The Case of the Democratic Republic of Congo

triggered significant regulatory reforms in the financial and information technology (IT) ecosystem that promoted financial inclusion, for example, approval of a simplified customer due diligence framework in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although evidence on the effectiveness of novel techniques is only beginning to emerge, it is undeniable that the pandemic has spurred innovation.

BOX 2.4: Targeting Urban Cash Transfers with Satellite Imagery and Phone Data: The Case of the Democratic Republic of Congo Kinshasa is among the largest cities in Africa, with an estimated 15 million residents, two-thirds of whom were poor pre-pandemic (World Bank DataBank). As the COVID-19 pandemic was unfolding worldwide, the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo quickly began designing a large-scale, emergency social safety net program that would provide support to Kinshasa’s poor—especially informal workers—who bore the main burden of the pandemic’s socioeconomic impacts. The program Solidarité par Transferts Économiques contre la Pauvreté à Kinshasa (STEP-KIN) was launched in March 2021 and within three months it registered and paid more than 100,000 beneficiaries, becoming the largest cash-based operation in Kinshasa.a However, the design and materialization of STEP-KIN faced three significant challenges that called for innovative and tailored solutions: (1) the absence of poverty mapping, social registries, or administrative data to identify poor people; (2) no preexisting social protection programs that could be expanded; and (3) a constrained ecosystem for digital financial services with very weak financial inclusion. The STEP-KIN approach to solve these challenges consisted of (1) the use of satellite imagery and geospatial analysis to identify COVID-19 hotspots across the city; (2) innovative partnerships with telecom operators to obtain anonymized subscriber phone numbers mapped to these hotspots; (3) extra filtering of subscribers based on cell use patterns to minimize inclusion risks (for example, excluding subscribers with a data plan or large monthly spending); (4) mass registration through a cell phone communication protocol, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, platform complemented by bulk Short Message Service/robocalls/field ambassadors to seek informed consent of beneficiaries and basic identification information; and (5) opening of mobile money accounts with a simplified regulatory framework. The STEP-KIN innovation has two major strengths: it can identify people rapidly (speed), and it can reach hundreds of thousands of people (scale). This approach is promising for crisis response, especially for large-scale emergencies, such as COVID-19 or a natural disaster, or capacityconstrained/conflict-affected settings. However, it is less suitable for programs targeting the extreme poor (for instance, it excludes people without telephones). The use of technology may also increase the risk of exclusion of vulnerable groups, such women, the elderly, or illiterate individuals, and mitigation alternatives should be envisioned, for example with targeted communication and assistance.

a. Bance, Bermeo, and Kabemba (2021).

Insight 3: Importance of Managing Fiscal Space and Enhancing Government Ownership

Although the social protection response to COVID-19 relied heavily on external financing, governments in several countries stepped up their domestic commitments. Before the COVID-19 crisis, many African countries relied to a significant extent on external resources to finance their poverty-targeted social safety net programs.28 While this funding structure persisted during the pandemic—with the majority of countries relying on external financing for COVID-19-related social safety net expansions—several countries boosted their commitments (for example, Nigeria and South Africa reallocated domestic spending, and Mauritania created a special fund with domestic seed financing29). The pandemic response thus highlighted both the need and potential for greater government ownership. Sustainable financing strategies should enable a mixed approach between external financing and better managed domestic fiscal space. This includes more established use of contingency financing instruments to pay for sudden surges in financing needs when safety nets are used to respond to shocks.

LOOKING AHEAD: EMERGING DIRECTIONS FOR STRENGTHENING SOCIAL PROTECTION IN AFRICA

The COVID-19 crisis is an inflection point in the development of social protection in Africa, providing lessons and directions for the road ahead. The crisis led to an expansion of social protection, raised its visibility in the policy debate, and allowed the experimentation of several innovations to scale up coverage quickly during the COVID-19-induced lockdowns. Moving forward, the challenge is to leverage this unique experience and consolidate progress toward more inclusive, effective, dynamic, transparent, and equitable social protection systems. The COVID-19 experience reinforces the urgency of building on the existing social protection platforms toward achieving greater resilience, more opportunities, and broader equity. An unfinished agenda has emerged around three questions (figure 2.7) of how to: (1) diversify objectives and instruments for expanded coverage and reach, (2) strengthen adaptive social protection delivery systems and leverage data and new technologies, and (3) enhance financing for social protection for greater domestic commitments and spending efficiency.

28 Beegle, Coudouel, and Monsalve (2018). 29 Almenfi et al. (2020).