Social Safety Nets in the Western Balkans: Design, Implementation, and Performance

This chapter provides a comparative perspective on the design, implementation, financing, and performance of the noncontributory cash transfer programs (social assistance) across the six countries in the Western Balkan region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia) and benchmarks their performance against similar programs in other countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The means-tested last-resort social assistance programs that exist in all six Western Balkan countries are the primary focus of the analysis. This chapter examines their core features, taking stock of basic indicators of their scope and performance and reviewing their financing, institutional setup, eligibility criteria, main design aspects, and implementation processes in the context of the main functions of social protection—the three “P”s for resilience and opportunity: (1) prevention against drop in well-being, income, and expenditure shocks; (2) protection from destitution and losses of human capital; and (3) promotion of human capital development, opportunities, livelihoods, and better jobs (World Bank. Building Resilience and Opportunity. The World Bank’s Social Protection and Labor Strategy 2012-2022. Concept Note for CODE Review. The World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011; Grosh et al. For Protection & Promotion: The Design and Implementation of Effective Safety Nets. The World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008).