Fao Social Protection Framework

FAO Social Protection Framework presents the Organization’s vision and approach to social protection. FAO recognizes the critical role social protection plays in furthering and accelerating progress around food security and nutrition, agriculture development, rural poverty and resilience building.

This publication analyses the interplay between the rights to social protection and adequate food, as well as the importance of a human rights-based approach to social protection. It describes the importance of having legally enforceable rights, clear institutional responsabilities, transparency of eligibility criteria, application and termination procedures.

Today, about 783 million people live in extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is primarily a rural phenomenon, with 80 percent of the extreme poor living in rural areas, across greatly diverse rural landscapes. Despite great progress in poverty reduction, the standard of living of the poorest of the poor has remained almost unchanged in the past 35 years, signaling that a huge gap in policy making and programmatic approaches are leaving them behind. FAO has established a Corporate Framework on Rural Extreme Poverty to orient and bring to bear the relevant work of the Organization towards reaching Target 1.1 of the SDGs. Eliminating extreme poverty is directly linked to eliminating hunger (SDG 2), as well as other SDGs. When the extreme poor have means to a better life, they no longer suffer from hunger and can invest in a better future for their families and communities. The Framework reinforces the application of other Corporate Frameworks, particularly those related to gender equality, social protection, sustaining peace, and migration. This makes the Framework applicable to many areas of FAO’s work, accelerating efforts to eliminate extreme poverty in rural areas. The Framework identifies four key areas to reach the rural extreme poor: ensuring food security and nutrition, promoting economic inclusion, fostering environmentally sustainable and resilient livelihoods and preventing and protecting the extreme poor against risks and shocks. To ensure its ability to eradicate rural extreme poverty, the Framework establishes the following five deliverables: 1. Better align the areas of FAO’s mandate into global and national actions to eradicate extreme poverty. 2. Increased capacity to reach the extreme poor by undertaking poverty analysis 3. Develop dedicated and integrated approaches for the rural extreme poor. 4. Ensure that FAO’s actions do not create poverty. 5. Account for FAO’s contribution to SDG 1, and in particular, to Target 1.1.

The paper discusses the role that social protection can play in saving livelihoods while also enhancing the capacity of households to respond, cope and withstand threats and crises. The paper builds on FAO Social Protection Framework (FAO, 2017) and focuses on the role of social protection systems in humanitarian contexts, with a closer look at protracted crises and a discussion on the importance of shock-sensitive and responsive systems, even in stable contexts.

The purpose of the FAO’s framework is to guide the Organization and its personnel in the integration of measures addressing child labour within FAO’s typical work, programmes and initiatives at global, regional and country levels. It aims to enhance compliance with organization’s operational standards, and strengthen coherence and synergies across the Organization and with partners. The FAO framework is primarily targeted at FAO as an organization, including all personnel in all geographic locations. But the framework is also relevant for FAO’s governing bodies and Member States, and provides guidance and a basis for collaboration with development partners. The framework is also to be used as a key guidance to assess and monitor compliance with FAO’s environmental and social standards addressing prevention and reduction of child labour in FAO’s programming.

Despite the importance of social protection, today more than 70 percent of the world’s population still has no or limited access to comprehensive social protection. Coverage in rural areas, where about 80 percent of the world’s poor live, is even lower. Achieving an effective extension of the coverage of social protection benefits and services to the rural population is a key challenge which must be addressed in order to achieve SDG 1.3. “Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable”. This will require bridging gaps and removing existing barriers that limit the access of rural populations to social protection.Extending social protection for all is core to the work of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO). The present paper lays out the specific profiles, risks and vulnerabilities of rural populations and explores options to extend social protection coverage to them.

As the quality of climate risk information and scientific forecasting has continued to improve, the imperative to act in advance of an imminent shock in order to protect people, assets and livelihoods has also gained notable attention and increasing investment. Recognizing this opportunity, some governments, and development and humanitarian partners are trying to gain a better understanding of the potential of social protection to deliver support ahead of a forecasted shock, including exploring options to systematically integrate anticipatory action approaches within existing national social protection systems. As such, this document discusses the conceptual and practical linkages between these two topics alongside presenting four country case studies, thereby contributing to the literature on how social protection and anticipatory action can protect agricultural livelihoods.

FAO’s Strategic Framework (2022–2031) envisages the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agrifood systems for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind. In this scope, FAO promotes inclusive economic growth by reducing inequalities between urban and rural areas, rich and poor countries, men and women to attain a better life for all. This report analyses the specific risks and vulnerabilities faced by rural populations in Europe and Central Asia. It highlights the gaps and barriers concerning social protection in the region, which present challenges for addressing the specific vulnerabilities of rural populations and helping them to better manage risks. The report discusses how social protection programmes should be designed and financed to contribute to more inclusive rural transformation processes, improved nutrition and dietary outcomes, women’s empowerment, and other social issues such as child labour. In this scope, the report specifies key entry points for FAO to improve social protection for rural populations in the region. The report concludes that, especially in the post-pandemic period, expanding the coverage, adequacy and comprehensiveness of social protection for rural populations is key to addressing food security and nutrition, rural poverty, developing agriculture, and building resilient and sustainable food systems in Europe and Central Asia.