Forging resilience through adaptive social protection when crises collide

The World Meteorological P[ovsaizatin states that disasters related to weather, climate or water hazards occurred on average every day from 1970 to 2019.

- KAVISHA BATAWALA

These disasters resulted in 115 deaths and economic losses worth USD 202 million, daily. Between 2019-2022, that is during the COVID-19 pandemic, global poverty rates rose by 8%, pushing 54 million people into poverty. Studies also show that climate change and disasters disproportionately affect low-income countries.

Nine out of the 10 countries most exposed to the risk of flooding are low-income or middle-income countries such as Bangladesh, Iraq, Myanmar, etc. Poor households often lack the capacity to cope and recover from serious destruction related to such events, increasing their vulnerability. Furthermore, existing social protection schemes are less successful in meeting the needs of those affected during disasters. Such schemes often fail to scale up flexibly to meet surges in demand for support during shocks. As a result, Adaptive or Shock Responsive Social Protection (ASP) systems have been introduced to help vulnerable populations prepare for, cope with, and recover from shocks.

What is Adaptive Social Protection?

ASP responds to the widespread demand of using social protection (SP) as a tool to build the resilience of poor and vulnerable households to covariate shocks such as natural disasters, economic crises, pandemics, and forced displacement. Traditional SP systems fall short as they are primarily designed to address life cycle shocks that an individual could face such as job loss or illnesses. These systems fail to respond to large-scale covariate shocks as they are slower in identifying those affected, targeting beneficiaries, and dispatching support during emergencies.