A range of resources from the Social Protection Approaches to COVID-19 team (SPACE)

Since March 2020, the SPACE (Social Protection Approaches to COVID-19) team collected and organised resources emerging from a very wide variety of actors on the topics of SocialProtection and COVID19 - using these to inform country actions and support global learning. --> short video here summarising some insights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIGlWkAnCu4 

This *useful resources document* (available here https://socialprotection.org/discover/publications/space-useful-covid-19...) is about to be published in its fifth and final iteration, following publication of our last outputs. The road ahead is still long - we hope this document will help navigate insights from what worked and what could have worked better in these past few years...

Also, do take a look at the most recent SPACE resources (more here https://socialprotection.org/connect/stakeholders/social-protection-appr... ) :

 

• Social protection for migrants and refugees. The paper describes the current practice of providing social protection to refugees and migrants with regular immigration status in low and middle-income destination countries. Relevant for what has been happening with Ukraine.
• How disaster risk finance can link with social protection: maximising the effectiveness of a shock response. This brief provides some initial guidance for those wanting to deepen their understanding of SRSP from a financing perspective; it is suitable for those involved in the design or funding of DRF instruments and approaches, who want to explore options of how to increase its impact and cost-effectiveness, for example through improved contingency planning.
• Two strategic pieces focused on  summarising existing literature for decision-makers  and situating that literature against opportunities, challenges, and lessons learned during COVID-19.   
  • Including informal workers within social protection systems: A summary of options. 
  • Dynamic social protection: The role of on demand updating. 
• Killer facts. A selection of high-level facts and figures about social protection, summarising current data and evidence in the field. Points have been selected with a view to currency and analytical rigour.
• SPACE comprehensive case studies on COVID-19 responses, across the nexus  
  • Using social protection to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
  • Using social protection to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana
  • Using Social Protection to respond to COVID-19 and other shocks in Somalia
• Two great Pacific pieces
  • Social protection responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Pacific: A tipping point for the sector? This paper studies the social protection responses to the COVID-19 crisis in the Pacific. It focuses primarily on social assistance and cash responses by governments, although it also includes some analysis of social insurance and active labour market programs and major responses by non-government actors.
  • The case for including persons with disabilities in social protection in Pacific Island Countries. This paper has been developed specifically for organisations of persons with disabilities in Pacific Island Countries, to support their advocacy for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in social protection programmes.

Did you miss earlier SPACE resources? A few more than may be of use to you here (still more on the website!):

• •  
• ‘Identifying practical options for linking humanitarian assistance and social protection in the COVID-19 response’ here. (Sep 2020). Examining the relationship between humanitarian assistance and social protection in response to COVID-19 and guiding humanitarian practitioners on how to practically link their responses to social protection (SP) systems and programmes, as well as key emergency response considerations for social protection practitioners.
• ’Linking humanitarian and social protection information systems in the COVID-19 response and beyond’.here (Sep 2020). Providing considerations for humanitarian actors to consider when making decisions regarding the use of their Information Systems in COVID-19 responses, and beyond. It focuses in particular on contexts of transition from humanitarian to longer-term, state-led social protection systems. See also Blog - ‘Five practical insights on linking humanitarian assistance and social protection’ here.
• ‘Overcoming barriers to coordinating SRSP and social protection linked with humanitarian action – building on promising practices’ here (June 2021). This paper presents a synthesis of global learning from efforts to coordinate shock responses linked with social protection during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as in response to other shocks, to inform dialogue and future action to enhance coordination.
• ‘Transfer Values: how much is enough? Balancing social protection and humanitarian considerations’ here. (April 2021) The paper highlihts key elements that could be considered when setting transfer values for emergency response, while navigating the complexity of differing ‘pressures’ across sectors.
• ‘Social Protection in the COVID-19 Recovery: Opportunities and Challenges’: here (Sep 2020) This paper explores what role social protection can and should play over the medium term, as governments seek to steer their economies through recession and into recovery. It outlines the opportunities, challenges and potential trade-offs which social protection actors will face over the medium term.
• ‘Better responding to shocks through social protection: COVID-19 insights on identifying and responding to dynamic poverty’ here (May 2021). This paper relies on pre-existing microsimulations of the pandemic impact on poverty in Bangladesh, Georgia, Mongolia, Pakistan, and Sierra Leone to answer three questions:  To what extent are ‘vertical expansions’ of pre-pandemic social protection programmes an adequate response to the COVID-19 shock? To what extent do simulated programmes implementing different (commonly used) targeting approaches cover those made poor by the COVID-19 shock? What would be the hypothetical poverty-reducing impact of ‘shock responsive’ social assistance programmes that adopt different types of targeting approaches, at different budget ceilings?
• Deciding when and how to link humanitarian assistance and social protection: guidance and tools for response analysis here (June 2021). Two simple tools that can be used to determine the likely feasibility and appropriateness of linking humanitarian action and social protection and the key considerations to bear in mind for different options for linking.
• ‘Social Protection and Humanitarian Cash and Food Responses to COVID-19: Needs, Coverage, and Gaps’ here (Sep 2020)*. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive look at needs, coverage, and gaps for 10 fragile and conflict-affected countries. It does this by undertaking detailed micro-simulation for three ‘deep dive’ countries (Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe) and a more ‘light-touch approach in the others (Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, DRC, OPT, Syria, and Yemen).
• ‘Strengthening gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) during the implementation of social protection responses to COVID-19: Providing guidance on how to ensure that the delivery of programmes (especially cash transfers) are gender-sensitive, equitable, inclusive, and where possible, transformative’ here (Sep 2020)
• Also, these two matrices (that also drew on SPAN materials among other sources) were used throughout SPACE to assess country's response options systematically:
  •  Strategy Decision Matrix here (May 2020): Structured to evaluate COVID-19 responses consistently against a set of critical dimensions, including Coverage, Adequacy, Comprehensiveness, Timeliness, Cost-effectiveness, Accountability to affected population; Predictability, and Ownership and Sustainability. This document helps systematically think through the merits of various social protection response options; the challenges and risks inherent in each; and potential mitigation strategies for these
  • 'Delivery Systems' Matrix here (May 2020): Structured to assess the relevant dimensions of the social protection delivery chain, questioning the strength of existing systems (capacity, registration, payments, etc) and whether/how these can be leveraged, adapted or complemented for the COVID-19 social protection response
• On localisation
  • Embedding Localisation in the Response to COVID-19 (July 2020): Describing key considerations for integrating local actors into the COVID-19 social protection and/or humanitarian cash response. Local actors are defined as national and sub-national entities and can include civil society organisations (CSOs), government, private sector actors, and communities themselves – and accompanying webinar: The role of local and national actors in linking humanitarian cash and social protection in response to the COVID-19 pandemic here
  • Framework for shifting bilateral programmes to local actors (Aug 2021). Framing developed to support analysis of separation of functions, Value for Money and risk, to help facilitate a shift from UN/INGO led programmes, to locally-led models that draw on the complementarities between UN, INGO and LNO key strengths.
• On Climate change: Social protection and climate change: scaling up ambition’ here