Social Assistance, Politics and Institutions (SAPI) database Index of Programmes in the Middle-East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and China

Since the turn of the century, social assistance has emerged as a leading institution in the fight against poverty and vulnerability in the developing world. Large-scale programmes providing direct transfers to households in poverty have transformed the antipoverty policy agenda, moving it from traditional approaches of food aid and subsidies to regular and predictable forms of assistance. Over the past two years, United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) has been developing a new database, ‘Social Assistance, Politics and Institutions’ (SAPI), which provides a synthesis of longitudinal and harmonized comparable information on social assistance programmes in developing countries, covering the period 2000-2015. The SAPI provides information on programme characteristics, programme and country-level institutionalization, budget and financing, and welfare impacts.