Agriculture, Food and Rural Development Thematic Group event
(Tentative date: January 31, 2025)
Cash transfers, or the provision of money to people by the state, reach hundreds of million people worldwide. But when did they start, and how did they spread over countries and centuries? How did past practices look like, and how did they evolve? Why, despite compelling evidence, are policymakers sometimes skeptical about cash transfers? Drawing from his new book Timely Cash, the talk by Ugo Gentilini explores those questions by tracing cash transfers over history, codifying diversity in experiences, and identifying recurrent patterns. In doing so, the analysis may help illuminate the roots of modern cash transfer dilemmas and reveal how the past can offer surprising lessons for contemporary debates
Speaker: Ugo Gentilini serves as Lead Economist for Social Protection and Jobs at the World Bank. Over the past years, he spearheaded a range of analytical and operational activities on adaptive social protection, reforming energy and food subsidies, financing social assistance, stress-testing of social protection systems, enhancing food security and nutrition-sensitive programming, implementing safety nets in urban areas and slums, connecting with humanitarian assistance in fragile settings, and integrating social assistance, insurance and jobs. Recently, Ugo led 25 editions of real-time codification of COVID-19 and inflation responses worldwide; was a team member of the WDR on The Changing Nature of Work; co-authored and SPJ’s White Paper Protecting All: Risk Sharing for a Diverse and Diversifying World of Work; led books like Exploring Universal Basic Income; and co-founded The State of Social Safety Nets flagship. Before joining the World Bank in 2013, he spent a decade with the UN World Food Programme, including supporting the organization’s early phases of cash transfers piloting, evidence generation, and policy formulation. Ugo holds a PhD in Development Economics and produces a weekly social protection newsletter with a wide global reach (www.ugogentilini.net).
Discussants: TBC
Moderator: Preeti S. Ahuja, Chair of the Agriculture, Food & Rural Development Thematic Group at the 1818 Society of World Bank Group alumni. Preeti is a highly seasoned development practitioner with an entrepreneurial mindset. Her career spans over three decades at premier international development agencies such as the World Bank, FAO and Inter-American Development Bank, where she has worked in senior advisory, managerial, technical and/or operational roles. She also brings strong private sector (management & economic consulting, and commercial banking) experience from her early career. Currently, as a senior advisor (consultant) with FAO, Preeti is providing strategic and technical advice to Investment Center management and staff on developing new business streams, unlocking new sources of development finance, strengthening analytical product quality and partnerships, while mentoring and coaching a new leadership cadre. She volunteers with Bankers without Borders/Grameen Foundation, advising on Asia & Pacific Region agri-business operations and sectoral development. She also serves on the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council, an opt-in research community, advising HBR on strategic content and strategic directions. Preeti brings a strong record in impactful strategy formulation and policy reforms, and delivery of innovative investment programs and analytics, to drive effective agri-food systems transformation for rural development, food and nutrition security, environmental sustainability, and climate resilience. Preeti holds degrees from Delhi University, Boston University and INSEAD, France.
Registrations:
In person (MC1-860) 1818 Society conference room
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