Institute of Development Studies

Adaptive Social Protection

Poor and vulnerable people in developing countries are facing ever greater and deeper shocks and stresses to their livelihoods. These include those of a global nature, such as the 2007 financial crisis, as well as more localised ones, for example floods and droughts. All make it increasingly difficult for poor people's usual coping and risk-management strategies to prove effective in protecting their livelihoods - with often dire implications for their wellbeing.

Efforts to reduce the impacts of these shocks and stresses, and reduce vulnerability for at-risk communities, have largely focused on one of three main types of interventions: social protection, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation - with little cross-fertilisation between the three.

Adaptive social protection (ASP) is a new, integrated approach to reduce vulnerability of the poor in developing countries. It is premised on:

• an understanding of the interlinked nature of the shocks and stresses that poor rural and urban people face today, and
• the potential synergies to be gained in moving away from single stranded approaches to risk and vulnerability reduction.

See the Eldis Key Issues guide on adaptive social protection for more information.

Who we are

The Adaptive Social Protection in the Context of Agriculture and Food Security programme (ASP Programme) is a UK Department for International Development (DFID) funded programme exploring the benefits of an interlinked approach to risk reduction and resilience building in rural areas of developing countries. It is taking into account evidence from social protection, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction approaches from field studies in South Asia and East Africa. 

Find out more About the ASP Programme

Take a look at the Adaptive Social Protection project details

Join the ASP network and sign up to the ASP newsletter by emailing: asp@ids.ac.uk

You might also be interested in another IDS project, 'Strengthening Climate Resilience', which looks at integrating climate and disaster resilience.

Past ASP Events

Making Social Protection Work for Pro-Poor Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation - International Workshop

Dates: 14 Mar 2011 - 17 March 2011

Making Social Protection Work for Pro-Poor Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation, an International Workshop was held in March 2011 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.




There are no current Events

Adaptive Social Protection News

15 May 12 Towards sustainable development: Have your say



IDS hosts debate on how integrating social protection, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction can contribute to sustainable development.





13 Mar 12 Strengthening resilience to climate and disaster



A year after Japan’s tsunami, how could three different communities of practice work together to strengthen poor people’s resilience to shocks caused by climate change and disasters?





04 Jan 12 IDS / World Bank report calls for integration of Social Protection, Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction



Drawing on international meeting, a new report underscores how collaborating and sharing knowledge across the three fields can better address vulnerability and poverty in the face of climate change.





29 Jun 11 CSP Newsletter July Issue 17 Social Protection for Social Justice conference



This edition highlights some of the key findings of the recent "Social Protection for Social Justice" conference held at IDS in April.





25 Oct 10 Protecting livelihoods of the poorest from the impacts of climate change



New Eldis resource on Adaptive Social Protection, whcih combines key elements of social protection, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in policy and practice.

ASP Publications

• Christophe Béné (2012) 'Social Protection and Resilience to Climate and Disaster', Programme Briefing , Brighton: IDS
• (2011) 'Social Protection and Climate Resilience'
• Devereux, S., Béné, C., Chopra, D., Koehler, G., Roelen, K., Sabates-Wheeler, R. and te Lintelo, D. (2011) 'Social Protection for Social Justice', IDS Bulletin 42.6, Brighton: IDS
• Arnall, A., Oswald, K., Davies, M., Mitchell, T. and Coirolo, C. (2010) 'Adaptive Social Protection: Mapping the Evidence and Policy Context in the Agriculture Sector in South Asia', IDS Working Paper 345, Brighton: IDS
• Davies, M. and Leavy, J. (2009) 'Connecting Social Protection and Climate Change Adaptation', IDS In Focus Policy Briefing 2.3, Brighton: IDS
• Mitchell, T., Sabates-Wheeler, R., Devereux, S., Tanner, T, Davies, M. and Leavy, J. (2008) 'Rural disaster risk-poverty interface'