Integrated social protection and COVID‐19: rethinking Pacific community responses in Aotearoa

ABSTRACT COVID‐19 has forced us to think critically about alternative global and local response strategies to the unprecedented devastation. Some of the most infected groups are Pacific communities and this has raised concern about the need to seriously address the issue of health and socio‐economic inequality. One way of doing this is through social protection. The paper critically examines some of the conventional notions of social protection, especially those predicated on market‐imperatives and assumptions and argues for new and community‐relevant innovative social protection strategies to effectively mitigate the effects of COVID‐19. It then discusses the integrated social protection approach (ISPA). The paper argues that while ISPA is an attempt to create an alternative, inclusive and participatory social protection strategy, the issues of equity in terms of distribution of resources and power still need to be fully addressed because of their potential to cause tension within the community. The meaningful participation and empowerment of the Pacific communities and the strategic use of their cultural norms in social protection framing and implementation are important in building up resilience and sustainability to mitigate effectively against the sudden onset of pandemics such as COVID‐19.