Social Protection in the 'Real World': Issues, Models and Challenges

Social protection has evolved rapidly both conceptually and in practice, and is now a key policy issue in humanitarian and development debates. However, debates have sometimes been misled by approaches that pay inadequate attention to context-specific factors, do not fully consider the sequence of interventions, and are too instrument-centred. This article presents a conceptual framework to tailor social-protection policy and implementation more closely to country contexts. Four stylised models of social protection are identified, corresponding to scenarios where social-protection systems are absent, where elements of such systems exist, and where systems are emerging or have been consolidated. Each model is shown to lead to different challenges, implications and areas for further research.