‘Social protection’ refers to policies and programs designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability by promoting efficient labor markets, diminishing people’s exposure to risks, and enhancing their capacity to protect themselves against hazards and interruption/loss of income.

http://www.adb.org/Documents/Policies/Social_Protection/default.asp http://www.adb.org/Documents/Policies/Social_Protection/social-protection.pdf 

‘Social protection’ refers to policies and programs designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability by promoting efficient labor markets, diminishing people’s exposure to risks, and enhancing their capacity to protect themselves against hazards and interruption/loss of income. The 2001 Social Protection Strategy (SPS) constitutes a key ADB platform (and one of the three pillars of the ADB Poverty Reduction Strategy) to effect large-scale poverty reduction in Asia and the Pacific from 2001-2015. The vision of the SPS is to extend more robust forms of social protection to all citizens of the Asia and Pacific region through the development of sustainable, statutory programs with universal coverage to effectively assist DMCs to reduce poverty, achieve growth by enhancing productivity, and create opportunities for individual self-reliance.

The SPS five core elements are: 1) labor market policies and programs designed to generate employment, improve working conditions and promote the efficient operation of labor markets 2) social insurance programs to cushion the risks associated with unemployment, ill health, disability, work-related injury and old age 3) social assistance and welfare service programs for the most vulnerable groups with no other means of adequate support, including single mothers, the homeless, or physically or mentally challenged people 4) micro and area-based schemes to address vulnerability at the community level, including microinsurance, agricultural insurance, social funds and programs to manage natural disasters 5) child protection to ensure the healthy and productive development of children

The SPS posits good social and economic governance as part of the long-term solution to vulnerability[1], and so stresses that development policies should therefore (i) involve proactive interventions to reduce vulnerability; (ii) try not to alter existing informal family and community-based mechanisms to cope with risk, and (iii) when possible, encourage community-driven interventions (social funds, micro-insurance, etc).

↑ http://www.adb.org/Documents/Policies/Social_Protection/social-protection.pdf Social protection instruments are generally not considered for risk reduction; for this, other instruments are available. Sound development policies and investments are ways to reduce the probability of or even eliminate such risks (e.g., infrastructure investment for flood control). Social protection programs are built primarily to mitigate the impacts of shocks or to help people cope with risks if they occur. The boundaries between social protection and related activities are somewhat arbitrary and have to take account of regional characteristics and practical links to distinct and well-established disciplines such as education, health, and agriculture. With these considerations in mind, ADB has developed a definition of social protection based on labor markets and small-scale agriculture, in line with ADB’s overarching goal of reducing poverty in the Asia and Pacific region.