As climate change accelerates, adaptive social protection programmes are becoming increasingly more popular than conventional social assistance programmes, since they are seen to enhance people's resilience and well-being outcomes. Despite this upsurge, little is known about the impacts of adaptive programmes on resilience and well-being outcomes as compared to conventional programmes. This paper examines the economic functions that both types of social protection programmes offer through empirical studies in two climate-vulnerable zones in Bangladesh. By operationalising a simplified analytical framework to comprehend subjective resilience, the qualitative data reveal that the adaptive programme is more effective in enhancing beneficiaries' perceived resilience to climate risks. Regrettably, neither programme is found to contribute much significantly in terms of enabling beneficiaries to achieve the desired well-being outcomes that one might expect to see. The paper offers rich insights into the design components of the programmes, affording an on-the-ground understanding of their implications for resilience and well-being.

No abstract

A number of studies have established that politics has a role in shaping and implementing Social Safety Net Programmes (SSNPs) and, conversely, SSNPs also influence national or local politics. This study qualitatively analyzes the micro level political discourses of the Food‐For‐Work programme, one of the top 10 SSNPs in Bangladesh, using the concepts of access, institutions and agency under livelihood framework. The analysis of the findings reveals that the programme is not effective in terms of the stated objectives of reducing poverty, but rather serves the interest of political elites. Beneficiary access to the projects depends on categorical membership, ability to participate and gender, which lead the programme to be reduced to subsidized infrastructure projects.

As the consequences of climate change become better understood, there is growing agreement among development practitioners and academics on the need for mainstreaming climate adaptation into social protection. This review paper assesses the progress in mainstreaming efforts, revealing that there has been considerable progress made to date. However, a number of critical issues relating to the challenges of such mainstreaming in the context of developing countries and the conceptual framework needed to assess the outcomes of such developmental programmes are yet to be addressed. These issues are examined in this paper.