SHOCK-RESPONSIVE SOCIAL PROTECTION MODULE

This suite of documents on the broad topic of ‘shock-responsive social protection’ – also referred to as ‘risk-informed’ or ‘adaptive’ social protection – aims to support strategic players at country level to engage with the complexity of addressing needs before, during and after a shock occurs, and pre-empt the needs imposed by potential future shocks. The focus is thus on strengthening and ‘risk-informing’ each and every building block of a country’s social protection system, while also better coordinating with the sectors who are mandated to play a role in emergencies: Disaster Risk Management and Humanitarian Assistance. 
There are four documents in total, one overarching and three focusing on the key topics of conflict, displacement and climate, each complementing a specific TRANSFORM training that can be organised in sequence or independently:

    • The 2026 version of the SHOCK RESPONSIVE SOCIAL PROTECTION Base Document improves and updates the prior 2019 version, providing useful overarching framing, case studies and examples of system strengthening actions.
    • The Guidance Note on Social Protection and Conflict Sensitivity builds on the learning from the High-Level Panel on Social Protection in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings and aims to support the design and implementation of systems that are more attuned to the highly political and volatile environment in which they often operate and to the rapidly evolving needs and vulnerabilities of the people they serve. Specifically, it provides guidance on how to design and implement social protection in conflict-sensitive ways, while also showcasing how this is critical to impact and sustainability. 
    • The Guidance Note on Social Protection in Contexts of Forced Displacement aims to support the design and implementation of systems that are more inclusive of, and better tailored to, the needs and vulnerabilities of displaced populations. Drawing on a growing body of global evidence, it offers practical insights and strategies for engaging with social protection in displacement contexts.
    • The Guidance Note on Social Protection and the Climate Crisis aims to strengthen understanding of the linkages between climate change and social protection, and to support the design and implementation of more climate-responsive systems. It focuses on the impact of climate change and climate policies on lifecycle risks, the role of social protection in addressing these, the contributions of social protection to climate objectives (including mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage) and potential action points for governments and other stakeholders to better incorporate climate change challenges into in their national social protection systems, and to promote the use of social protection to achieve national climate priorities (helping to unlock access to climate financing).

Each of these documents also aim to:

    • Introduce the key stakeholders and counterparts that can play a role in addressing the pressures imposed by covariate shocks with very different characteristics;
    • Clarify why ‘business as usual’ is no longer a sustainable strategy;
    • Provide a strong framing to support assessment and decision-making regarding the role of Social Protection, given country characteristics;  
    • Set out system strengthening measures along each of the social protection ‘building blocks’, discussing specific actions governments should consider if they want to ‘risk-inform’ their social protection systems.