2.6 Three Emerging Insights from the Social Protection Pandemic Response in Africa

workers who were most impacted by the initial COVID-19 shock due to income losses in the wake of lockdowns. Despite this diversity in the pandemic shock response, the experience points to the need to build robust systems—social registries with appropriate coverage, foundational identification systems, digital payment mechanisms, and early warning systems—to be prepared for responding to future shocks swiftly and at scale.

FIGURE 2.6: Three Emerging Insights from the Social Protection Pandemic Response in Africa

INSIGHT 1

Importance of delivery systems and complementary interventions (the “+” of cash plus programs), especially wide-coverage social registries and good data for expanded coverage and reach

Potential for ground-breaking innovation enabled by data and technologyINSIGHT 2

INSIGHT 3 Importance of domestic nancial commitment and managing the scal space for social protection

Source: World Bank.

Insight 2: Potential for Innovation Enabled by Data and Disruptive Technology

Faced with the challenge of quickly expanding the coverage of cash transfer programs to previously uncovered populations, African policy makers have experimented with novel ways to identify, assess, enroll, and transfer money to people quickly, even where prior systems were limited and social registries were small. Some countries, like the Democratic Republic of Congo (box 2.4), Nigeria, and Togo (box 2.5), selected a mix of geographic and household indicators to prioritize beneficiaries, sometimes relying on novel data sources such as satellite imagery and machine learning for geographical prioritization and mobile phone call detail records to proxy for poverty. Meanwhile, where social registries were lacking, policy makers and administrators resorted to administrative data (for example, school administrative data on students and their families) or on-demand intake and registration using mobile phone technology (for example, Zambia), or online platforms (South Africa). The need for (contactless) digital payments