Safety Net ≠ Social Assistance

The first in our Pathways Perspectives publication series Safety Net ≠ Social Assistance is a reaction by Nicholas Freeland to what he perceives is a misuse of the term ‘social safety net’.

Nicholas Freeland is an independent consultant in social protection. From 2005 to 2011 he was the Programme Director of the Regional Hunger & Vulnerability Programme in southern Africa, working to promote social protection as a response to chronic poverty. It was here that he first acquired his distaste for the distortion of the term “safety net”.