Right to Food Policy Brief No. 3, 2012.

The importance of social protection as a social and economic stabilizer became particularly visible during the global food crisis of 2008 and the economic and financial crisis of 2009. As stated in FAO´s The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012 (SOFI), social protection is crucial for accelerating hunger reduction.

This Issues Brief on Social Protection and the Right to Food provides guidance to decision makers on applying a human rights-based approach to social protection programmes since they significantly contribute to the progressive realization of the right to food. Furthermore, the brief illustrates how social protection programmes can respond to different levels of protection of the right to food and presents examples from Nicaragua, Mexico, Colombia, Malawi and Brazil.

Finally, the brief also provides guidelines on how to apply a rights-based approach to social protection programmes.