Did you know? In 2015, an estimated 65 million people were forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, generalised violence or other human rights violations – an increase of almost 6 million compared to the previous year. That number is projected to keep growing.

Evidence demonstrates that social protection enhances the capacity of families to prevent, manage and cope with threats and crises. Social protection boosts families’ productive and economic potential even during crises and extends the economic impact to whole communities as well. Social protection reduces poverty, inequality and childhood deprivation and has long-term positive impacts on human capital development.

Over the last two decades, an increasing number of low- and middle-income countries have started implementing social protection programmes including cash transfers and other means of strengthening people’s ability to access basic goods, services and trainings and be more productive.

In order to shed light on the situation and discuss FAO’s contribution to social protection in fragile settings, a two-day conference was held on 28 and 29 September in Brussels to highlight the urgency for innovative and practical solutions to meet the needs of millions of people caught up in humanitarian crises around the world.

During the 2017 Social protection in contexts of fragility and forced displacement conference, FAO, alongside key partners UNICEF, UNHCR and WFP, the European Commission, the Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development of the European Union and donor governments (Germany, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom) highlighted the use of social protection systems in contexts of fragility and forced displacement and the need for long-term response systems to reach affected vulnerable populations.

Government representatives, international organizations and bilateral institutions from 30 countries pledged to leave no one behind and to bridge the gap between humanitarian aid and development programming through social protection.

The conference presented the opportunity to consider the concrete FAO contributions made at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 as well as the opportunity to increase the Organization’s visibility of its work in social protection and fragile settings. Serving as FAO representation at the conference, Dominique Burgeon, Team Leader, SP5, commented, “The conference was an opportunity to stress once again that social protection is not only a poverty reduction strategy but also a tool to build resilience, to save lives and livelihoods. Humanitarian aid and development sectors are on the right path to achieve collective outcomes. We should be ambitious on the long term, realistic on the short term and keep on innovating to meet the needs of millions of vulnerable people”.

Both Dominique Burgeon and Natalia Winder Rossi, Deputy Director ESP, (a.i.), advocate for the creation and expansion of shock-responsive social protection systems that are designed to scale up the provision of support, reach new beneficiaries and increase the level of assistance available to affected populations.

Highlights from the event included a session organized by FAO on the Somali government’s commitment to building a national social protection system, stressing the importance of government and development partnerships to move from short-term emergency responses towards longer-term poverty reduction strategies.

FAO will continue its work and engagement at country level while fostering partnerships with UNICEF, WFP, World Bank and other main actors in the social protection arena to work towards embedding social protection programmes into broader development strategies.