Social Protection Sector Strategy: From Safety Net to Springboard

At the beginning of the new century, it is clear that while individual social programs can improve people's welfare and reduce poverty, a more holistic approach is needed in order to lift more people in the developing world out of poverty. This Social Protection Strategy paper reflects this understanding and uses 'social risk management' as an important conceptual framework for the World Bank's work in this sector. 'Social Protection Sector Strategy' is the first World Bank Strategy Paper for the social protection sector, at the time, one of the World Bank's youngest sectors. This paper highlights the need to expand the definition of social protection to encompass all public interventions that help individuals, households, and communities to manage risk or provide support to the critically poor. It recommends that social protection programs be embedded in an integrated approach to poverty reduction based on a new framework for social risk management.