The State of Economic Inclusion Report 2024

The State of Economic Inclusion Report (SEI) 2024 explores efforts to scale up economic inclusion programs - bundles of coordinated, multidimensional interventions that support individuals, households, and communities to sustainably increase their incomes and assets - in the context of overlapping crisis. These programs transform the economic lives of the poorest and most vulnerable people, building their resilience and creating job opportunities. The report features data from 405 programs across 88 countries, benefiting over 70 million individuals either directly or indirectly. This marks almost doubling in the number of programs and nearly a 50 percent increase in coverage since the SEI 2021 report. Governments continue to lead in scaling up these economic inclusion programs, covering nearly three-fourths of program participants. However, non-governmental programs have also significantly contributed to the increase in coverage in recent years, in addition to serving as both service providers and capacity building providers for governments. The report offers five important contributions: 1) Positioning economic inclusion programs as crucial for building resilience and providing job opportunities for the poor and vulnerable in the face of overlapping crises. 2) Analyzing the global landscape over the past three years, highlighting the extent to which economic inclusion programs are being customized for diverse contexts and groups, including a cross-cutting focus on gender. 3) Reviewing progress and challenges in the design and implementation of government-led programs, including the interplay with communities, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. 4) Examining the emerging agenda of designing economic inclusion programs to enhance the long-term climate resilience of poor and vulnerable individuals and communities. 5) Featuring three spotlights that unpack emerging evidence from government-led programs, customization strategies targeting youth, and the increasing role of digital tools and technologies in program delivery. Data from the report are available on the PEI Data Portal (www.peiglobal.org).