing Ethiopia with a focus on the shared goal of accelerating equitable growth. The starting point is the Government's own Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP), which...
This report summarizes the findings of the study on Competitive Commercial Agriculture for Africa (CCAA). The objective of the CCAA study was to explore the feasibility of restoring international competitiveness and growth in African agriculture through the identification of products...
The purpose of this paper is to summarize the challenges and the practical successes that a selected number of countries are experiencing in moving towards 'climate-smart' agriculture while also meeting the food requirements of a growing population, broader economic development...
The report builds on the 'towards a vision for agricultural innovation in Chile in 2030' report and is further based on a series of background papers and a consultation process that took place between December 2010 and May 2011. The...
This report provides a synthesis of all findings and information generated through a “stocktaking” process that involved a desk study of Prolinnova documents and evaluation reports, a questionnaire to 40 staff members of international organizations in agricultural research and development (ARD),...