Social protection can significantly reduce families’ vulnerability, severe food insecurity and exposure to risk.

In recent years, threats and crises - due to both natural and human-made disasters - are not only more frequent but also increasingly complex. As such, the international community is progressively facing the need to tackle emergencies that combine several vulnerability drivers: chronic poverty, food insecurity, inequality, violence, instability, displacement, climate change, natural hazards and weak governance.

In this context, the challenge for both humanitarian and development sectors is how to meet immediate needs of shock-affected populations, while addressing the root causes of risk and vulnerability to create resilient and peaceful communities.

The Social Protection Interagency Cooperation Board (SPIAC-B) has highlighted the crucial role social protection plays in promoting the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus, by addressing chronic vulnerabilities and scaling up systems to tackle emergencies.

FAO recognizes that the rural poor and most marginalized people are disproportionately affected by hazards and crises and the limited assets or lack of social protection coverage can lead families to resort to negative coping strategies, which would trigger and perpetuate a negative spiral of vulnerability and poverty.

Given its extensive expertise in both rural development and emergency operations in support of agricultural livelihoods, FAO is engaging in:

• The development of national policies, strengthening the capacity of agricultural ministries to engage in policy processes to support the design and target mechanisms of shock responsive social protection programmes;
• Country level implementation of innovative approaches such as Cash+ interventions, which combine transfers of cash with productive assets, inputs, technical training and services, and anticipatory action plans, which link early warning systems to standard operative procedures (SOPs) to allow the expansion of social protection programmes ahead of predictable crises;
• Capacity development activities, such as e-learnings, in-person training courses and interactive tools to facilitate learning on the benefits of linking social protection, resilience and climate change policies.
• Global processes, such as COP, SPIAC-B, Grand Bargain, Food Systems Summit, to build a common vision around the role of social protection in managing risk in stable environments but also in protracted, fragile and humanitarian contexts.