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Resource library: Building robust social protection mechanisms

Building robust social protection mechanisms icon

Welcome to our comprehensive resource collection dedicated to the fundamental principles of social protection.

Here, you'll find a wealth of resources designed specifically for individuals interested in learning how to develop more inclusive systems, with a particular focus on benefiting women, girls, and people with disabilities. Our goal is to increase the understanding of the role that social protection can play in delivering positive outcomes for different groups.  

Social protection systems are vital in preventing and protecting people from poverty, vulnerability, and social exclusion throughout their lives. This can encompass a range of initiatives such as state-funded pensions, cash transfers, parental leave schemes, and disability benefits. They play a crucial role in reducing income inequality, as well as tackling inequalities between groups - for instance by promoting gender and disability equality. Increasingly, social protection is being used to respond to crises, including those caused by conflict and climate change. A strong social protection system incorporates a range of policies and programmes including cash and in-kind transfers, skills training, parental leave and sickness benefits, social care services, and pensions. Social protection systems are typically nationally owned.  

Displaying 22 - 42 of 44 resources
Published: - Graphic resource, Multimedia
This infographic has been developed to support those working on designing and delivering social protection activities by highlighting the key issues relating to gender equality and social inclusion and why it’s important for social protection policy…
Published: - Evidence/literature review, Policy paper
This policy note examines the impact of gender-based violence (GBV) and presents evidence-based findings across three regions. It highlights the social and economic costs of violence against women and girls and explores the surge in gender-based…
Published: - Policy paper
This resource highlights how children in poverty across low- and middle-income countries are the most affected by climate change, impacting their health, education, nutrition, and living conditions. The Young Lives evidence shows that these impacts…
Published: - Evidence/literature review, Lessons from a programme, Policy paper
This resource summarises existing evidence on violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex people (LGBTQI+) people, and shares emerging insights into what works to prevent this kind of violence. It is based on a global…
Published: - Lessons from a programme, Multimedia, Video
This video from the Knowledge, Evidence and Learning for Development (K4D) programme focuses on mental health. It discusses the latest evidence on community-based mental health work, and explains an approach called BasicNeeds for mental health in…
Published: - Evidence digest
This evidence digest presents the contextually specific challenges of providing social assistance to displaced populations, including internally displaced persons, refugees, and irregular migrants. It highlights the complexities introduced by…
Published: - Evidence/literature review, Report
This resource  from the Knowledge, evidence and learning for development (K4D) helpdesk sets out available evidence from the humanitarian and development sector related to accountability processes in crises. It also explains the importance of…
Published: - Fact sheet 
This guide helps tax professionals consider key questions on gender while designing tax programmes. The purpose of this guide is to share learnings with donors. It refers to two categories of support that development actors may provide to…
Published: - Evidence digest
This evidence review explores the importance of prioritising the inclusion of marginalised groups in social assistance in contexts of recurrent shocks, climate and humanitarian crises, protracted conflict, and forced displacement. Crises often…
Published: - Report
Analysis of policy approaches to social protection has become detailed and sophisticated, but does not typically extend beyond the formal rights-based policy provision. The authors investigate how this can be extended to contextualise provision…
Published: - Evidence/literature review, Report
This article examines how social protection systems have supported women and girls during COVID-19 and highlights the need for gender-responsive approaches in recovery efforts. It calls for greater investment in social protection systems that…
Published: - Tools and templates
This is a participatory toolkit for understanding unpaid care work and its distribution within local communities and families. Together, these tools provide a way of ascertaining and capturing research participants’ understanding of women’s unpaid…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource is part of a series of ‘poverty profiles’ by the Disability Inclusion Helpdesk (DI HD) focused on eight of the most marginalised group-based identities. It responds to the fact that global progress has not benefitted everyone equally,…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource is part of a series of ‘poverty profiles’ by the Disability Inclusion Helpdesk (DI HD) focused on eight of the most marginalised group-based identities. It responds to the fact that global progress has not benefitted everyone equally,…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource is part of a series of ‘poverty profiles’ by the Disability Inclusion Helpdesk (DI HD) focused on eight of the most marginalised group-based identities. It responds to the fact that global progress has not benefitted everyone equally,…
Published: - Tools and templates
This resource from the Knowledge, evidence and learning for development (K4D) programme sets out promising practice for improving health systems and health equity. It is aimed at the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource from the Disability Inclusion Helpdesk (DI HD) on disability and climate resilience examines the links between climate change and disability and the evidence available on interventions that strengthen the climate resilience of people…
Published: - Evidence/literature review
This resource from the Disability Inclusion Helpdesk (DI HD) explains what works to ensure that people with mental health conditions and psychosocial disabilities can enjoy their human rights and participate at all levels of decision-making. It…
Published: - Policy paper, Report
This policy paper highlights key messages from research focusing on universal cash transfers and social pension programmes from the ESRC-DFID Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation. It  is an output of the Impact Initiative for International…
Published: - Report
This resource from the Work and Opportunities for Women helpdesk (WOW helpdesk) explores how women’s economic empowerment can reduce the risk of modern slavery while also creating a positive impact for women. It examines the drivers of modern…
This infographic summarises evidence from a Young Lives Study of children’s experiences of violence in Vietnam, Ethiopia, Peru and India. It looks at what children say about violence, how it impacts them, and the main themes that emerged from a…