Social Protection Transfers for Chronically Poor People

There are very large numbers of chronically and severely poor people who are not being reached by current development policies, and whose situation is often deteriorating in comparison even with other poor people. Around half of these are children, at risk of growing up poor and, in turn, passing their poverty on to their children. 100 million are older people, many of whom are caring for grandchildren without financial support. Millions of others are long-term poor subsistence farmers or workers earning inadequate wages to meet their basic needs. Social protection policies aim to address both severe and long-term poverty, and to reduce vulnerability, and are thus one of the most significant areas of policy for chronically and severely poor people. [CPRC Policy Brief 2].