Adaptive Social Protection Program Addressing the challenges of climate change and disaster risk for the poor and vulnerable G lobally, shocks and The Sahel Adaptive Social disasters have a Protection Program (ASPP) was disproportionate negative launched in March 2014 to increase impact on the poor—and the access to effective adaptive social poor have significant constraints protection systems for poor and in preparing for, responding to, vulnerable populations in Burkina and bouncing back from such Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Adaptive setbacks. Traditionally, responses and Senegal. The program provides social to shocks and disasters have technical assistance and financing protection mainly been through humanitarian to develop, operationalize, and aid and emergency assistance.  But implement sustainable systems is an a new approach moves beyond that will enable these countries integrated this, helping the poor build long- to provide cost-effective adaptive approach term resilience to climate-related social protection over the long term, shocks and other risks, reducing and—by directly expanding access that extreme poverty, and contributing to social assistance for the most can help to achieving shared prosperity. vulnerable—enable households to countries This approach is adaptive social better withstand current and future address the protection and it draws on and shocks and invest in human capital integrates the tools and techniques development. challenges of social protection, climate change of climate adaptation, and disaster risk The ASPP is funded by a change and reduction. multidonor trust fund managed by the World Bank; the U.K. disaster Adaptive social protection Department for International risk for interventions are flexible and Development (DFID) has committed their scalable; they aim to protect poor £43 million (about $75 million) to poor and and vulnerable households and the fund over four years (2014–18). improve their resilience to climate More donors are expected to come vulnerable and other shocks before they on board during implementation. populations. occur by providing predictable transfers and helping them develop their human capital, diversifying Country programs their livelihoods—and thus Under the ASPP, six countries in decreasing the need for adverse the Sahel have been developing coping mechanisms. These social protection strategies that interventions can be scaled up and prioritize investment in long-term, provide support to the poor and comprehensive, adaptive systems. vulnerable to respond to extreme Each country’s targeted program events when they occur. of investments has been developed in close consultation with the FEBRUARY 2016 1 World Bank country team to complement and adaptive social programs to increase the leverage current International Development coverage, resilience, and livelihoods of the Association (IDA) support. poor and vulnerable. The team is conducting several analytical activities including the In Burkina Faso, the ASPP development of a monitoring system contributes to improving the and an assessment of basic needs, Mali design of safety nets for poor and institutional arrangements, and public vulnerable households and to strengthening work activities that could be used in the ASPP. their ability to respond to shocks and build In 2016, technical activities to develop adaptive household resilience. The ASPP team has social protection systems will continue, along worked closely with the country management with laying the groundwork for the country- unit to plan and identify activities that will lay implemented work program. the foundation for a Burkina Faso comprehensive national In Mauritania, the ASPP is strongly social protection system. linked with the World Bank’s Key activities have already enabled analysis of regional project on pastoralism, the country’s fragility and vulnerability context, since the services the two initiatives provide and fostered a better understanding of how to the poor can be highly complementary safety nets can contribute to improved and offer an opportunity to quickly enroll response to shocks. In 2016, the team will pastoral populations in the social registry in continue to provide technical activities to case of emergencies. The ASPP finances the harmonize social protection systems and establishment of key building blocks of the prepare for the work program. national social safety net system, including adaptable Mauritania In Chad, the ASPP aims to social protection tools, as update the existing social well as design and implementation of modules protection strategy to further to promote household resilience to shocks and integrate disaster risk management and adaptation among conditional cash transfer climate resilience, strengthen the existing program beneficiaries. Technical support early warning system to better anticipate the is also provided on a vulnerability analysis, impact and occurrence of hazards on adaptation of the early warning system to Chad the poorest, and strengthen monitoring trigger social protection responses to crises, and evaluation mechanisms of efforts and defining mechanisms and measures to to prevent and respond to the country’s respond to shocks and promote resilience. food crisis. The policy and analytical work performed to date has been integral to Chad’s In Niger, ASPP will provide completing its social protection strategy. It support for poverty mapping, has also informed the World Bank’s strategy including climatic risks; a review in Chad, highlighting important elements and of the existing social protection strategy to priorities in social protection, adaptive safety ensure that climate-related vulnerabilities nets, increased resilience, and improved and mitigating measures to enhance livelihoods. resilience within communities are Niger effectively addressed; and a capacity Social protection is a key element needs assessment to facilitate the effective in Mali’s poverty reduction delivery of the revised social protection strategy, and the objective of the strategy. Support and technical assistance ASPP in Mali is to expand current engagement will be provided for the design of tools on social safety nets toward developing to promote resilience in social protection 2 interventions as well as rigorous learning on build the resilience of the most vulnerable their implementation and effectiveness. ASPP households, complementing ongoing and financing will also help support an existing IDA- planned World Bank support in