Despite the overall successful pictureof sustained economic growth, a significant share ofRomanians live in absolute poverty and deep pockets ofpoverty still remain, pointing to the need of more inclusiveand effective social safety nets. During recent yearsRomania made efforts to redistribute the benefits of growthby keeping constant the share of GDP devoted to socialprotection; still, the per capita expenditure on the mainsocial assistance benefits is amongst the lowest in EU.Compared with the EU average, Romania has a good mix oftargeted/ non-targeted social assistance programs, but theyprovide only a modest protection of the poor against incomevulnerability, and at a relatively high cost.Takentogether, the safety net benefits cover 71 percent of thepoor. Some key issues and challenges for Romania are: The'leakages' of social assistance cash transfers hasincreased, while performance in covering the poverty gapweakened. Spending on poverty targeted programs hasdecreased relative to GDP and so has the capability of thesebenefits to adequately cover the basic needs of the poor.The high number of programs and the heterogeneity of theeligibility thresholds/criteria for different benefitstranslate into a rather fragmented and difficult to monitorsystem of social assistance benefits. The report describesseveral policy options or recommendations, among them:Strengthen social inclusion by increasing access of the poorto social assistance benefits. Improve effectiveness byfurther consolidation of the system and improved monitoring.Strengthen the linkages between social assistance,education, and labor policies.
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