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This policy note summarizes key insights from a study supported by the Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program (SASPP), examining the role of economic inclusion programs in addressing poverty, climate vulnerability, and fragility in the Sahel.

This policy note consolidates the highlights of a study funded by the Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program (SASPP), exploring the role and operationalization of dynamic social registries in low-income and shock-prone contexts, including in the Sahel.

This policy note provides key recommendations for maximizing the positive impacts of adaptive social protection in fragility, conflict, and violence settings. It is informed by almost 400 qualitiative interviews conducted in Burkina Faso and Cameroon.

This policy note provides an overview of population mobility in the Sahel, vulnerabilities associated with migration in the region, and the implications for adaptive social protection (ASP) programs. It offers key policy and operational recommendations for applying a mobility lens to ASP to contribute to realizing the full potential of population mobility in the Sahel. .

Convergence between humanitarian operations and national social protection systems has gained momentum in the last few years. In the Sahel, a growing overlap between humanitarian activities and government interventions is emerging, particularly with the advent of adaptive social protection. With broad shared goals, opportunities to better connect humanitarian assistance to the national social protection system do exist, particularly in the context of protracted crises.

This policy note presents evidence¨Cbased guidance for the effective design, implementation, and utilization of small¨Cquantity lipid¨Cbased nutrient supplements (SQ¨CLNS) interventions in the Sahel region. SQ¨CLNS are food supplements containing essential nutrients and are intended for daily consumption alongside standard age¨Cappropriate diets. SQ¨CLNS effectively prevent child undernutrition and improve child growth and development.

Mauritania is highly exposed to recurrent droughts resulting in food security crises. The Government of Mauritania, with support from the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳, has introduced a new institutional and operational framework for the coordination and funding of responses to food security crises in the country. Established as part of this reform, as the financial backbone of this framework, The National Fund for Food and Nutrition Crisis Response (FNRCAN) aligns and optimizes the financing for responses to food security crises.

This policy note presents strong evidence of the impacts of early childhood exposure to shocks on later life human capital outcomes in lower¨Cmiddle¨Cincome countries, particularly in the Sahel region. It recommends key, evidence¨Cbased social protection interventions to mitigate these impacts and protect human capital.

Chronic high rates of childhood undernutrition in the Sahel have resulted in significant costs to human capital. What opportunities exist to accelerate the reduction of childhood undernutrition in this region?

Sahel countries are exposed to major and particular challenges that must be accounted for. These characteristics impact the design and implementation of any DRF instrument for ASP in the region. This policy note attempts to capture those and suggest ways for policymakers to address them. It evaluates common myths about DRF and shows how they do not or only partially apply in the context of the Sahel and what policymakers may consider instead. .

How should we identify social safety net beneficiaries in ultra-poor settings? This policy note summarizes evidence covering nearly 20 targeting schemes across six countries in rural Sahel which together provide a holistic picture on the relative performance of methods to select beneficiaries (i.e. targeting methods).

In addition to being regularly confronted with unpredictable shocks such as floods droughts or conflicts Sahelian households have to deal with the effects of seasonality. This leads to a significant reduction in food and non-food consumption across the season exposing the poor to transient food insecurity and malnutrition. This policy note comprehensively explores considerations around seasonality in the Sahel and presents policy implications.  

This policy note captures the most relevant insights from a new round of household surveys comprehensively assessing household exposure to shocks in the Sahel. It examines how patterns of vulnerability and exposure to shocks have evolved over time and offers critical policy considerations to support ongoing strengthening of adaptive social proteciton systems across the Sahel.

The high level of exposure to shocks particularly climate-related and conflict-induced shocks across the Sahel exacerbates the population's vulnerability. In 2018-2019 a new set of harmonized household surveys were conducted that help identify the distributional impact of shocks in much greater detail than before. The key findings can help inform the development of adaptive social protection systems across the Sahel.

Adaptive Social Protection programs are increasingly implemented in fragile and insecure contexts in the Sahel. This note provides a framework key principles and a repertoire of options for adapting social safety net projects to unprecedented levels of insecurity. The authors map operational security risks and identify ingredients for an appropriate response in risk assessment design beneficiary targeting and payment systems.

Including a joint paper by CGAP and SASPP on how climate funds can leverage adaptive social protection systems; an infographic to visualize the evolution of adaptive social protection in Chad; and an special section on economic inclusion for jobs and resilience in the Sahel. Plus events and more.

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In this issue we learn how dynamic social registries can support inclusive, efficient, and cost-effective ASP programs; explore new research on maximizing the impact of ASP in fragile settings; and launch a powerful new series on country-level impacts of ASP in the Sahel. Plus, new impact findings from productive inclusion programs in Chad and Senegal, events, interactive presentations, and more. 

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Including a new joint article by SASPP, UNICEF, and WFP on overcoming food security and nutrition road blocks in social protection, the who and how of the SASPP partnership, and Chad's new adaptive social protection program.

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Including the SASPP 2024 Annual Report, new joint research with UNICEF and WFP exploring the impact of social protection on social cohesion in the Sahel, and a special section highlighting opportunities for applying a mobility lens to adaptive social protection in the Sahel.

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Including a new animation explainer on ASP impacts in the region, technical publications, events, blogs and a special section highlight the work on partnerships.

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Including a new infographic on ASP impacts in the region, a handy presentation compiling 18 recommendations to advance government-led ASP systems, events, blogs and a special section on Burkina Faso.

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Including a new Flagship Report, a policy note on convergence, blogs on Burkina Faso and Mali's mobile payments, and new knowledge on Chad and Senegal, inter alia.

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Including events' highlights, a high-level conversation on the humanitarian-development nexus in Chad and our LinkedIn launch, among others.

