Social Cash Transfer in Turkey

Social Cash Transfer in Turkey
Author: Ceren Ark-Yıldırım
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 149
Release: 2021-05-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3030703819

This open access book asks whether cash-transfer programs for very low-income households promote social and economic citizenship and, if so, under what conditions. To this end, it brings together elements that are too often considered separately: the transformation of social and economic citizenship rights in a market-centered context, and the increasing popularity of cash transfer as an instrument both of social policy and humanitarian action. We link these by juxtaposing theoretical treatment of citizenship and inclusion with concrete policy case studies set in contemporary Turkey. Cases are taken both from domestic social policy and international relief efforts aimed at Syrian refugees. Theoretical discussion and case studies lead to the conclusion that cash transfer programs can promote economic and social inclusion – if deployed at an appropriate scale; if sufficient financial, technical, and social resources are available; and if program design and implementation promotes market inclusion of beneficiaries both as consumers and workers.

Buying Support Without Brokers

Buying Support Without Brokers
Author: Mine Talofar
Publisher:
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2015
Genre:
ISBN:

This master’s report examines how the implementation of conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs, which allocate benefits according to objective poverty criteria, affect entrenched patterns of clientelism, that is, the long-established provision of social benefits for political-electoral purposes. By analyzing two “most different” cases, Turkey and Argentina, the thesis probes the explanatory power of three major approaches in political science. Culturalism predicts that the traditional values underlying clientelism will corrode CCT implementation and lead to the distribution of the new benefits as political favors. Constructivism, by contrast, expects the modern, advanced principles embodied in CCTs sooner or later to create pressures for the transformation of traditional social programs and the abandonment of clientelism. But my extensive field research shows that neither of these approaches is convincing. Instead, non-clientelistic CCTs and traditional clientelistic programs exist side by side. This finding provides support for a rational-choice institutionalist approach that highlights the political-electoral incentives for politicians to target some constituencies with traditional clientelistic programs while appealing to others with modern, non-clientelistic CCTs. Moreover, poorer voters have incentives to obtain benefits in whatever way they are offered, entering into traditional exchange relationships to obtain clientelistic benefits while simultaneously complying with the objective criteria and conditions for receiving CCTs.

Life Chances in Turkey

Life Chances in Turkey
Author: Jesko Hentschel
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 110
Release: 2010-06-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0821384015

Children in Turkey have vastly different odds of success. Their paths are affected by factors over which they have no control, such as how wealthy or educated their parents and even grandparents are. By investing in its children and youth, Turkey can create a virtuous cycle whereby these children and youth contribute more to their country s economic growth and social development, helping to realize its ambitious goals.

Conditional Cash Transfers

Conditional Cash Transfers
Author: Ariel Fiszbein
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2009-02-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0821373536

Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs aim to reduce poverty by making welfare programs conditional upon the receivers' actions. That is, the government only transfers the money to persons who meet certain criteria. These criteria may include enrolling children into public schools, getting regular check-ups at the doctor's office, receiving vaccinations, or the like. They have been hailed as a way of reducing inequality and helping households break out of a vicious cycle whereby poverty is transmitted from one generation to another. Do these and other claims make sense? Are they supported by the available empirical evidence? This volume seeks to answer these and other related questions. Specifically, it lays out a conceptual framework for thinking about the economic rationale for CCTs; it reviews the very rich evidence that has accumulated on CCTs; it discusses how the conceptual framework and the evidence on impacts should inform the design of CCT programs in practice; and it discusses how CCTs fit in the context of broader social policies. The authors show that there is considerable evidence that CCTs have improved the lives of poor people and argue that conditional cash transfers have been an effective way of redistributing income to the poor. They also recognize that even the best-designed and managed CCT cannot fulfill all of the needs of a comprehensive social protection system. They therefore need to be complemented with other interventions, such as workfare or employment programs, and social pensions.

