The objective of this policy note is todevelop a set of actionable recommendations for tacklingpoverty and social exclusion in Poland based on evidence. Inrecent years, the World Bank has deepened its engagement inPoland around issues of social inclusion, through work oneffective labor market and activation policies, socialassistance benefits, and investment financing for localsocial inclusion initiatives. This note purports tointegrate the outputs of these activities and complementthem with insights from the new analytical work to developrecommendations for the government of Poland for programchoices to enhance the impact of inclusion programs andemployment services. This policy note is structured asfollows: (i) introduction; (ii) section two provides adefinition of social inclusion and describes the countrycontext by key trends and key groups at risk of socialexclusion; (iii) section three provides an overview of theinstitutional set-up to deliver policies for socialinclusion at the national and local level and presents anassessment of the achievements and challenges of key policyinstruments (employment services, social benefits, socialservices, and the work of civil society); (iv) section fourfocuses on two recent operational experiences of relevanceto a future operation: an assessment of the execution of theEuropean Social Fund in Poland against the social and laboragendas and a presentation of the learning generated throughthe social inclusion component of the World Bank PostAccession Rural Support Project; and (v) section fiveillustrates areas for potential intervention at the policyand operational level in Poland. Recognizing that socialinclusion outcomes are the result of a complex set offactors on the demand and supply side,recommendationsinclude macro-level institutional reforms and changes tolocal service delivery for inclusion of vulnerable groups,mobilization and capacity support, strategies for localemployment generation, and monitoring and accountability support.
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