Despite global recognition on the role of social protection for socio-economic development, questions linked with dependency, disincentives to labour, and negative impacts on gender dynamics are still present in regional and country discussions.

The evidence produced by FAO has shown that instead of creating dependency, social cash transfers do generate economic and productive impacts. Thus, FAO and the Transfer Project research results contributed to changing the national policy narratives around social protection, enhancing programmes' scale-up and addressing misperceptions around cash transfers.

FAO has been facilitating dialogue, in Africa but currently expanding to other regions of the world, around social protection. And it continues to advocate for the expansion of programmes to effectively reach the large shares of poor people living in rural areas and for ensuring that their vulnerabilities are addressed.

A key part of FAO work in social protection is disseminating knowledge to ensure messages reach the right audience, and promoting the exchange of experiences and good practices to increase awareness on what social protection is and how it can reduce rural poverty and increase economic and social growth.

FAO promotes and organizes high-level events to increase awareness and create opportunities for collaboration and agenda-setting on social protection.