Social protection needs urgent reimagining in the light of growing pressures and opportunities, according to new research published today in the IDS Bulletin.
Social protection provides a lifeline for people living in poverty, and recently the world passed a milestone with more than half the world covered by at least one social protection benefit. And yet with half the world lacking access, current social protection measures fall well short of what is needed to eliminate extreme poverty.
The research, published in the IDS Bulletin, Reimagining Social Protection, reflects on the role social protection plays in a shifting, uncertain, and volatile global context. It finds three key dynamics are driving this need for change.
- The politics of social protection. Despite the successes of social protection programmes and policies during the last two decades, political commitment is wavering, and the international community is scaling back its spending.
- Social protection in crisis settings. Rising humanitarian crises and increasing numbers of displaced populations are placing strain on systems, raising questions about the suitability of social protection as a response to emergency situations.
- Inclusive and innovative social protection. Growing uncertainty and crises are leading to new challenges. Whilst improvements in social protection have enabled rapid expansion, work is needed to ensure that coverage is inclusive of and sensitive to persistent and newly emerging vulnerabilities.
The research published is based on evidence from countries across Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and south Asia. It was edited by IDS researchers Stephen Devereux, Rachel Sabates-Wheeler, Jeremy Lind and Keetie Roelen from The Open University and draws on key insights and lessons from an international conference on ‘Reimagining Social Protection in a Time of Global Uncertainty’, held at the Institute of Development Studies in September 2023.
Some examples of the research findings include:
- In Africa, considerable political obstacles to the expansion of social protection persist. The international community is scaling back its funding of social protection programmes and trying to persuade governments to bear the financing burden, but the Covid-19 pandemic failed to trigger lasting reforms in most countries, and social protection is rarely a significant issue at elections.
- For social protection to be successful among refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people, it needs to be modified to take into account the higher poverty and vulnerability rates, on average, that those groups will have compared to the host population. They will also face major issues getting registered for social protection and could be disadvantaged by biases in community-based targeting.
- In Peru, indigenous peoples have benefitted less than other groups from the region’s expansion of social protection. During the Covid-19 pandemic, for example, interventions took inadequate account of remote living conditions, lack of public services, and poor infrastructure. The research finds that indigenous peoples require effective participation in the definition of social protection strategies in their territories.
The future of social protection
The global context today is characterised by a range of emerging and intensifying challenges and uncertainties, including post-Covid-19 recovery; the cost-of-living crisis; unprecedented climate change; and rising numbers of protracted wars and political instability, leading to mass displacement and migration.
Social protection is firmly on the agenda in most low- and middle-income countries and the challenge remaining for social protection advocates is to support governments and civil society actors to move towards nationally chosen and locally appropriate holistic social protection systems, via more inclusive and responsive programming.
However, as the contributions in this IDS Bulletin show, it is now time to ensure that acknowledgements translate into meaningful action and tangible change for beneficiaries, especially those who are most vulnerable and marginalised. Innovation will be vital to these efforts.
At the same time, it will be important to strike a balance between leveraging new technologies and doing things differently, to reach as many people as quickly and efficiently as possible and ensuring no one falls between the cracks, while at the same time safeguarding digital rights and civil liberties.
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