Social protection is crucial for climate change adaptation and mitigation among rural poor

A new scoping review by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) reveals that well-designed social protection programmes, when systematically integrated with climate risk management and sustainable livelihood interventions, can play a pivotal role in helping small-scale agricultural producers and workers adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

The comprehensive report consolidates the evidence on the effectiveness of social protection programmes in facilitating climate change adaptation and mitigation, with a particular focus on fostering economic inclusion for small-scale producers who rely heavily on agriculture and natural resources for their livelihoods. As the impacts of climate change continue to accelerate, it is more critical than ever that decision-makers have access to rigorous research and practical guidance on how to leverage social protection as a powerful tool to build the adaptive capacities of vulnerable populations.

From catastrophic weather events to slow-onset changes in temperature and rainfall patterns, climate change poses escalating risks to the productive activities, incomes and food security of the world's 1.5 billion small-scale food producers, many of whom live below the international poverty line. This report shows that by alleviating resource constraints and providing income security through social protection, rural households are enabled to make strategic investments in climate-resilient farming practices, sustainable natural resource management and more diversified livelihoods.

Adopting climate-resilient practices often requires significant changes to agricultural production systems and livelihoods, such as shifting to drought-tolerant crops and breeds, agroforestry, water-saving irrigation, or alternative occupations. However, poor rural households, especially women, face substantial barriers to making these transitions due to lack of financial resources, knowledge, and risk-taking capacity.

By providing a minimum income, well-designed social protection systems that provide regular cash transfers, coupled with relevant skills training and risk management tools like insurance, can help rural families overcome these obstacles. Integrating social protection with local climate adaptation planning and fostering community-based organisations can also ensure these interventions are tailored to specific needs and promote local ownership.

Additionally, social protection measures can ease the transition to a low-carbon economy by cushioning the impacts on the poor of green policies like subsidy reforms and land restoration. Providing compensatory income support and retraining can help vulnerable groups adjust to changing prices and livelihoods.

The  FAO report highlights some positive examples of social protection facilitating climate adaptation and mitigation practices among small-scale farmers. For example, in Kenya, the Home-Grown School Feeding programme not only provided an alternative income source for famers, but taught new climate-sensitive farming techniques. The report also discusses environmental cash transfers and closed-season initiatives in fisheries management as additional strategies for climate adaptation and poverty reduction. Studies cited in the report indicate that public works programmes, such as the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) in Ethiopia, have facilitated climate risk reduction and enhanced livelihood security. However, there are reasons to question whether targeted and conditional approaches to social protection are the most effective or equitable approaches to climate risk reduction and income security.

One key concern is that narrowly targeted programs can be administratively complex, costly, and prone to exclusion errors, leaving out many vulnerable households that may be just above eligibility thresholds but who still face significant climate risks. Similarly, public works programmes can leave them poorer and more dependent, and often leave many women obliged to work on these schemes without receiving a wage or any form of direct remuneration. This not only reinforces patriarchal structures but accentuates the ‘invisibilisation’ of women’s labour.

Underdeveloped and weak social protection systems, particularly those that rely on predominantly poverty-targeted schemes, have limited expansion capacity to respond adequately to crises. This is especially problematic given the dynamic and evolving nature of climate impacts, which can rapidly push new segments of the population into poverty and food insecurity. Universal social protection systems, on the other hand, comprising lifecycle schemes, such as old age pensions and disability and child benefits, reach a larger proportion of the population and can be more effectively scaled up during crises.

Extensive global evidence demonstrates that well-designed social protection systems can significantly enhance the resilience of vulnerable populations to prepare for, cope with, and adapt to shocks.[1]  When comprehensive social security systems are already in place, these can be immediately scaled up to extend coverage to those affected. This can support family incomes and economic diversification as economic shocks hit. When migration is unavoidable, a well-designed social protection can assist families in both transit and resettlement. And, by providing steady and predictable sources of income, social protection prevents recourse to negative coping mechanisms such as selling of livelihood assets in times of distress which undermine the longer-term sustainability of their livelihoods.

The findings of this report underscore the importance of a holistic approach to social protection, one that takes into account the complex interplay between climate risks, sustainable livelihoods, and economic inclusion. Crucially, simply providing social protection is not enough - to really move the needle on climate resilience, programmes need to be proactively designed to incentivise and facilitate climate-smart practices and sustainable livelihoods. Policymakers should adopt a systems approach that fosters coherence between agriculture, environmental, and social protection interventions and empowers local actors. This integrated strategy is essential for governments to fully harness social protection's potential as a tool for inclusive climate resilience.

[1] See, for example, Bastagli et al. (2016); Ulrichs & Slater (2016); Asfaw & Davis (2018).