Learn how governments globally are integrating the Graduation approach into their social protection and employment generation programs. Discussants included implementing governments in Africa and Asia as well as donors and technical assistance providers facilitating this integrative approach. SPEC Webinar Series

Organised by the Social Protection for Employment – Community (SPEC), this webinar highlighted the experiences of the Government of Philippines’ Department of Labor and Employment, which launched a Graduation pilot integrated with its livelihoods program; and the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, a non-profit entity supporting the scale up of a Graduation pilot in Pakistan. Additionally, the World Bank’s Platform for Economic Inclusion and BRAC’s Ultra Poor Graduation Initiative have added insights from their experience of working with the governments. 

Graduation programs blend together elements of social protection, livelihoods promotion, financial inclusion, and social empowerment -  each of which tackles separate aspects of extreme poverty. Backed by comprehensive, independent research and adapted in more than 40 countries, the typically two year time-bound approach has helped extreme poor households build resilience to shocks while placing them on an upward trajectory out of poverty into sustainable livelihoods. 

During this interactive session, speakers reflected on key questions including drivers behind adopting the Graduation approach by these governments; how the Graduation approach adds value to cash transfer programs; what challenges they had to overcome (e.g. cost and design-complexity); the roadblocks to scaling up and so on.

Speakers:

Alex Avila, Assistant Secretary, Workers Protection, Policy Support, Human Resource and Internal Auditing, Services Cluster, Government of the Philippines 

Samia Liaquat Ali Khan, Senior Group Head, Quality Assurance, Research & Design, Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF)

Lara Storm, Director of Advisory Services, Ultra Poor Graduation, BRAC USA

Stephen Barrett, Team Leader and Policy & Programme Development Advisor on the Capacity & Policy Development Facility (CPDF)

Moderator:

Kate McKee, Manager, Partnership for Economic Inclusion (PEI), World Bank

 

This webinar was the eighth of the Linking Social Protection to Sustainable Employment webinar series, which was organized by GIZ and DFAT. Please join the Online community Social Protection for Employment if you are interested in following the most recent discussions on the topic.