Principles and considerations for mainstreaming climate change risk into national social protection frameworks in developing countries

Abstract

Climate extremes and slow onset events undermine the efforts of developing countries to eradicate poverty and promote social equity. Social protection presents an opportunity to develop inclusive comprehensive risk management strategies to address loss and damage from climate change. However, research and policy on climate change and social protection remain limited in scope. This paper aims to address this gap by presenting a number of conceptual arguments that can provide a basis for a wider discussion on what principles and considerations should be embedded in the design of national climate-responsive SP strategies and plans. It is argued that future efforts should be geared to develop climate-responsive social protection policies that consider a broad range of issues including urbanization and migration, impact of green policies on the poor, access to essential health care and risks to socially marginalized groups. The article concludes with a discussion on implications for policy and future research.

Loss and damage from climate change and implicit assumptions of sustainable development

“…Examples in the literature on how governance of L&D can be addressed in a way that prioritizes capabilities include mobilizing more mental health services, increased attention to malnutrition, and ensuring educational opportunities for children, among others (Chiba et al 2018). This emphasis on well-being is in line with what some researchers capture under the rubric of "social protection" (Schwan and Yu 2018;Aleksandrova 2019). Furthermore, some research within this cluster recognizes that simply putting things back the way they were prior to the experience of L&D is insufficient, as it fails to address pre-existing inequalities (Wrathall et al 2015;Roberts and Pelling 2019).…”

“…The main argument is that there is a critical level of (particular) natural capital that has to be maintained or the aggregate stock of capital would be diminished (see Blicharska et al 2019). As a result, the main concern with CC is that L&D may undermine major natural systems which underpin economic production, e.g., "land use patterns, cropping systems, productivity, and optimum agriculture output [which will] adversely affect the livelihoods, economic activities and environments" (Arfanuzzaman et al 2016). This comes with emphasizing the need to explicitly account for all ecosystem services whenever a productive natural habitat is impacted by CC (Cabral et al 2017).…”

Climate Resilience and Social Assistance in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings

“…Largely missing here is consideration of broader structural vulnerabilities associated with political, economic, and environmental dynamics and inequalities, as discussed above. There is also limited research on the specific vulnerabilities of socially marginalised groups in relation to climate or the potential role of social assistance in addressing these, including addressing the specific needs of women, young people, older people, ethnic minorities, and people with disabilities (Béné et al 2014;Aleksandrova 2019Aleksandrova , 2020. Only two reviewed studies focus specifically on the gendered dimensions of social assistance and climate resilience -one on gendered differences in preferences for and trust in forms of social protection (Akter et al 2016); the other on gendered inequalities in power, resource access, and decision-making preferences within ASP (Bee, Biermann and Tschakert 2013).…”

“…For example, little research examines social assistance and slow-onset climate change-related events, such as sea level rise, increasing temperatures, glacial retreat, or secondary impacts such as salinisation or biodiversity loss. Moreover, there has also been limited integration of long-term climate risk considerations into existing social protection programmes (Aleksandrova 2019(Aleksandrova , 2020.…”

“…Thus, while it is generally clear that transformation will be needed as part of the considerations for social protection programmes, as yet there is little evidence to show how exactly programmes may contribute to addressing the structural causes of vulnerability and building long-term resilience to climate change (Aleksandrova 2019(Aleksandrova , 2020Tenzing 2020).…”