Rio de Janeiro, November 15, 2024. As part of a concerted push towards the fight against
poverty and hunger, a group of governments, multilateral development banks, and UN agencies
are announcing expanded efforts and increased cooperation with a view to reach 500 million
people with the expansion of cash transfer programmes in low and lower middle-income countries
by 2030, while working to increase their quality and effectiveness in reducing hunger and poverty;
fully embed them in national registries and social protection systems, and prioritize families in
extreme poverty, women, children, people with disabilities, and marginalized groups. This initial
group of dedicated countries and organisations is paving the way, inviting others to join the efforts
in the months ahead.
The governments of Benin, Burundi, Chad, Chile, Ecuador, Lebanon, Liberia, Nigeria, Oman,
Palestine, Peru, Togo, Tunisia and Zambia are leading the push in the first tranche of governments
making such commitments, announcing plans to either create or improve national registries of
beneficiaries and payment systems, as a key part of the social protection infrastructure behind
successful cash transfer implementation and/or extend their programmes to additional
beneficiaries. A complete list of announcements is found at the end of this piece.
At the same time, the governments of Portugal and the UK are enhancing collaboration with public
organizations FAO, the IADB, ILO, UNICEF, WFP and the World Bank, as well as the non-profit
GiveDirectly, under the new Global Alliance, to scale up and systematize financial and knowledge
support to low and lower-middle income countries which would commit to implement, improve or
expand such programmes nationally.
The push on social protection benefits in the form of cash transfers is directly linked to the launch
of a Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, due on November 18 at the G20 Leaders’
Summit – an initiative launched by the G20 under Brazilian presidency which focuses on
supporting the adoption of national evidence-based policies and programmes directed at reducing
hunger and poverty. The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty´s Support Mechanism will
assist in the follow-up of the announced commitments and in the coordination efforts.
The case for action. Cash transfers are critical in themselves for ending poverty and hunger and
are also a critical building block of social protection and enabling other transformative impacts
through linking with both social services and economic empowerment programmes.
“A well implemented cash transfer programme can bring families out of poverty. It can also improve
nutrition, education and health outcomes, while promoting climate resilience, economic inclusion,
gender equality and helping to guard against gender-based violence and child-labour. Eradicating
child poverty is possible and within reach, with effective policy solutions, says UNICEF’s Regional
Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Karin Hulshof. “UNICEF is therefore working with
government and development partners in all contexts – including fragile and humanitarian, to
reach 1 billion children with cash benefits by 2030”.
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Togo´s experience shows the impact of such programmes. “Togo´s fully digital “Novissi”
cash transfer programme implemented for the first time during COVID-19 has proven to
be a great success, demonstrating impact in reducing extreme poverty and benefitting the
economy”, said Cina Lawson, Togo´s Minister of Digital Economy and Transformation.
With support from the World Bank´s IDA, we are doubling down on it with a new
programme to reach every qualified household and lift 1,24 million people out of poverty
by 2029”.
Despite an abundance of success stories from the past two decades, low-income and
lower-middle-income countries — in which poverty is mostly concentrated — still struggle
to extend social protection to those most in need, especially due to limited fiscal space, debt and
institutional capacity regarding human resources and existing infrastructure. Recent ILO data
shows that only 32.4 per cent of the population of lower-middle-income countries are covered by
at least one social protection benefit, and just 9.7 per cent of the population in low-income
countries.
Alignment of finance and knowledge for greater impact. Under the current push, initial
technical support to countries is to be mustered from different providers, which could be used to
prepare and mobilize larger lending operations through multilateral development banks (MDBs)
and seek access to concessional funds for these operations. Part of the effort will consist of the
exploring a virtual pooling facility which could combine financial contributions from several funds
and sources to reduce transaction costs and help implementing governments kick-start largerscale social protection benefits.
A better aligned support will enable countries to implement social protection strategies for poor
and vulnerable households, institute and operate the necessary tools, such as national registers
and digital payment systems, and shore up domestic resource mobilization to ultimately build
sustainable and adaptive large-scale cash transfer programmes. Technical and knowledge
support from development agencies, the MDBs, UNICEF, FAO, ILO, and WFP, notably, is also
core to this concerted push’s ambitions, providing direct support to programmes’ designs, capacity
strengthening and general institutional support to low- and middle-income countries.
The UK’s Development Minister Anneliese Dodds said: “Pioneering cash transfer programmes,
such as Brazil’s Bolsa Família and Mexico’s Oportunidades have shown what is possible when
much-needed funds are channelled towards the world’s most vulnerable people. For the first time,
a wide coalition of countries, donors and knowledge organisations is making a concerted effort to
go even further. This will support the growth of cash transfer programmes around the world, saving
and changing lives.”
Akihiko Nishio, World Bank´s Vice President for Development Finance and Director of the
International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank Group’s concessional lending arm
for lower income countries, said: “The World Bank has fully signed up to be a partner of the Global
Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty – and it will support that ambition through the IDA 21. The
Bank will work with governments and partners to accelerate progress towards the eradication of
poverty and zero hunger. Working through a fully replenished IDA, the World Bank will work to
extend social protection to 500 million people by 2030, including millions of households living
though extreme poverty and undernutrition and which could be reached through cash transfers”.
“Basic income security and access to health care without hardship are human rights but also
social, economic and political necessities to support people across their life course, especially in
the difficult times of multiple crises we are facing in today’s world. Cash benefits that ensure
income security for children, active age and older people are a key component of a social
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protection floor that all members of society should be able to stand on” affirms Gilbert
Houngbo, Director General of the International Labour Organisation. “The ILO supports
countries to build their national social protection systems, prioritizing floors, in particular
through technical advisory services but also through capacity building that enable
governments to ensure sound governance, administration and financial management in
their strive for reaching universal social protection.”
Early action on many fronts. Today’s commitments form part of a series of “2030
Sprints”, a concentrated effort pushed by the Brazilian G20 Presidency to motivate early
action and improved alignment from committed partners in the three pillars of the Global
Alliance (national, knowledge, finance) for six high-priority areas of its evidence-based “policy
basket”, including school meals, cash transfers, socioeconomic inclusion programs, maternal and
early childhood interventions and water access for vulnerable communities. The Global Alliance
Against Hunger and Poverty’s Support Mechanism will help following up on today’s commitments
and support further joint efforts. – Read More on the broader 2030 Sprints Announcements here.
“The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty is demonstrating its capacity for early action and
concrete results even before its formal launch, by bringing together political will from governments
and consistent support from finance and knowledge organizations”, says Wellington Dias, Minister
of Social Development and Assistance, Family, and Fight Against Hunger of Brazil. Dias is one of
the coordinators of the G20 Task Force which, under the Brazilian Presidency, helped design and
implement the Global Alliance. “But this is just the beginning. More governments and partners are
welcome to join in this effort in the months to come, as we need more scale and reach to fulfill our
vision. This is a sprint, but we are here for the long run”.
The 2030 Sprint for Cash Transfers is being announced as part of the 2030 Sprints
Announcements for the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, held today, November 15,
from 2 to 7pm at the auditorium in the Kobra Space in the G20 Social Summit in Rio, Plaza Mauá.
The event is open to the press and a live transmission link can be found here:
https://youtube.com/live/9jCw1ESr4b8?feature=share
SPECIFIC ANNOUNCEMENTS AND QUOTES BY 2030 SPRINT PARTICIPANTS
In addition to the above announcements, participants under the 2030 Sprint are today announcing
the following actions to expand coverage of cash transfer programmes in low and lower middleincome countries, while working to increase their quality and targeting; fully embed them in
national registries and social protection systems, and prioritizing families in extreme poverty,
women, children, people with disabilities, and marginalized groups:
Countries announced specific national ambitions regarding implementation and
development of cash transfer programmes:
- The Republic of Benin: based on its recent development of a single social registry of poor
and/or vulnerable households comprising 1,2 million individuals and seeks to expand
access of cash transfers and other social support measures, consolidating and scaling up
programmes which currently reach 100 thousand people. - The Republic of Burundi commits to expand and nationally co-finance its current World
Bank-supported cash transfer programme with the objective of extending the social safety
net across the whole country for the poor and vulnerable people, reaching 1.5 million
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people in 2025, while linking social protection to climate adaptation and response
program. Conditioned to additional support, it aims at reaching the objectives set
up by its national social protection policy, including the extension of cash transfers
to children of informal workers, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. - The Republic of Chad: Will inaugurate a cash transfers programme which will
cover 17 out of 23 provinces in the country and – with the necessary technical
