Using social protection to cope with crises

Context

Crises – such as the COVID-19 pandemic, or extreme weather caused by climate change – have wide-ranging health, economic and social implications around the world: they fuel a rise in poverty, deepen existing inequalities, and diminish resilience to future crises. Although social protection helps people to get through crises better, half of the world’s population still has no access to it.

In the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that form part of the 2030 Agenda, the international community has set itself the aim of ending poverty and giving everyone access to social protection.

Objective

German development cooperation is providing greater support for the development and expansion of social protection systems.

Approach

The project advises the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) on how German development cooperation can support its partner countries in giving more people better access to social protection. It works in three fields of action:
 

1. The project helps BMZ to expand cooperation with international initiatives, and promote closer collaboration between initiatives. It also advises on how social protection can be implemented in the framework of BMZ’s core area strategy.
2. In addition, the project supports BMZ in shaping the political agenda on adaptive social protection. Strategies are developed with international partners to build on the potential of existing approaches in ways which enable partner countries to expand their social protection systems in a preventive and adaptive manner.
3. The project works with the World Bank, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and other partners to develop the foundations for digital social protection. Important issues in this context include global standards, data protection, alternative and novel data sources, and artificial intelligence.

Last update: May 2023