What Is a Safety Net

The programs we here include as common elements in a safety net follow  

The following further clarifies what this book does and does not consider under the rubric of safety nets. 

Because we define safety nets rather narrowly, their costs are lower than some people associate with safety nets. In Uruguay, for example, total social sector expenditure (social assistance, social insurance, health, education, and other) is quite high—accounting for between 20 and 25 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) between 2000 and 2005—but expenditures on safety nets per se are only 0.5 percent of GDP (World Bank 2007g). On average, expenditures on safety nets as we define them account for 1 to 2 percent of GDP, though sometimes much less or much more. 

A last point on terminology Throughout the book, it is presumed that readers are familiar with policy areas such as social protection, social risk management, or poverty reduction, and the distinct but related concepts of poverty, vulnerability to poverty, vulnerable groups social risk management instruments or arrangements safety nets, social protection or social policy. For those who are not, a briefing is provided in appendix A 

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