Page 5 - kpiebook62001

Abstract

This study of ‘welfare card’, a Thailand poverty targeted welfare scheme, have two main

objectives. The first one is to explore the scheme’s underlying ideas, prerequisite conditions and

possible issues. The second is to conduct a comparative study of challenges associate with poverty

targeting schemes in both developing countries and developed countries, including Indonesia,

China, India, the Great Britain and Sweden, in order to obtain lessons. We mainly study from formal
documents, topped with information from interviews with policymakers and focus groups with

beneficiaries.

We find that welfare card is very similar to previous schemes in Thailand in terms of

residualism. While flagging poverty and inequality alleviation as the main standpoint, the key

differences of this scheme are its large- scale poverty targeting, its emphasis on government

spending efficiency, and its opposition to market intervention. The scheme also views the

stimulation of grass-root economy as a key by-product. In terms of problems, this scheme still

lacks a clearly defined channel in achieving its goals. Funding is repeatedly drawn from central

fund which is not sustainable. It also lacks project assessment and long-term planning. Moreover,
case studies from developing countries reveal various challenges of poverty targeting schemes

such as inclusion and exclusion error, administration cost, and the diversions of benefit allocation

through political influence.

In addition, the case study of Great Britain shows that the country’s systematic shift of

welfare provision toward more targeting since the 1970s was related to the worsening inequality

circumstances, and led to the loss of middle class’s support for welfare schemes. On the other

hand, the universal welfare in Sweden not only avoids targeting error, but helps promote women’s
participation in labour force. Sweden’s generous universal welfare also attracts support from the

middle class. All of these contributed to Sweden being a more equal society.

With all these findings, we suggest that welfare card scheme make a cautious attempt to

review and revise aspects such as policy objectives, operational issues. The government also needs

to make a careful strategic decision on how the poverty targeting programs such as the welfare

scheme will combine with other welfare schemes.