Adaptive Social Protection

Adaptive Social Protection
Author: Thomas Bowen
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 155
Release: 2020-06-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1464815755

Adaptive social protection (ASP) helps to build the resilience of poor and vulnerable households to the impacts of large, covariate shocks, such as natural disasters, economic crises, pandemics, conflict, and forced displacement. Through the provision of transfers and services directly to these households, ASP supports their capacity to prepare for, cope with, and adapt to the shocks they face—before, during, and after these shocks occur. Over the long term, by supporting these three capacities, ASP can provide a pathway to a more resilient state for households that may otherwise lack the resources to move out of chronically vulnerable situations. Adaptive Social Protection: Building Resilience to Shocks outlines an organizing framework for the design and implementation of ASP, providing insights into the ways in which social protection systems can be made more capable of building household resilience. By way of its four building blocks—programs, information, finance, and institutional arrangements and partnerships—the framework highlights both the elements of existing social protection systems that are the cornerstones for building household resilience, as well as the additional investments that are central to enhancing their ability to generate these outcomes. In this report, the ASP framework and its building blocks have been elaborated primarily in relation to natural disasters and associated climate change. Nevertheless, many of the priorities identified within each building block are also pertinent to the design and implementation of ASP across other types of shocks, providing a foundation for a structured approach to the advancement of this rapidly evolving and complex agenda.

Vulnerability and Protection of Refugees in Turkey

Vulnerability and Protection of Refugees in Turkey
Author: P. Facundo Cuevas
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2019
Genre:
ISBN:

Vulnerability and Protection of Refugees in Turkey: Findings from the Rollout of the Largest Humanitarian Cash Assistance Program in the World assesses the targeting performance and benefit level design of the Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) program for refugees in Turkey. It also provides a comprehensive look at the vulnerability of ESSN eligible households using a multidimensional lens, drawing from novel representative data. The ESSN provides monthly cash transfers to help the most vulnerable refugees meet their basic needs, and complement Turkey's response to the crisis. With near 4 million refugees, Turkey hosts more refugees than any other country in the world. The program is funded by the European Union member states, and implemented nationwide in partnership with the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services, the World Food Programme, and the Turkish Red Crescent. The study finds that the vulnerabilities of the ESSN refugee population are multiple and complex. Refugees in the ESSN program suffer from a shortage of resources today, but also resort to coping strategies that cripple their resource-generating capacity tomorrow. The ESSN targeting criteria are relatively effective in selecting the most vulnerable refugees, but exclude a share of the poor. This issue is starting to get addressed by decentralized allowances targeted with community-level information. The ESSN cash transfer value is found to be adequate to support basic needs. An untargeted design would have minimized exclusion errors, but would reach everybody with smaller transfers, insufficient to meet basic needs. Future analysis will focus on the impact of the transfers on household welfare.

Migration and Social Protection in Europe and Beyond (Volume 3)

Migration and Social Protection in Europe and Beyond (Volume 3)
Author: Jean-Michel Lafleur
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2020-11-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030512371

This third and last open access volume in the series takes the perspective of non-EU countries on immigrant social protection. By focusing on 12 of the largest sending countries to the EU, the book tackles the issue of the multiple areas of sending state intervention towards migrant populations. Two “mirroring” chapters are dedicated to each of the 12 non-EU states analysed (Argentina, China, Ecuador, India, Lebanon, Morocco, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey). One chapter focuses on access to social benefits across five core policy areas (health care, unemployment, old-age pensions, family benefits, guaranteed minimum resources) by discussing the social protection policies that non-EU countries offer to national residents, non-national residents, and non-resident nationals. The second chapter examines the role of key actors (consulates, diaspora institutions and home country ministries and agencies) through which non-EU sending countries respond to the needs of nationals abroad. The volume additionally includes two chapters focusing on the peculiar case of the United Kingdom after the Brexit referendum. Overall, this volume contributes to ongoing debates on migration and the welfare state in Europe by showing how non-EU sending states continue to play a role in third country nationals’ ability to deal with social risks. As such this book is a valuable read to researchers, policy makers, government employees and NGO’s.