Social protection for transformation

Abstract

The social protection response to the safety nets agenda bifurcates according to the vision of how long-term and sustainable poverty reduction will be achieved. The vision the authors promote and develop here argues that fundamental to long-term poverty reduction is a positive relationship between livelihood security and enhanced autonomy or empowerment. While understandings of 'poverty' have moved to incorporate social dimensions of wellbeing together with rights-based approaches, social protection continues to be conceptualised by many development agencies mainly in terms of public responses to livelihood shocks; the conventional economic 'safety net' function. The 'transformative social protection' approach emerges from a broader conceptualisation of vulnerability than economic risk alone, one that is based instead on an appreciation of structural inequalities. This article describes what we mean by the 'transformative' potential of social protection and concludes by asserting the case for social protection as supporting social as well as economic goals of development. © Institute of Development Studies.