Social Safety Net Project Additional Financing

About the project

The Project includes four components: (1) Improving equity, integration, and sustainability of selected social safety net programs to support improvements in targeting and delivery of integrated benefits and services and exit strategy of less vulnerable population; (2) Technical assistance (TA) for institutional strengthening of the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion (MIES), the Social Registry Unit (SRU), and the Ministry of Health (MoH); (3) Provision of Cash Transfers; and (4) Contingent Emergency Response.

The Project aims to:
(i) Consolidate the social registry as the targeting tool for all social programs at the national and local level. The project will strengthen the Social Registry’s data updating process and its regulatory framework and will improve the accuracy of the beneficiary selection mechanism for selected social programs. The project will support the implementation of the Social Registry’s permanent update model (Modelo de Actualización Permanente, MAP ), which relies on strategic alliances with subnational governments (at the municipal and provincial levels) to improve accessibility and frequency in updating information. The registry targets vulnerable populations, including vulnerable migrant and refugee families. The project will work to expand outreach and targeting of refugee and migrant families with the support of UNHCR, based on their database and direct contact with refugees.

(ii) Expand coverage of a package of cash transfers and Early Childhood Development – ECD services (ECD counseling services provided by Creciendo con Nuestros Hijos (CNH), or childcare centers provided by Centros de Desarrollo Infantil (CDI), both managed by the Ministry of Social and Economic Inclusion, MIES) for poor families with children up to three years of age, including both parenting services and childcare. Migrant children will receive a component of this program expansion, mainly consisting of increased access to ECD services, while Ecuadorian families will access ICD and additionally receive cash transfers.

(iii) Expand coverage of key components of the prioritized package of health and nutrition services, including well-child checkups (in which health professionals assess the child’s development, track vaccine coverages and measure and register weight, length or height and plots these on a growth chart, among other things). Migrants and refugees are eligible for the well-child checkups, independent of their migratory status.

In terms of location, the Project will operate at national scale/level with priority parishes with high levels of malnutrition and poverty. The implementation of the Project will include the geographic areas with a higher concentration of migrants and refugees in Ecuador, such as the provinces of Pichincha, Guayas, Manabí and Azuay.

Project Development Objective (PDO)

The Project’s Development Objective (PDO) is to improve the equity, integration, and sustainability of selected social safety net programs, and in case of an eligible crisis or emergency, respond promptly and effectively to it.