Social protection is increasingly recognized as a fundamental component in developing countries’ strategy to combat poverty and vulnerability, as well as to reduce the negative impact of shocks, especially those at the aggregate level.
Many countries, especially middle income ones, have already developed social protection systems that include different kinds of instruments and programs. More recently, lower income countries too have started to develop their social protection systems at a large scale. Despite the rapidly increasing literature on social protection, analyses on how these systems have developed over time, and in particular, how key aspects such as their coverage, components, and financing have evolved, are still few. As UNICEF engages in the UN Social Protection Floor Initiative, concrete evidence on how countries manage to implement a Floor and expand coverage over time will be useful in presenting policy options on the way forward, which can then be adapted to specific contexts. The main objective of this project is therefore to undertake a study comprising two components; first, a survey mapping of social protection systems in 55 countries, producing country snapshots, and second, a more in-depth analysis at the regional level.