Social protection in near east and north Africa region

The Near East and North Africa region has a diverse landscape in terms of social protection. Programmes range from government-led social assistance to vulnerable groups, to informal social protection systems based on religious and cultural traditions. This publication notes that stakeholders need to work together to strengthen linkages between social protection and the agricultural sector.

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Social protection is increasingly becoming recognised as an important strategy for poverty reduction and resilience building, while enhancing food and nutrition security. Evidence emerging out of Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, shows that social protection programmes are generating a broad range of social and economic impacts, contributing to the overall transition from extreme poverty and subsistence farming to sustainable livelihoods. The 2015 edition of FAO's State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA, 2015) report highlighted the important role social protection plays not only in allowing poor families to access more and better food, but also in enhancing their fundamental economic potential. SOFA further concluded that strengthened coherence and synergies between social protection and agricultural interventions would also help to maximize these impacts and ultimately help to break crippling intergenerational cycles of poverty. For the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region, these linkages are critical. Social protection can contribute to addressing the range of vulnerabilities affecting rural, small scale farmers, such as dependency on imported food, high population growth, the strain over basic social and productive services due to migratory flows as well as increasing vulnerability to natural disasters and the negative effects of limate change. The NENA region has a diverse landscape in terms of social protection. Programmes range from government-led social assistance to vulnerable groups, subsidies in food and contributory social security and insurance schemes, to informal social protection systems based on religious and cultural traditions. However, efforts to strengthen linkages between social protection and the agricultural sector in NENA need to be further explored by all stakeholders involved in strengthening social protection within member states. This study assesses the current support that national governments in NENA are providing in relation to social protection and agricultural policies in the context of rural development. Based on the limited available regional literature, the study identifies gaps in social protection coverage for the agricultural sector and explores how to enhance linkages and coordination among social protection and agricultural interventions.