The U.S. Budget and Economic Outlook (Presentation)
Social Protection: Adaptive Safety Nets for Crisis Recover
1. Kalle Hirvonen
PhD, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
13 April 2023
Social Protection
Adaptive Safety Nets for Crisis Recover
2. Social safety net programs that provide cash or in-kind transfers
have become a mainstream policy tool to address chronic poverty
and food security across the globe.
When carefully designed and implemented, they improve food
security, reduce chronic poverty, and build household wealth.
Social protection programs are also increasingly used as a
platform to integrate with nutrition, education, gender, and climate
change adaptation policies.
Social protection programs
3. An era of increasing turbulence?
COVID-19; Global food price shocks; Climate change; ...
During crises, social safety net programs can offer protection
through several channels:
Improve resilience by building households’ or communities’ capacity to deal with
future shocks.
Timely and adequate cash or in-kind transfers provide relief in the immediate
aftermath of a shock.
Growing evidence that social protection programs do protect
against droughts, floods, and other natural disasters – and even
during pandemics.
Social protection can play a critical role
in times of crisis
4. During global and local crises, pre-existing social protection
delivery systems are often more agile in delivering and targeting
transfers than entirely new programs.
Increasing interest in establishing shock-responsive social
protection programs that expand during a crisis and contract
afterward.
Examples: Kenya’s Hunger Safety Net Program (HSNP); Ethiopia’s Productive Safety
Net Program (PSNP).
Requires major investments: early warning systems; unified
targeting systems; appropriate risk-financing instruments.
Shock-responsive social protection
5. Improve social protection coverage in the
poorest countries and in urban areas.
Shift toward a more proactive approach to
disasters by incorporating shock-responsive
designs into existing programs.
Strengthen domestic revenue collection
systems and explore new ways of financing
social protection.
Develop graduation programs that are
scalable and can be incorporated into existing
safety net programs.
Policy recommendations