the country. funded safety net operation to test innovative Program activities are fully aligned with the approaches for supporting resilient livelihoods Senegal Country Partnership and implementing adaptive cash-for-work Strategy and with government Senegal projects. plans and the National Strategy for Social Development. The The ASPP supports Senegal’s ASPP supports the design of adaptive safety capacity to implement adaptive net mechanisms—including mechanisms for social assistance programs and existing programs to address crises, additional Summary of key ASPP activities by country FUNDING ACTIVITIES ●● Analyze poverty and vulnerability, social protection and humanitarian spending, and financing efficiency ●● Evaluate institutional arrangements in place and needed for adaptive social protection; analyses $13 million assessing and updating different targeting approaches ●● Conduct feasibility studies on activities for building poor households’ resilience and productivity, and on complementary programs for making safety nets respond better to shocks; also conduct a study on the gender dimension in cash transfer programs with productive activities ●● Increase knowledge of the drivers and scope of vulnerability in the country ●● Assist in the establishment of an effective and efficient household-level targeting mechanism; develop operational mechanisms to strengthen the impact of safety net programs on adaptation and resilience $7.1 million ●● Update the existing social protection strategy for further integration of disaster risk management and climate resilience, strengthen the existing early warning system to better anticipate the impact and occurrence of hazards on the poorest populations, and strengthen monitoring and evaluation mechanisms of efforts to prevent and respond to food crisis ●● Evaluate institutional arrangements needed for adaptive social protection and assessment of current public works activities that could be used in the ASPP $10 million ●● Develop a monitoring system and basic needs assessment ●● Provide technical assistance support on vulnerability analysis, adaptation of the early warning system to trigger social protection responses to crises, and defining mechanisms and measures $5.2 million to respond to shocks and promote resilience ●● Support establishment of a national registry of poor and vulnerable households, and design $11 million ●● Comprehensive social protection assessment; strengthen existing early warning system to better anticipate the impact and occurrence of hazards ●● Adaptive cash-for-work interventions, promotion of resilient livelihoods ●● Learning through data collection and impact evaluation $13 million ●● Support design of adaptive safety net mechanisms; broaden early warning systems to trigger social protection responses to shocks ●● Expand national registry of vulnerable households 3 measures to promote resilience, and new Cross-country programs such as public works to respond to shocks—broadening of the country’s early coordination and learning warning systems to trigger social protection Regional activities have been designed to responses to shocks; expansion of the improve the coordination of these various national registry of vulnerable households country activities and to expand the to include those vulnerable to shocks; and knowledge base on how to assist the most implementation of adaptive social assistance vulnerable—in the Sahel and beyond—in programs that help prevent shocks or mitigate managing and responding to shocks and their impacts. disasters. A series of strategy notes have been produced to outline key issues and outline further areas of analysis. KEY issues and areas for further analysis Vulnerability and The objective of this activity is to understand household resiliency strategies to improve resilience social protection program design, targeting, and impact assessment. This activity will develop a framework to evaluate the effects of shocks on vulnerable households and the impact of different investments on minimizing such shocks now and in Climate-related the future for alternative climate change scenarios. Such work would enhance the capacity vulnerability analysis of regional and national institutions to analyze the advantages and limitations of different drought risk mitigation investments through the lens of household resilience to better inform development and climate adaptation planning and sequencing. Strengthen linkages This activity plans to foster coordination between various efforts by the World Bank and between disaster other donors and international organizations to strengthen, in parallel, national capacities risk management and for disaster resilience and for social protection. social protection Price and market Timely and quality price and market information is critical for improving the information information in the Sahel $ system in the Sahel and understanding the expected impact of shocks on poor and vulnerable people. This element supports the design of activities and evaluations that account for gender- Gender in adaptive specific characteristics of beneficiaries and to better understand resource allocation social protection mechanisms among polygamous households. Two main areas of work have been defined: (1) diagnostics support aimed at helping project Safety nets and teams identify constraints to productive inclusion that are most binding for their target productive employment population, and (2) design support to help country teams develop a set of interventions relevant for addressing the constraints identified. A series of studies on public works programs are planned, focused on promoting improved Public works approaches to using public works programs toward effective sustainable land management. The information will also be used to support the design of country-level programs. This task has provided support to improve targeting mechanisms for poor and vulnerable Targeting analysis households in the region and thus contribute to the targeting strategy of the countries in the Sahel ASPP. This activity supports impact evaluations to fill in key existing knowledge gaps on the Impact evaluations effectiveness of building blocks and innovations in social protection systems in the region. A note on the economic benefits of social protection programs was prepared with the Economic analysis objective of providing preliminary information on the potential costs and benefits expected for the programs supported by the ASPP. Updates will incorporate ongoing results. 4