In the months of June and July, the Social Protection Podcast is hosting a special series in partnership with ODI and GIZ. Across six episodes, our guest host Francesca Bastagli, Director of the Equity and Social Policy programme and Principal Research Fellow at ODI, will moderate conversations around the guiding question: “Covid-19: a turning point for social protection?”.

These six episodes are part of an ODI research project, funded by GIZ, on the emerging evidence and learning from social protection measures adopted in the early months, and within the first year, of the onset of the Covid-19 crisis. It asks how effective have social protection responses to Covid-19 to date been, especially for some of those hardest hit, including refugees, women, informal workers and people living in urban areas? What policy features enabled or hindered adequate crisis response? And, while many of the measures are temporary, what potential opportunities and risks do they present for strengthening social protection in the long term?

The ODI-GIZ study covers six thematic areas, each with an accompanying paper. Each week of this podcast special series, Francesca will be joined by the lead author of one of the papers, along with an expert discussant.

This episode explores social protection implementation and delivery. The pandemic raised operational challenges for social protection systems, arising from both lockdown measures and virus transmission risks and the stark increases in demand for assistance among millions of people in need of support. Amid these crisis conditions, operational adjustments and innovations were adopted, including through an increased reliance on digital approaches. How well have the measures taken to date worked, especially for those previously excluded from social protection systems? Do the innovations adopted promise to support inclusive, adaptive social protection going forward, or risk perpetuating gaps and inequities? What lessons are emerging for system strengthening and response to future shocks?

This episode was inspired by the ODI-GIZ project thematic paper “National cash transfer responses to Covid-19: operational lessons learned for social protection system-strengthening and future shocks” by Christy Lowe, Anna McCord and Rodolfo Beazley (2021).

Our guests this week are:

• Christy Lowe, Research Officer - Equity and Social Policy Programme, ODI.

Episode links

Social protection response to Covid-19 and beyond: lessons for adaptive social protection and future crises

Towards shock-responsive social protection - COVID-19 case studies

On-demand and up-to-date? Dynamic inclusion and data updating for social assistance

Webinar recording - Taking stock at the one-year mark: social protection during COVID-19 and beyond

In the months of June and July, the Social Protection Podcast is hosting a special series in partnership with ODI and GIZ. Across six episodes, our guest host Francesca Bastagli, Director of the Equity and Social Policy programme and Principal Research Fellow at ODI, will moderate conversations around the guiding question: “Covid-19: a turning point for social protection?”.

These six episodes are part of an ODI research project, funded by GIZ, on the emerging evidence and learning from social protection measures adopted in the early months, and within the first year, of the onset of the Covid-19 crisis. It asks how effective have social protection responses to Covid-19 to date been, especially for some of those hardest hit, including refugees, women, informal workers and people living in urban areas? What policy features enabled or hindered adequate crisis response? And, while many of the measures are temporary, what potential opportunities and risks do they present for strengthening social protection in the long term?

The ODI-GIZ study covers six thematic areas, each with an accompanying paper. Each week of this podcast special series, Francesca will be joined by the lead author of one of the papers, along with an expert discussant.

This first episode is on social protection and refugees. Even before Covid-19, refugees were among the most marginalised in their host countries, with restrictions on their access to employment, social protection, healthcare and other public services. This left them especially exposed to the impacts of the pandemic. Efforts to extend or step up provision to refugees include: the extension of national social protection policies to refugees and alignment or integration of humanitarian led responses with social protection government measures. How effective have these been? What are the emerging lessons and is this a turning point for extending social protection to refugees in a more permanent fashion?

This episode was inspired by the ODI-GIZ project thematic paper “Social protection provisions to refugees during Covid-19: lessons learned from government and humanitarian responses.” by Jessica Hagen-Zanker and Nathalie Both (2021).

• Jessica Hagen-Zanker, Senior Research Fellow, ODI

Episode links

Take socialprotection.org's 2021 Satisfaction Survey

Social protection response to Covid-19 and beyond: Lessons learned for adaptive social protection

Webinar recording - Taking stock at the one-year mark: social protection during COVID-19 and beyond

Social protection responses to forced displacement

Cash transfers to Syrian refugees in Lebanon: promoting social cohesion and protection?

