Vulnerability and Poverty Reduction (VPR) team members work to address key challenges to the extension of social protection.

In recent years social protection has risen rapidly up the policy agenda of many governments, donors, international organisations and NGOs. A growing body of evidence shows that measures such as cash transfer programmes positively impact people's lives, reducing poverty and vulnerability and strengthening livelihoods.

However, there remain substantial challenges to the extension of social protection to all people which include:

• We need to strengthen the linkages between social protection policy and multidimensional approaches to the analysis of poverty, risk and vulnerability.
• We need open, independent and critical networks to share across regions and countries innovative work on the design, delivery and evaluation of social protection interventions.
• We need to link research with capacity building and advocacy, in order to support campaigns for the right to social protection, and to ensure that practitioners and policymakers have the information and analytical tools to advocate for social protection effectively and credibly.

IDS also hosts the Centre for Social Protection (CSP), a global hub for research, policy analysis, and capacity building on social protection. CSP advances thinking, policy and practice in social protection by:

• Creating knowledge about social protection policies and evaluating the impacts of social protection programmes.
• Mobilising networks of researchers, policymakers and practitioners to exchange knowledge and advocate for change.
• Strengthening capacities to shape and implement social protection policies.

To contact the CSP team please e-mail socialprotection@ids.ac.uk