Part 1 of this blog – available at the Development Pathways website – argued that the World Bank’s long-term advocacy of poverty targeted schemes as the basis for the tax-financed side of social protection systems contradicts messages from its own research. This blog argues that the World Bank’s promotion of social registries also contradicts the organisation’s own research, this time into the COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Bank’s ‘State of Social Protection Report 2025: The 2-Billion Person Challenge’ shows that it is not learning its own lessons – Part 2 – www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org

Insights and repeated errors …

The World Bank’s State of Social Protection Report 2025: The 2-Billion Person Challenge shows that it is not learning its own lessons – Development Pathways

Today, more people have access to social protection now than at any point in history. Over the last decade, 4.7 billion people across low- and middle-income countries gained access to social protection. However, critical gaps remain. Two billion people in those countries remain uncovered or inadequately covered by social protection.

The State of Social Protection Report 2025: The 2-Billion-Person Challenge documents advances and challenges to strengthening social protection and labor systems across low- and middle-income countries and discusses avenues to gradually close the coverage and adequacy gap for the world’s poorest.