Social Protection
Context
The State of the World’s Cash 2020 report found:
- Working with, through and alongside social protection systems is now considered key to strengthening the humanitarian-development nexus and humanitarians are increasingly active in this space
- Practitioners find that the three biggest challenges to effective linkages are: (i) lack of coordination between the actors involved, (ii) social protection systems are not designed to respond to crises, (iii) humanitarian practitioners lack expertise in social protection
- Critically, there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution to linking CVA and social protection. Trade-offs between efficiency, effectiveness, accountability, and sustainability must be considered to ensure the best outcomes for people living in crisis and depends on context, existing systems, and timeframe. Linking will not always be appropriate and social protection systems may not meet all needs. In many contexts, in the short to medium term at least, humanitarian programming will be required to fill gaps.
Current Priorities
The CALP Network has invested intensely in this thematic area over the last few years. We will continue to work closely with the SPIAC-B Working group on linking humanitarian (cash) assistance and social protection (formerly the Grand Bargain Sub-Workstream on Social Protection) and with the SocialProtection.org platform and the Online Community Social Protection in Crisis Contexts to develop evidence, produce capacity building materials and provide technical support to coordination actors.
Community of Practice
SocialProtection.org hosts a dynamic and collaborative online community of practice (CoP) bringing together individuals from diverse backgrounds interested in expanding social protection in crisis-prone areas. The CoP offers a space to exchange documents, insights, and news in order to progress and learn together. Its inclusive and member-led approach offers organisations and individual members a forum to increase learning and outreach, facilitating the exchange of experiences and expanding knowledge. A discussion group hosted by dgroups.org complements these activities by connecting users rapidly via email.
SPACE
There are a wealth of relevant resources from ‘Social Protection Approaches To Covid-19: Expert Advice’ (SPACE) published in the CALP library.
Featured content
Linking Social Protection and Humanitarian Cash and Voucher Assistance
Report
There is a growing momentum and body of work around the idea of developing stronger links between humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and social protection (SP). This Briefing Paper for the CALP Network, based on a literature review, a survey, and interviews, is intended to inform the CALP Network’s overall approach in this area, and subsequently its capacity building and...
Linking Social Protection and Humanitarian Cash
Blog Post
The case for social protection to help people cope with shocks has always been clear and never more obvious than during the current Covid-19 crisis. These issues are currently playing out in real time as governments, donors and aid agencies scramble to find ways to get more help to more people to cope with the economic consequences of illness and lockdown. As the virus starts to take hold in...
Linking Social Protection and humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) – what do we really know and where to start? Findings from the CALP Network commissioned high level briefing paper at the time of COVID-19
Webinar
State of the World’s Cash 2020 Chapter 8 summary: Linking CVA and social protection
Report
Longstanding efforts to strengthen links between humanitarian CVA and social protection have been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with significant progress since the last report. CVA should aim to complement robust social protection systems where they exist and contribute to their strengthening where they are weak or early-stage. This chapter asks: ‘What opportunities and challenges...
Supporting the Linkages Between Humanitarian Cash and Voucher Assistance and National Social Protection Systems
Report
This tipsheet aims to support country-level coordination efforts to strengthen the engagement between humanitarian coordination groups that implement cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and existing social
protection or disaster risk reduction coordination actors and groups. In particular, it seeks to offers inter-cluster and cash working group coordinators simple practical tips for engaging...
Case Studies
Linking CVA and Social Protection in the MENA Region – Crib sheet
Report
Building linkages between humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and social protection (SP) has become an increasingly prominent topic over the past five years and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been at the centre of this evolution. The objective of this resource set (the crib sheet and 3, soon to be 6, regional case studies) is to ensure that the CALP Network...
Linking CVA and Social Protection in the MENA Region – Iraq Case Study
Report
Building linkages between humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and social protection (SP) has become an increasingly prominent topic over the past five years and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been at the centre of this evolution. The objective of this resource set (the crib sheet and 3, soon to be 6, regional case studies) is to ensure that the CALP Network...
Linking CVA and Social Protection in the MENA Region – Lebanon Case Study
Report
Building linkages between humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and social protection (SP) has become an increasingly prominent topic over the past five years and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been at the centre of this evolution. The objective of this resource set (the crib sheet and 3, soon to be 6, regional case studies) is to ensure that the CALP Network...
Linking CVA and Social Protection in the MENA Region – Yemen Case Study
Case Study
Building linkages between humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and social protection (SP) has become an increasingly prominent topic over the past five years and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been at the centre of this evolution. The objective of this resource set (the crib sheet and 3, soon to be 6, regional case studies) is to ensure that the CALP Network...
Linking Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) and Social Protection – Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT): Country Summary
Report
This country summary is part of a larger resource set, providing practitioners with examples of different approaches to linking CVA
and social protection.
Linking Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) and Social Protection – Turkey: Country Summary
Report
This country summary is part of a larger resource set, providing practitioners with examples of different approaches to linking CVA
and social protection.
Linking Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) and Social Protection – Lebanon: Country Summary
Report
This country summary is part of a larger resource set, providing practitioners with examples of different approaches to linking CVA
and social protection.
Thematic lead
Latest
Linking Humanitarian Cash and Social Protection for an Effective Cash Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic
Report
The Grand-Bargain (GB) Sub-group on Linking Humanitarian Cash and Social Protection issues a 1-pager calling on all GB signatories to use all means at their disposal to deliver on their commitment to link humanitarian cash and social protection where appropriate for an effective cash response to the...
SPACE – Options for rapid delivery (payment) of cash transfers for COVID-19 responses and beyond
Guidelines and Tools
This note describes the main strategies used by, and available to, countries to deliver cash support in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of the note is to inform both ongoing responses to COVID-19 and medium to long term investments in delivery mechanisms that could be used to respond to...
