Climate Resilience through Social Protection

The paper examines how social protection instruments—specifically cash transfers and public works programs—can be leveraged to build climate resilience. It identifies a substantial overlap between social protection and climate adaptation, noting that both target the most vulnerable. The authors propose three strategic shifts: enhancing the effectiveness of existing systems, integrating climate risk management (such as forecast-based early action), and layering social protection with other risk management tools like insurance. The document highlights that while social protection strongly supports absorptive and adaptive resilience, more work is needed to achieve transformative resilience.

• Climate change is projected to have severe socioeconomic impacts by 2050, potentially pushing over 720 million people back into poverty and creating 140 million climate refugees.
• Social protection investments are significant globally, exceeding US$2 trillion, with countries in the global South contributing more than US$500 billion annually.
• Social protection instruments contribute differently to resilience: cash transfers are highly effective for absorptive resilience, while public works and employment guarantees have higher potential for adaptive and transformative resilience.
• The authors propose three key shifts to improve climate resilience: enhancing existing system effectiveness, integrating climate risk management, and converging social protection with other risk management instruments.
• Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) can be used to incentivize climate-positive behaviors, such as sustainable resource management, as seen in Brazil's Bolsa Floresta program.
• Linking social protection to early warning systems and forecasts allows for 'anticipatory' action, such as the Kenyan Hunger Safety Net Programme's use of El Niño forecasts to make payments before floods occur.
• Public works programs can build physical climate resilience by creating infrastructure for natural resource management, such as soil and water conservation, or green housing.
• Layering social protection with insurance can cover a broader spectrum of risk; for example, Ethiopia's R4 initiative combines the PSNP public works program for low-level risks with weather-based insurance for higher-level risks.

APA

Agrawal, A., Costella, C., Kaur, N., Tenzing, J., Shakya, C., & Norton, A. (2019). Climate Resilience through Social Protection. World Resources Institute. https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/uploads/Climate_Resilience_through_Social_Protection_Paper_-_Global_Commission_on_Adaptation.pdf

Chicago

Agrawal, Arun, Cecilia Costella, Nanki Kaur, Janna Tenzing, Clare Shakya, and Andrew Norton. Climate Resilience through Social Protection. World Resources Institute, 2019. https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/uploads/Climate_Resilience_through_Social_Protection_Paper_-_Global_Commission_on_Adaptation.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Agrawal |first1=Arun |last2=Costella |first2=Cecilia |last3=Kaur |first3=Nanki |last4=Tenzing |first4=Janna |last5=Shakya |first5=Clare |last6=Norton |first6=Andrew |title=Climate Resilience through Social Protection |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=2 August 2019 |url=https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/uploads/Climate_Resilience_through_Social_Protection_Paper_-_Global_Commission_on_Adaptation.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{agrawal2019climate, author = {Agrawal, Arun and Costella, Cecilia and Kaur, Nanki and Tenzing, Janna and Shakya, Clare and Norton, Andrew}, title = {{Climate Resilience through Social Protection}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2019}, month = aug, url = {https://files.wri.org/s3fs-public/uploads/Climate_Resilience_through_Social_Protection_Paper_-_Global_Commission_on_Adaptation.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }