in middle income countries about to of the intended beneficiaries are reached with an increasing role for social assistance rather than social insurance benefits hi lowincome countries only a quarter of the intended benefit population is covered and on average less than of the intended beneficiaries are covered by social insurance benefits there are two major types i skills development and training and ii cashor foodforwork programmes however cash for work programmes do not improve skills and in themselves do not offer opportunities to participants to escape poverty the challenge is to improve these programmes so that they contribute to the transition to more productive employment and more and better jobs