World Bank Seminar “Social Protection and Urbanization"

There are 3.9 billion people, or 54 percent of the global population, currently living in urban areas. Cities generate about 65 percent of global GDP. Yet urbanization does not automatically translate into development. For example, an estimated 863 million people currently live in precarious settlements or ‘slums’, lacking basic services and overall poverty is urbanizing rapidly. These contrasting realities make urban safety nets a cutting-edge topic. The social protection coverage of the poor in urban areas is lower than in rural settings.

Emerging urban social safety net programs are starting to adapt to urban contexts, countries are following different pathways in introducing and expanding programs. Evidence from those early experiences points to the different and complex nature of urban poverty, as well as a range of patterns in the introduction and scale-up of social safety nets in cities. These include variations in whether to start first in urban or rural areas, whether to adjust the design to urban contexts, and whether to use a national system that will span urban and rural settings.

Taking the opportunity of Arup Banerji, Senior Director, Social Protection & Labor, World Bank, this seminar will review the emerging urban social safety net programs, and will provide a forum of discussing how mainstreaming can be achieved.

All the material of the seminar can be found in the offical website of the event.