Social Protection
Investing in shock responsive social protection systems and safety nets is an increasingly important to address the needs of the extreme poor and cushioning the impact of shocks when they occur.
Approach
A growing body of evidence shows the importance of safety nets in reducing household vulnerability, especially when they combine cash transfers with support to strengthen other resilience capacities, including access to financial services and resilient livelihood pathways.
Evidence
In Ethiopia, a comparison of Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) and non-PSNP households following a drought shows that PSNP households do better in both in terms of absorbing the initial impact of the shock on their food security and in terms of recovery to pre-drought food security status (2 years vs. 4 years). Households with more than one hectare of land fare even better. Non-PSNP households with less than one hectare of land were the most vulnerable to the initial impact of drought and had the slowest recovery.
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Catastrophic weather shocks, such as severe drought or flood, are an important cause of poverty among rural households in developing economies. As...
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The evidence, and the resulting discussion, presented during the 2017 Resilience Evidence Forum — hosted in Washington D.C. by the USAID Center for Resilience — are presented in the Resilience Evidence Forum Report.
Conflict and FragilityUrban ContextCollaboration and Collective ImpactValue for MoneySustainable Poverty EscapesDiversify Livelihood RisksSocial ProtectionGraduationSocial CapitalFinancial InclusionHuman CapitalAspirationsGender EqualitySocial InclusionEcosystems and NRM -
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Livestock—the principal store of wealth and source of livelihood for pastoralists living in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL) of the Horn of Africa— face tremendous risk from the frequent and catastrophic droughts that plague the region.
Social ProtectionKenyaEthiopia -
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Catastrophic weather shocks, such as severe drought or flood, are an important cause of poverty among rural households in developing economies. As the risk of these shocks is forecasted to increase, national social protection budgets will struggle to keep up with the number of households in need...
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Households in developing rural economies face a multitude of risks. When financial alternatives are limited, in the face of disaster, households typically turn to two coping strategies: reduction of assets to smooth consumption, or reduction of consumption to protect assets. Both of these...
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This evaluation explores how different productive inclusion programs impact the wellbeing and economic stability of safety net beneficiaries in Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal.
Shock Responsive ProgramsSocial ProtectionNigerBurkina FasoSenegal