Last week, we attended the OECD’s 5th Policy Dialogue on Social Protection and Development in Paris on the 2nd and 3rd December. This year the policy dialogue focused on the role of social protection in the fight against hunger and poverty.
Across the two days we participated in four roundtables that explored critical themes including addressing child poverty, hunger and malnutrition; emphasising the role of social protection for small holder farmers; enhancing resilience to climate shocks through social protection measures; and sharing country experiences in using social registries for the implementation of programmes.
Country delegates from Brazil, Madagascar, Senegal, and Mauritania, to name but a few, shared case studies of their own social protection systems and specific programmes, enriching the dialogue with evidence-based examples.
As we reflect on the discussions, here are some of our key takeaways from the event:
- Universal social protection programmes remain the most important and effective tool to tackle hunger and poverty. This is particularly true in the context of climate change, where social protection is crucial for shielding against lifecycle shocks. However, for social protection programmes to be genuinely effective, they must be responsive, flexible, and adaptable to evolving shocks and risks.
- Coverage is key! To truly address poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, systems must expand coverage. One potential way to achieve this would be to focus on the gradual scale-up of fragmented programmes. With this in mind, it is crucial to emphasise that effective policy design is key to developing robust, rights-based social protection systems that are both politically feasible and capable of universal coverage.
- Expanding coverage may also be supported through investment in information management systems, such as single registries over social registries. Global evidence highlights the failures of social registries to accurately identify beneficiaries, with high levels of targeting and exclusion errors. However, a system like a single registry uses simple data that can be updated easily and affordably, for easy application to a range of programmes. In contrast, social registries are often used to target assistance programmes and undermine the rights-based approach.
- Social protection is becoming increasingly recognised as more than just a safety net in response to climate change. Across the case studies of Mauritania, Grenada and Kenya it was clear that social protection programmes in each context have been utilised as a tool to be able to not only respond but also prevent shocks. From a system-wide perspective, a comprehensive social protection system that ensures income security across the lifecycle is the best way to build community resilience.
- As such, the financing landscape of social protection programmes in the face of climate change must change. At present, only a small proportion of climate finance is being directed towards social protection programmes. Shifts in the financing landscape to support this goal could involve positioning social protection as a key input of climate agreements and legislation, formally recognising it as a critical policy tool for preventing and responding to climate shocks.