Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean Social Protection Database
Most of the information on Latin American and Caribbean countries contained in the Social Assistance Explorer draws on the database on Non-contributory social protection programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean, maintained by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The ECLAC’s database provides information on conditional cash transfer programmes, social pensions and labour and productive inclusion programmes. Specifically, it provides data on investment, expenditure, coverage and –when it applies– amount of monetary transfers, as well as detailed information on the institutionality and the different components of these programmes. It also gives access to evaluations and studies conducted on these programmes.
ECLAC updates the qualitative and quantitative information of the database on a regular basis by gathering data from official country documents, unless other sources are cited. As of July 2018, the database contains information on 48 conditional cash transfer programmes, 29 social pensions and 75 labour and productive inclusion programmes.
The online database responds to a formal request from countries participating in the Regional Conference on Social Development, as expressed in its November 2015 Resolution 1(I): “Also requests the Commission to organize, maintain and systematically update the database of non-contributory social protection programmes in Latin America and the Caribbean, using official data provided by the countries for this purpose, and to publish this information on a regular basis on digital plat forms or in other media”.