Credit: The BOMA project
According to The State of Economic Inclusion (SEI) Report 2021: The Potential to Scale, economic inclusion programming is surging globally, driven by the scale-up of government-led programs that build on social protection, livelihoods and jobs, and financial inclusion interventions. In fact, in the World Bank’s overall COVID-19 response, economic inclusion programs are an essential part of a policy toolkit to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensure food security, and support a medium-term recovery.
The survey identified 219 economic inclusion programs in 75 countries reaching over 90 million people, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Data from the survey are now available on PEI’s open source Data Portal. The portal consists of a Landscape Dashboard with an overview of active economic inclusion programs, coverage, objectives, target groups, and more (figure 1). A Costing Dashboard and a Program Database are available as well.