Social protection
Social protection
![Kenya. UNHCR helps refugees at Kakuma camp open ban accounts](/africa/sites/afr/files/legacy-images/61bb3ec73_15.jpg)
UNHCR has been implementing or contributing to activities that replicate or support national programmes for newly-arrived populations in emergencies and for populations in situations of protracted displacement.
However, most refugees are in protracted situations and a small percentage of those are realizing durable solutions. Therefore inclusion in social protection systems, backed by international development investments, can contribute to more predictable alternatives to humanitarian assistance.
Social protection is a set of Government-led policies and programmes aimed at preventing or protecting all people against poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion throughout their life-course, with emphasis on vulnerable groups' (Social Protection Interagency Coordination Board).
The inclusion of forcibly displaced persons in Government-led social protection programmes can greatly contribute to the improvement of protection and solutions outcomes, particularly in situations of protracted displacement.
UNHCR's role in social protection
UNHCR works to support national protection and solutions strategies by:
- progressively aligning UNHCR assistance with social protection programmes and setting up referral processes that prepare and accompany the inclusion of forcibly displaced people in national systems
- helping governments, humanitarian and development actors to strengthen national social protection systems and support inclusion of displaced persons – where conditions allow;
- leveraging national systems for emergency preparedness and response (including shock-responsive social protection) to scale-up assistance for newly arrived populations and manage the impact of disasters on people in protracted displacement
- ensuring coordinated and coherent action by all actors across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus in support of government-led transition action plans
- ensuring continued relevant support where governments cannot fully meet the needs of forcibly displaced persons.
How UNHCR supports national social protection systems
UNHCR Country Operations are working to align and link their activities to government social protection programmes, supporting the following actions where relevant and feasible:
- Feasibility of inclusion in social protection systems – UNHCR assesses the capacities and gaps of national social protection systems, identifying the status of legal and effective access to social protection by forcibly displaced people, conducts data collection, analysis and modelling for inclusion in social registries and eligibility determination processes, determining the scope for alignment with and inclusion in national social protection systems
- Support to the inclusion in government social protection programmes – UNHCR helps to adjust programme design to the needs of refugees, strengthens capacity of government and international agencies’ country teams, facilitates transition action plans and referral processes (including meeting identification criteria) and helps to monitor the protection environment and the impacts of inclusion on displaced people.
- Alignment and transition from cash-based interventions to social assistance – UNHCR sets up transitional safety nets for forcibly displaced people who fall behind; aligns Cash-Based Interventions (CBI) with government social assistance programmes, and promotes the use of CBI to mitigate the impacts of shocks, maintain assets and promote self-reliance; works with regulators and Central Banks to enable refugees and others of concern access to mobile connections, bank accounts or mobile money wallets.
- Access to national health insurance schemes – As part of an overall approach to promote Universal Health Coverage, UNHCR works with the ILO to identify opportunities for inclusion of refugees in national social health protection schemes, assess their capacity to contribute to their healthcare costs on par with nationals of similar socio-economic status, and catalyze support for additional financing for inclusion of refugees through donor and/or development agency support if domestic capacity is not possible.
Further resources on external websites
Studies and guidance
- UNHCR - Social protection and the inclusion of persons of concern (April 2022)
- Inclusion of refugees in government social protection systems in Africa (January 2021)
- Emerging Lessons from World Bank Group Social Protection Investments in Refugee-hosting Areas (2021)
- ILO-UNHCR Handbook on social health protection for refugees: Approaches, lessons learned and practical tools to assess coverage options (2020)
Case studies
- UNHCR-WFP Support to Refugee Integration in the Social Registry of Mauritania (2023)
- UNHCR Iraq: The Inclusion of Internally Displaced People in Iraq’s Social Safety Net - From short-term humanitarian cash assistance to durable social protection (August 2023)
- The Lisungi Social Protection Inclusion Experience in the Democratic Republic of Congo (2022)
- WBG-UNHCR Humanitarian Assistance and Social Safety Nets in Protracted Crises. A Case Study of Iraq (2020)
- CWG-UNHCR Integration of Venezuelan Refugees and Migrants in Brazil (2020)
Webinars
- Global Refugee Forum: Building Resilience Through Inclusion in National Social Protection (2023)
- Agenda 2030: Leave no one behind - Online dialogue on inclusive social protection for displaced children and their families (2023)
- Learning from the Evidence on Forced Displacement Training Program : Social protection responses to forced displacement – FCDO-UNHCR-World Bank Building the Evidence on Forced Displacement (BEoFD) (2023)
- The role of social protection in supporting forcibly displaced populations in times of crisis – BMZ-World Bank Adaptive Social Protection Global Forum (2023)
- Flexible funding and Coordination: The glue to linking humanitarian assistance with social protection – Trends from the Middle East and North Africa, Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks (HNPW) (2023)
- Adapting social protection systems to contexts of forced displacement – GIZ ASPects Practice Exchange on Adaptive Social Protection Webinar Series (2022)
- Social Protection for Ukrainian Refugees (2022)
- Emerging Research on Social Protection in Contexts of Fragility and Displacement – World Bank Fragility Forum (2022)