Leveraging Nepal's Existing Social Protection Programs to Improve Covid-19 Response

Overview

Out of Nepal's existing social protection programs, the Child Grant program reaches the most vulnerable households. Research shows that it may be optimal to distribute Covid-19-related cash transfers to beneficiaries through this existing channel.

Key Insights

• The Child Grant program could be a useful mechanism for Nepal’s Covid-19 social protection response, since it already reaches 48% of all households and 54% of food-insecure households (compared to less than 20% coverage by all other existing social security programs).
• Distributing Covid-19-related benefits via banks is not optimal, since only 24% of child grant beneficiaries receive their benefits via bank accounts.
• By contrast, providing benefits in cash at the ward level would be optimal, since 64% of child grant beneficiaries receive their benefits this way. Such an approach would also leverage Nepal’s Federal structure.