support and south-south cooperation – build a national social registry to better
target households in poverty - The Republic of Chile: will expand its cash transfer programmes and strengthen
institutional and international partnerships to reach the most vulnerable people. Chile
commits to setting up a social protection floor to all children from households included in
the 2 most socioeconomically vulnerable household quintiles, notably through the
implementation of an automatic benefit of Chile’s family allowance. - The Republic of Ecuador will complete the modernization and full digitalisation of its cash
transfer programme to its 1,300,000 beneficiaries until 2025. - The Republic of Lebanon will mobilize domestic resources to operate an emergency
expansion of the National Disability Allowance to 40,000 additional beneficiaries to support
the extra costs of disability, compounded by the ongoing humanitarian crisis due to the
conflict escalation. In the mid-term, Lebanon will pursue its National Social Protection
Strategy, expanding statutory coverage, strengthening, and institutionalizing the social
grants programmes. - The Republic of Liberia aims to improve, expand and perpetuate its currently time-limited
cash transfer programme benefitting 16,000 beneficiary households with quarterly mobile
money transfers, focusing on female recipients - The Federal Republic of Nigeria will expand the coverage of its existing national social
register to include more communities and poor and vulnerable households previously
missing from it; increase the number of beneficiaries of the national cash Transfer
Programme; and introduce co-responsibility and livelihood follow-up components - The State of Palestine announces that it will extend existing cash transfers for persons
with severe disabilities and older persons to Gaza, moving to monthly payments where
applicable, using digital payments to individual beneficiaries. - The Republic of Peru: aims at further expanding its flagship cash transfer programme,
“Juntos”, supporting the development of children and youth, as well as fighting against
poverty. To respond to the existing coverage gaps, Peru announces that it will cover
878,175 households by 2030, as well as providing 446,488 households with an additional
benefit to support the early childhood and 439,063 households with children in secondary
school. - The Sultanate of Oman: after having achieved a 100% no poverty indicator with respect
to SDG 1 in 2024, Oman recommits to cash transfers, to sharing its experience and to
enhancing its social protection system by, among other measures, extending mandatory
coverage to the migrant worker population by 2026.
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annoucements - The Togolese Republic: Announces its commitment to lift 1.24 million people out
of poverty by 2029 through a new flagship cash transfer programme, the Togo
Social Assistance Transformation for Resilience Programme, which will build on its
experience with a 100% digital cash-transfer implemented during COVID-19, and
will expand coverage of cash transfers from 25% of Togo´s adult population to all
identified extreme poor households with a focus on women. - The Republic of Tunisia: aims to expand its social protection coverage with cash
transfers for 380,000 poor households, allowances for 700,000 children from
vulnerable families, school grants for 600,000 students, benefits for families with
persons with disabilities, and social coverage for female agricultural workers. By focusing
on nutrition, education, and health, the goal is to reduce overall poverty by 25% and child
poverty by half, while strengthening the AMEN SOCIAL system for better governance of
cash benefits - The Republic of Zambia: aims at further improving its major social protection intervention,
the Social Cash Transfer Programme, which benefits over 1.3 million households across
the country, implementing a cash-plus approach to step up its efficacy regarding long-term
positive impacts on nutrition, learning.
Governments, multilateral development banks and international organizations announced
the following measures for financial and knowledge support to countries implementing
cash transfers worldwide: - The Portuguese Republic announces it will provide knowledge support to other Global
Alliance partners, based on Portugal’s experience on cash-based transfers to vulnerable
children in order to assist countries with setting up and expanding cash transfers focused
on children. - The United Kingdom is supporting national social protection systems with cash transfers
at their core, with a particular focus on the most fragile contexts. It is providing technical
assistance to partner countries to strengthen their cash transfer programmes, has provided
assistance to the Alliance Taskforce, and continues to fund analytical work including on a
virtual pooling facility for social protection and cash transfers. - Inter-American Development Bank: The IADB will provide – subject to the approval of its
board – an estimated USD 25 billion from 2025 to 2030 to support country-owned, countryled implementation of policies and programmes included in the Global Alliance’s reference
basket, including cash transfer programmes, to accelerate progress against poverty and
hunger and the achievement of SDGs. The IDB also commits that 50% of IDB newly
approved projects will directly benefit the poor, especially women, people of African
descent, and indigenous peoples – those most affected by poverty. Also, 60% of newly
approved projects by the IDB Lab will directly benefit poor and vulnerable populations. And
the IDB will serve as a key financing hand to the Alliance through the reallocation of SDR
to Multilateral Development Banks. For every $1 billion equivalent of SDR channeled
