advised to carefully think through doing so more effectively as well as using other programs for the medium to long term. A review of international experience suggests the following broad guidelines to build upon in developing comprehensive safety net programs.

- The route cause for poverty must not be overlooked in designing safety net schemes.  The most sustainable way of reducing poverty over the long-term is to ensure that policies protect economic growth and promote employment.

- The design of an effective public expenditure program that supports economic growth and employment needs to be a key component of a comprehensive strategy for safety nets.  Thus, for example, a public expenditure program that links safety net programs with creating rural infrastructure and ties cash transfers with basic health and education (i.e. conditional cash transfer programs) is likely to yield better outcomes in terms of social protection than those which provide generalized subsidies.

- Reduction of various vulnerabilities emerging from natural disasters and lack of access to credit would need to be a key component of an effective safety net strategy.  Micro credit schemes, for example, have played an important safety net role in a number of South Asian countries, especially Bangladesh.  Formal insurance schemes for ex-ante risk reduction can also be very helpful, but they are almost non-existent in South Asia. Most importantly, South Asia is yet to develop a comprehensive strategy to address the vulnerabilities emerging from climate change and lack of cross-boundary water cooperation.

- Cash transfer programs are preferred to food or other in-kind transfers because cash increases the purchasing power of households and provides households with choices of how they meet their most pressing needs. Examples of conditional cash transfers that have worked well include the Food-for-Education Program in Bangladesh, Mexico’s PROGRESA program and the Bolsa Escola in Brazil.

- The development impact of food based programs can be strengthened with the use of nutritionally fortified grains. A small share of food based safety net programs use fortified grains and a recent IFPRI evaluation in Bangladesh highlights their potential. Estimates show that providing vitamin A and zinc supplements are a highly cost-effective intervention when one takes into account the longer term development benefits of a well nourished child.

- A common difficulty of implementing targeted programs during crises arises especially in countries which do not have a well designed and effective program in place.   In such cases, it may be more feasible to focus on existing self targeted programs that can be scaled up relatively quickly.  Well known examples of these programs in South Asia are the food for works program and the employment guarantee schemes.  The food for works program target unemployed workers to support the creation of infrastructure, such as rural roads or irrigation schemes. On average these programs have worked well, although the monitoring of administration and accountability needs to be strengthened.

- Concerning, employment guarantee schemes, the best known example in South Asia is the Maharashtra’s EGS. In 2007, India initiated an even more ambitious National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).  Bangladesh has

32