Programming Guidance: Embedding Localisation in the Response to COVID-19
Guidelines and Tools
This guidance note describes key considerations for integrating local actors into the COVID-19 social protection and/or humanitarian cash response. Local actors are defined as national and sub-national entities and can include civil society organisations (CSOs), government, private sector actors, and...
Linking Social Protection and Humanitarian Cash and Voucher Assistance
Report
There is a growing momentum and body of work around the idea of developing stronger links between humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) and social protection (SP). This Briefing Paper for the CALP Network, based on a literature review, a survey, and interviews, is intended to inform the CALP...
COVID-19: Invest now in cash/voucher-social protection scale-up or children pay the price later
Report
Read the article here. Only socially accountable Social Protection Assistance beyond humanitarian cash/voucher programmes – if properly and quickly implemented – will protect generations of children from the aftershocks of COVID-19. Despite cash and voucher transfers becoming the tool of choice of...
COVID-19 & Urgent Need for Child-Sensitive Social Protection
Policy paper
The COVID-19 pandemic is negatively affecting children’s lives in a myriad of ways. Well-intentioned government containment and response efforts such as movement restrictions and school closures have disrupted education for more than 1.5 billion students, leaving some of the most vulnerable children...
Collaborative Cash Delivery Network – Grand Bargain – Collaboration Agreement Accomplishments 2020
Report
The Collaborative Cash Delivery (CCD) Network is pleased to present its achievements against the commitments made by our global members’ CEOs at the 2019 Grand Bargain Summit as part of our global collaboration agreement. We know we are better together, and in this time of increasing pressure on the...
10 Things you Wish you’d Always Known About Shock-responsive Social Protection
Guidelines and Tools
Download the publication file and the one-page summary here Improving the ‘shock-responsiveness’ of social protection—in other words, its relevance to large-scale natural, economic and political shocks—is an appealing prospect both for governments and for their partners working in social...
Systematization document regional learning event: Linking cash and voucher assistance with social protection systems
Report
The purpose of this document is to systematize the process of organizing the Regional Learning Event on “Linking Cash and Voucher Assistance with Social Protection Systems”, convened by REDLAC and the Regional Cash Working Group -R4V for May 20th, 2021.
The Grand Bargain’s Working Cash Workstream,...
Full Guidance On Bringing A Social Protection Lens To Oxfam’s Programmes
Guidelines and Tools
The pages that follow give a one-page explanation of social protection to guide the reader, a page on the rationale for this, followed by a step-by-step guidance to do this. A 2-page summary of this guidance – or the basic framework and 12 key tips to this ‘at a glance’ is available here
Examples and Good Practices on the Use of Multi-Purpose Cash in the Food Security Sector
Guidelines and Tools
This global Food Security Cluster (gFSC) document was produced by the Cash and Markets Working Group (CMWG) to highlight the role and engagement of food security actors through different country experiences and good practices.
In recent years, multi-purpose cash (MPC) has been adopted more widely to...
Gender Implications of Cash Transfers in Malawi
Case Study
CARE Malawi set out to identify the gendered implications of this cash programming and how participants’ experiences of cash transfers affected gender equality. Because of the large-scale cash response to Cyclone Idai in 2019—largely operated through international nongovernmental organisations...
SPACE Strategy Decision Matrix
Guidelines and Tools
This strategy decision matrix was developed alongside others – most importantly the delivery system decision matrix – as a technical tool used to structure an independent and unbiased analysis of COVID-19 response options. It does not necessarily represent DFID or GIZ own views or policies. The...
SPACE Evaluation Delivery System Matrix
Guidelines and Tools
This Strategy Decision Matrix was developed alongside others, as a technical tool used to structure an independent and unbiased analysis of COVID-19 response options. It does not necessarily represent DFID or GIZ own views or policies. The purpose of the Evaluating Delivery Systems Matrix is to help you...
Gender and Inclusion in social protection responses during COVID-19
Guidelines and Tools
The Social Protection Approaches to COVID-19: Expert Advice Helpline (SPACE) provides donors, governments and implementing partners with direct support in thinking through how to maintain or adapt existing systems and programmes to meet rapidly growing needs. Through a multi-disciplinary...
SPACE Guidance Note on Rapid Expansion of Social Protection Caseloads
Guidelines and Tools
Countries across the globe are using or adapting social protection and humanitarian cash assistance to respond to a range of immediate and medium-term impacts of COVID-19. Getting assistance to those who need it quickly is helping to safeguard the well-being of individuals and families – enabling them...
SPACE Informal Workers and Social Protection
Guidelines and Tools
The Informal Workers and Social Protection background note outlines the options for providing social protection to informal workers, with a particular focus on the implications for COVID-19 response and urban settings. In order to do so, it provides information on the impacts of COVID-19 on earnings and...
COVID-19: A chance to empower citizens through social protection
Report
Billions of US$ are now being distributed to citizens by governments to stave off deteriorating economic impact and rising poverty from COVID-19. The unprecedented pandemic demands an unprecedented government response. More than 126 countries have already introduced or adapted social protection or labour...
SPACE Understanding the Economic Impacts of COVID-19 in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Who, Where, How, and When?
Guidelines and Tools
Social protection is recognised as an essential mechanism to reach those who are in urgent need because of the COVID-19 crisis, and efforts are under way to scale up systems, so they can be ‘shock responsive’. What is needed next, however, is a much more disaggregated view, based on an understanding...
A six-step guide to supporting shock-responsive social protection in response to COVID-19
Guidelines and Tools
This note[1] sets out six steps to guide our decisions on whether and how we may be able to provide an effective and timely response to the social and economic impacts of COVID-19 by building on existing government social protection programmes (i.e. shock responsive social protection). It is aimed...