Building resilient communities: the role of social protection in climate adaptation

As the world continues to face the devastating effects of climate change, it is becoming increasingly clear that social protection systems, whether in cash or in-kind benefits, contributory or non-contributory schemes, can play a critical role in building resilience and helping communities adapt. At the country level, universal social protection can serve as an entry point for climate change adaptation, helping vulnerable populations to weather the impacts of extreme climate events, loss of livelihoods, and other disruptions.

The World Bank and ILO define Universal Social Protection (USP) as a nationally defined system of policies and programmes that provide equitable access to all people and protect them throughout their lives against poverty and risks to their livelihoods and well-being. This can include everything from cash transfers to health care services to employment programmes, all of which can help families cope with life cycle risks, climate risks, and other crises.

For example, in Pakistan, the National Rural Support Programme's (NRSP) Waseela-e-Taleem (WeT) Programme provides cash assistance to poor families with school-aged children. This conditional cash transfer has helped increase school enrollment and attendance in 10 districts.

At the heart of Universal Social Protection is the idea that everyone, regardless of their income or status, should have access to basic support when they need it. This can be especially important in the context of climate change, where extreme weather events, and other cascading climate impacts can have a disproportionate effect on the most vulnerable members of society.

In recent years, social protection as a key tool for climate change adaptation has gained traction as concepts such as adaptive social protection, climate responsive social protection, and shock-responsive social protection are used in practice. In Kenya, the Hunger Safety Net Programme provides cash transfers to extremely poor households in Northern Kenya and temporary emergency cash transfers to affected households when there are triggers of severe and extreme drought or floods.

By providing a safety net for those most at risk, social protection programmes can help to reduce the impact of climate change on financial standing, food security, health, as well as on other aspects of life. In addition, they can support the development of more resilient communities, helping people to recover from shocks, and build a more sustainable future.

The power of social protection in the face of climate change can be seen in the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative implemented by the World Food Programme and OXFAM in over 10 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin American and the Caribbean. This initiative combines climate risk insurance with social protection to cushion farmer households from different risks. It applies four risk management strategies: reducing climate-related risk through nature-based solutions and improved agricultural practices; risk transfer through private insurance; risk retention through promoting group saving integrated with social protection systems; promoting prudent-risk taking through a combination of capacity building in financing, livelihoods diversification, and easier access to credit WFP, 2022. Insurance protects farmers against extreme climate events like droughts while activities under the cash-for-work programme help them build assets and invest in natural resources management.

Though approaches that link social protection with climate risk management face some limitations like weak integration with broader global/national agendas and strategies on climate change and sustainable development as pointed out by Aleksandrova and Costella; overall, universal social protection can serve as a critical entry point for climate change adaptation especially at the county level.

As we continue to grapple with the impacts of climate change, it is evident that social protection will be an essential tool in the fight to build a more just, resilient, and sustainable future.