UNHCR Social protection responses to COVID-19 for forcibly displaced persons

UNHCR Cash Assistance and COVID-19 Main Findings from Post-Distribution Monitoring Report

UNHCR Cash Assistance and COVID-19: Emerging Field Practices I

UNHCR Cash Assistance and COVID-19: Emerging Field Practices II

UNHCR COVID19 Emerging practices - Livelihood and Economic Inclusion

In March, the United States brought in a temporary, near-universal child benefit as part of the American Rescue Plan, enacted as a response to COVID-19. Many in government are pushing to make it permanent, and that would make it a significant change in US social policy. But, of course, child-focused social protection benefits are relatively common in other countries, including lower and middle income countries. And even if the contexts are different, the debates may be familiar.

In this episode, we explore the debates around universality and investment in early childhood in the US. We compare them with those in upper-middle income Argentina, which has had near-universal child allowances since 2009. And, we'll talk about how these developments fit with global trends.

Our guests this week are:

• Sophie Collyer, Research Director at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University in New York.

Links from episode:

Unicef Case Study - Towards universal social protection for children: Achieving SDG 1.3

Plus our monthly round up of ‘Quick Wins’, highlighting news, achievements and research that have sparked our interest.

Quick Wins from Dr Keetie Roelen from Institute of Development Studies:

• Resources by the Global Coalition to End Child Poverty

In this episode, we’re talking about economic inclusion. Economic inclusion programmes typically target the poorest people and seek to address the many barriers to escaping poverty by providing multiple, complementary interventions. These generally include providing cash transfer assets, but also training, mentoring, access to finance and so on. These programmes are increasing in popularity as evidence starts to show promising and lasting results.  

According to a major report published earlier this year, there were economic inclusion programmes running in 75 countries – many still quite new – reaching 92 million people.  And, with the number of poor living in extreme poverty on the rise for the first time in a decade due to COVID-19, and the increasing focus on re-engaging people in the economy post-pandemic, the time may be ripe for a big push on taking more of these programmes to scale. 

Our guests bring real life examples and discuss recent findings to illustrate the challenges, lessons learned and best practices on graduation programmes. 

Featuring: 

• Lauren Whitehead, the Director of Technical Assistance for BRAC Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative, a global program partnering with governments in Africa and Asia on integrating economic inclusion into existing social protection programs; and 

Links from episode: 

Global Learning Event on Economic Inclusion for the Poorest – Moving to Scale (27-28 April).  

The State of Economic Inclusion Report 2021: The Potential for Scale 

BRAC website 

Plus our monthly round up of ‘Quick Wins’, highlighting news, achievements and research that have sparked our interest. 

Quick Wins from Fazley Elahi Mahmud, from DFAT’s Social Protection Hub: 

• Social Protection for Economic Inclusion: Adapting the Graduation Approach in Asia and the Pacific webinar, hosted by Asian Development Bank with Socialprotection.org  

Additional resource: 

• Economic inclusion and Covid-19 response webinar by the World Bank Group, the Partnership for Economic Inclusion (PEI) and the Social Protection for Employment Community (SPEC) on socialprotection.org 

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This month, March, marks a year since COVID-19 swept over the globe, and triggered the first waves of closures and lockdowns in many countries. It has been a big year for social protection, as governments, international organisations and communities raced to extend safety nets to the many millions of people who lost work or became more vulnerable due to the pandemic.

In our first episode of the Social Protection Podcast, we look at the challenges and lessons of COVID-19 from a practitioner perspective. You’ll hear from four women leaders in the social protection community, who have spent the last year responding to economic, employment and health crises wrought by the pandemic. Featuring:

• Cecilia Mbaka, Secretary for Social Development for the Government of Kenya.

Plus! Our monthly round up of ‘Quick Wins’, highlighting news, achievements and research that have sparked our interest.

Quick Wins from Charlotte Bilo, from the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth:

“Don’t Let Another Crisis Go to Waste: The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Imperative for a Paradigm Shift”, by James Heintz, Silke Saab and Laura Turquet

“COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker” from UNDP and UNWomen.

Poverty Unpacked podcast, hosted by Keetie Roelen at the Institute of Development Studies.

• Episode #9: Social protection response to Covid-19

This is a teaser for our first episode which will launch on March 26. Subscribe now so you don't miss it!

So, in this first episode, we bring you a retrospective on our collective year of COVID-19 - and some ideas for the future.

You will hear from four women leaders in the social protection community, who like you have spent the last year responding to economic, employment and health crises wrought by COVID-19.