Adaptive Social Protection: Building Resilience to Shocks

At the time of finalizing this publication on Adaptive Social Protection (ASP), the world entered the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left no country unaffected by its sweeping impacts. Although the long-term trajectory of these widespread health, economic, and social impacts is uncertain, its immediate consequences have already resulted in significant losses in terms of lives and livelihoods. A period of prolonged, often extreme, hardship is being endured by many who are undergoing social distancing and experiencing reduced income and diminished consumption. This is especially true for the poorest among us, with the lowest capacity to cope. As the crisis has taken hold, policy makers have been reminded of the value of having strong social protection systems in place that are capable of reaching affected households with immediate assistance. Toward the end of April 2020, as many as 133 countries had planned, introduced, or adjusted social protection programs in response to COVID-19. At the same time, the crisis is shining a light on both the enabling and constraining factors that affect governments’ ability to leverage social protection systems to address large, covariate shocks of this sort

Adaptive social protection (ASP) is a response to widespread demand for the use of social protection as a tool to build the resilience of poor and vulnerable households to these kinds of covariate shocks. ASP is outlined in this report as a specific focus area within the wider field of social protection that is dedicated to identifying the ways in which social protection can be leveraged and enhanced to build household resilience to these kinds of shocks. In doing so, this report draws inspiration and insight from the concept of ASP promulgated by researchers at the Institute of Development Studies (for example, Arnall et al. 2010; Davies et al. 2009, 2012). These authors first highlighted the value of integrating the often disconnected social protection, disaster risk management (DRM), and climate change adaptation sectors for a mutually reinforcing approach to reduce household vulnerability and build household resilience.