Social Protection for the Poor and Poorest: An Introduction

There is an emerging consensus around the view that social protection provides an effective response to poverty and vulnerability in developing countries.1 This is finding expression in the growing number of national governments adopting social protection strategies, and in the rapidly expanding set of policies and programmes being implemented in developing countries.2 There is also rising interest in social protection among development researchers, with social protection being viewed increasingly as the emerging paradigm for social policy in developing countries.