Social Assistance Systems in Crisis Situations: Resilient, Responsive and Sensitive?

Evidence on what enables social assistance systems to deliver routinely, effectively and efficiently is limited in crisis situations. Shock-responsive social protection (SRSP) and adaptive social protection (ASP) have become popular in global and national development discourses. Yet, their operationalisation in protracted crises is narrow and less well understood.

Regarding SRSP, focus has shifted towards how existing social protection programmes might be scaled and flexed in crisis situations. However, the focus seems fixed entirely on what makes social protection and humanitarian assistance responsive – to the detriment of understanding what makes those systems resilient and able to maintain business continuity in protracted crises. Little attention is paid to how to sustain delivery of existing programmes, on which millions of poor and vulnerable households depend.