through the IDB, the IDB will generate approximately $7 billion in additional financing. This
could result in an additional: 4 million families in extreme poverty receiving cash transfers,
enhancing their income and food security. The IADB is also ready to provide analytic, policy
and operational support to countries through knowledge transfer and partnerships. - FAO aims to expand its support to up to 14 additional countries for the implementation of
adequate cash transfer programmes to rural populations, with a specific focus on ensuring
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that these are adapted to different population groups, including women. More
specifically, this includes unconditional cash transfers, environmentally conditioned
cash transfers (E-CCTs), Anticipatory Action (AA) and Shock Responsive Social
Protection (SRSP). FAO will coordinate the development of a support package for
countries interested in designing and implementing E-CCTs and stands ready to
respond to requests for support from country governments channelled through the
Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty. - ILO: Given sufficient resources and based on country requests, ILO, will provide
technical expertise and capacity building to countries, including through its
International Training Centre in Turin, in order to strengthen social protection systems and
ensure sustainable and adequate financing, sound governance and robust delivery
structures, prioritizing the building and strengthening of social protection floors in line with
international social security standards. This includes child and family support/benefits,
disability benefits, maternity protection/benefits, unemployment benefits, public works,
employment guarantee schemes and social pensions and other policy instruments from
the Policy Basket of the Global Alliance. Until the end of 2025, the ILO aims to support 34
Member States to develop new or revise existing measures in this regard, prioritizing
countries that have ratified related ILO conventions, countries that participate in the ILO’s
Global Flagship Programme on Building Social Protection Floors for All or in the UN’s
Global Accelerator for Jobs and Social Protection. - UNICEF In 2023, 106.5 million households were reached with cash transfer programmes
supported by UNICEF. UNICEF will increase its prioritization to the scaling up of child
benefits to reduce poverty and yield wider positive social and economic impacts.
Specifically, UNICEF will work to increase support to governments, jointly with key
partners, in doubling current coverage and ensuring 1 billion children have access to child
benefits by 2030. - WFP will support national governments to reach 850 million people through integrated
social protection in 2025, in collaboration with key partners. WFP’s ambition is ensuring
that the most vulnerable populations are included in social protection systems, especially
in the most fragile contexts. WFP’s support focuses on strengthening national social
protection systems for better preparedness and response to climate-related shocks and
other types of crises, and for greater impact on food security and nutrition and its link to
poverty. - The World Bank Group: commits to scaling up social protection programs, working
alongside partners to support at least 500 million people in developing countries by 2030—
aiming for half of those to be women and girls, including through its International
Development Association (IDA). Cash transfers play a foundational role to support specific
national social protection strategies that both protect against risks and promote productive
opportunities. - GiveDirectly aims to expand the evidence-based use of cash transfers to address poverty,
food security and hunger and build resilience and commits to: - 1. Pursue innovation and evidence building on the most effective use of cash to
address poverty and hunger. - 2. Driving more use of unconditional cash – providing dignity and choice to recipients
by governments and other actors – including transformative large cash transfers.
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annoucements - 3. Supporting governments with the technology and systems to maximise
effective targeting and delivery of cash. - 4. Delivering more cash ourselves – whilst building government capacity –
aiming to reach up to $1.5bn in cash delivered by 2030.”
PRESS AND MEDIA CONTACTS:
Press inquiries should be sent to:
G20 Presidency – Brazil
Carlos Alberto Jr. – Press@g20.gov.br
Brazil – Ministry of Social Development and Assistance, Family and Fight Against Hunger –
imprensa@mds.gov.br
Chile – Verónica Marín – vmarin@desarrollosocial.gob.cl
FAO – Fernando Reyes Pantoja – fernando.reyespantoja@fao.org
GiveDirectly – yonah.lieberman@givedirectly.org
ILO – Denise Santos – santosd@ilo.org
Liberia – Henry Sumo – hsumo@liberiasp.gov.lr
Nigeria – National Social Safety Net Coordinating Office
Funmi Olotu – funmiolotu@nassp.gov.ng
Ambassador B B Hamma – bukar.hamman@foreignaffairs.gov.ng
Tunisia – Press services of the Ministry of Social Affairs – presse.social@social.gov.tn
UK – Esther Obikoya – esther.obikoya@fcdo.gov.uk
UNICEF – Immaculada Prieto – iprieto@unicef.org
WFP: wfp.media@wfp.org
World Bank Group – Kristyn Schrader-King – kschrader@worldbank.org
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty
https://globalallianceagainsthungerandpoverty.org/
The Global Alliance was put forward by the G20 with the purpose of accelerating progress toward
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of eradicating hunger and poverty. The Alliance’s
approach (set out in more detail in this fact sheet) focuses on supporting country-owned
programmes and evidence-based approaches through strengthened international coop
