Tackling climate change loss and damage by strengthening anticipatory risk response under social protection programmes

Climate change poses severe and urgent risks, especially to vulnerable communities. Social protection programmes, which have historically focused on poverty alleviation and basic services, are increasingly seen as vital tools for building climate resilience. 

Proactive, anticipatory measures in social protection can offer cost-effective resilience against climate shocks, reduce poverty, enhance access to services and prevent distress migration. 

These programmes contribute to long-term sustainable development by tackling multiple dimensions of vulnerability, from raising living standards and human development to empowering individuals and fostering economic growth.

However, despite the potential of these programmes, vulnerable countries grapple with challenges in in delivering anticipatory and risk responsive social protection. These challenges include:

• Ineffective targeting of beneficiaries due to limited data and poor information systems
• Inconsistent social protection coverage caused by resource limitations and policy gaps, sometimes resulting in programme duplication
• Underdeveloped early warning systems (EWSs) that lack comprehensive climate hazard coverage, particularly in least developed countries (LDCs)
• Inefficient decision making and delivery mechanisms, and 
• The difficulty of coordination among various stakeholders and sectors during crisis.

What is IIED doing?

IIED is developing tools and strategies that can provide a structured, evidence-based approach for delivering social protection programmes to vulnerable communities in a timely and targeted manner.

This work will: 

• Inform decision making by empowering policymakers in LDCs and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to make more informed decisions by identifying gaps, strengths and areas for improvement in social protection programmes.
• Provide guidance to funding agencies on targeted and effective resource allocation to maximise impact and build resilience in vulnerable communities, and
• Facilitate continuous improvement by providing development agencies and practitioners with a framework for evidence based assessment, fostering knowledge sharing and capacity building for better programme design and delivery.

Anticipatory Social Protection Index for Resilience (ASPIRE)

IIED has developed ASPIRE, which is a diagnostic tool designed to assess the readiness of a country's existing social protection programmes to deliver climate resilience.

Working at two levels, the tool assesses a country's overarching social protection policies and systems, guided by 36 indicators that cover policy objectives, innovation, risk definitions, target specifications, planning and budgeting process, and types of assistance. 

At the second level, ASPIRE examines specific programmes being implemented, evaluating their design features and functions using a combined set of 33 indicators. These indicators cover aspects such as cash transfers, public works, food assistance and their efficacy in delivering resilience outcomes such as prevention, protection and promotion.

The ASPIRE criteria for assessment under the policy and programme domains