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Including events in partnership with the Sahel Alliance, DIME, and BMZ, among others.

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This report has been published by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights to the United Nations Human Rights Council. It highlights the ongoing global environmental collapse, exacerbated by government inaction, the rise of oligarchic influence, and authoritarian suppression of scientific data. Climate-related disasters such as droughts, floods, and wildfires are increasingly common and disproportionately impact low-income countries and households, despite their minimal contribution to the climate crisis. The Special Rapporteur calls for a fundamental shift from reactive humanitarian aid to rights-based social protection systems as a more effective and sustainable response. Emphasizing the urgent need for global solidarity, the report advocates for international financial support¡ªpotentially through a global fund¡ªto help low-income countries establish and strengthen social protection floors. This would enhance resilience and safeguard the most vulnerable from climate-induced shocks.

This paper explores how the timing of cash transfers affects household welfare in rural Niger following a severe drought. Using a randomized controlled trial, it compares three approaches: large early transfers before the lean season, smaller year-long transfers, and traditional large transfers during the lean season. The findings show that early large cash transfers improve food security, consumption, mental health, and reduce borrowing more effectively than the traditional response. These benefits persist into the lean season, although all groups converge in welfare outcomes after the crisis. The study provides the first experimental evidence on the timing of unconditional cash transfers during a slow-onset crisis like drought, highlighting the value of early intervention in highly seasonal and climate-vulnerable contexts.

This paper argues that channeling more climate funds through existing social protection (SP) systems can deliver support to vulnerable communities faster, more efficiently, and at greater scale. SP systems already cover 4.7 billion people and have proven capable of rapid fund disbursement, as seen during COVID-19 and in Niger, where early-warning triggers enabled aid delivery four months earlier than traditional methods. The Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program (SASPP) shows SP systems can provide both regular and emergency support, reaching over 5 million people in 2023. Adaptive SP offers a ¡°triple dividend¡±: immediate relief, long-term resilience, and economic inclusion. Aligning climate finance with SP systems is a practical way to enhance impact, especially in fragile, climate-exposed regions.

Drawing from administrative and household survey data from the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳¡¯s Atlas of Social Protection Indicators of Resilience and Equity (ASPIRE), the "State of Social Protection Report 2025: The 2-Billion-Person Challenge" documents advances and challenges to strengthening social protection and labor systems across low- and middle-income countries, analyzing the evolution of expenditure, coverage, and adequacy of support. This report details four policy action areas governments can embrace to maximize the benefits of adequate social protection for all: extending social protection to those in need; strengthening the adequacy of social protection support; building shock-proof social protection systems; and optimizing social protection financing. The report discusses how the path of reforms will depend on country context, capacity, and fiscal space. 

As part of the Centre for Disaster Protection¡¯s support to the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program (SASPP), the UK-funded Sahel Shock Response Programme seeks to develop a baseline of in-depth analysis on the social protection and disaster risk financing (DRF) landscape in the Sahel region. This report is the second in a series of diagnostic reports aimed at informing the design and programming of the Centre¡¯s support to the SASPP.

This study analyzes the direct effects and local spillovers of a low-cost multifaceted economic inclusion program through a randomized controlled trial in Chad. The intervention included group savings promotion, micro-entrepreneurship training, and a lump-sum cash grant delivered to poor female beneficiaries of a regular monetary transfer program. It was designed to address multiple constraints to productivity and livelihoods, but at a much lower cost (approximately $104 per household) than most stand-alone nongovernmental organization graduation pilots and government-led economic inclusion programs.

How are beneficiaries of social protection programs affected by fragility, violence, and displacement? Can social safety nets relieve the worst forms of insecurity and vulnerability in fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV)-affected communities? To answer these questions, the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Group recently conducted first of its kind cross-country qualitative research drawn from varied security contexts in Burkina Faso and Cameroon, exploring the impacts of safety nets in FCV contexts. The study found three key areas of safety net impacts across regions facing distinct levels and types of insecurity - material, social, and political. 

What is the role of social protection and jobs in the climate agenda? Climate change is creating vast challenges for poverty and living standards around the world, while also generating momentum for the transformation of social and economic systems. This new discussion paper offers potential pathways for adaptive social protection (ASP) policies and programs to strategically support climate goals. 

This article, published in the Journal for Climate and Development, explores how seasonal variations affect Sahelian households and draws some operational lessons to guide policies that jointly seek to tackle chronic poverty, seasonality and covariant shocks. Using household survey data from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger and Senegal from 2018 and 2019, this study shows the importance of seasonality on the poverty and well-being of Sahelian populations. The authors call for recognition of the chronic nature of this risk, and stress the importance of national social protection systems to mitigate it.

This article, published in the Journal of Development Studies, analyzes household data from nine programs implemented in the Sahel using a harmonized approach to compare Proxy-Means Testing and Community-Based Targeting selection as conducted in practice, once geographical targeting has been applied.

This report sheds light on how the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Group collaborates through trust funds and financial intermediary funds (FIFs) to coordinate development action, innovate development solutions, and catalyze development responses around the world. Explore the special section on how SASPP is the enhancing the impact of ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Group operations, including by influencing both the use of International Development Association (IDA) funding ¡ª by promoting programs and systems that respond positively to shocks ¡ª and the volume of IDA funding ¡ª by providing incentives to countries to request IDA funds for adaptive social protection.

This human capital review assesses human capital outcomes in Mauritania and identifies actions to build, utilize, and protect human capital. The government of Mauritania has put human capital development at the center of its long-term vision, and concerted efforts have been made to improve childhood health and education outcomes in Mauritania. However, progress has been limited. This report takes a cross-sectoral approach toward inclusive and resilient economic development along the three pillars of the human capital framework¡ª that is to build, use, and protect human capital.