Social protection consists of the set of public initiatives that can lessen the impact of adverse shocks on the income of the population. These interventions typically include labor market interventions, social safety nets, and pensions. They include public actions aimed at reducing risk, such as prudent fiscal policy to prevent macroeconomic crises, large-scale reforestation to prevent natural disasters, or public health campaigns to reduce the incidence of illness. They also include measures designed to better equip the population to protect themselves such as building a more solid asset base (through land distribution and titling, for example), access to credit and insurance markets also form part of the social protection agenda. In addition, social protection programs include interventions designed to help the population cope with risk, such as social assistance, social funds, cash transfers, and workfare programs.

SDS/POV has been undertaking diverse initiatives in the area of social protection:

• The importance of providing social protection for the poor.
• Using workfare programs to protect the poor against shocks: Appraising Workfare Programs.
• Social Protection and the Poor Conference, February 4 and 5, 1999 (Conference papers). An edited with the papers and proceedings of the conference was published in 2001.

• The Unit undertook extensive in-house research, resulting in the book Social Protection for Equity and Growth, as well as a number of technical papers on the relationship between poverty and macroeconomic crises (Crises and the Poor: Socially responsible Macroeconomics, Crises and the Poor: A Template for Action, and a series of papers on national guidelines on social protection for Argentina, Nicaragua and Peru.

• The Unit is promoting social protection in the region through the Network of Policy Makers on Poverty Reduction and Social Protection, the Social Equity Forum, and the Network on Inequality and Poverty.

• In collaboration with the other international financial institutions (WB, IMF, and ASDB) SDS/POV produced the document Social Safety Nets in Response to Crises: Lessons and Guidelines from Asia and Latin America, completed in February 2001 and submitted to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Finance Ministers.