The Politics of Donor and Government Approaches to Social Protection and Humanitarian Policies for Assistance During Crises

Abstract

This paper examines social protection policy processes in fragile and conflict-affected settings (FCAS). It explores what the policies of donor governments, aid agencies, and crisis-affected governments reveal about the politics of assistance during crises, and how aid agencies are navigating tensions between humanitarian and development approaches to social assistance. It finds that social protection policies are prone to conflict blindness. Commitments to state-building often ignore dilemmas inherent in supporting states that are parties to ongoing conflicts and the political rather than technical challenges involved. Government social protection policies in FCAS often make little mention of the fact that war or conflict are taking place.

Conflict-Sensitive Social Protection: Somalia Country Report

“…Conflict-Sensitive Social Protection: Somalia Country Report 10 mechanisms are often those that communities also use to respond to conflictrelated dynamics and processes. Somalia compares well with other fragile and conflict-affected countries whose social protection policies are more conflict-blind (Harvey and Mohamed 2022). However, the extent to which the policy is nationally driven and owned is unclear.…”

Social Protection in Nigeria: Analysing Capacities

“…Nor does it account for external risks and shocks beyond the control of the policy and programme stakeholders which could be debilitating for 'business continuity'. With little mention of the political and security environment, it is unknown whether this is an oversight and there is no provision for addressing the consequences of these factors -or whether it is implying that the assumptions regarding the political and security situation are stable and dependable (Harvey and Mohamed 2022). The implementation manual of the national social protection policy uses the term 'enabling environment' to set out the roles and mandates of stakeholders.…”

Ensuring an Effective Social Protection Response in Conflict-Affected Settings: Findings from the Horn of Africa

“…The country case studies offer three broad findings about the approach to conflict, based on a review of documents associated with the programmes described in transitional government in 2019) and the Sudan Emergency Safety Nets Programme (designed after the 2021 coup) shows that conflict sensitivity is more explicit in the latter than the former (World Bank 2022a, 2020). In Somalia, where conflict is also an immediate and pressing threat, social protection policy pays more attention to conflict than in neighbouring countries: Ethiopia's strategy makes no mention of armed or violent conflict (Harvey and Mohamed 2022), while Kenya's policy makes passing reference to conflict as a potential shock but makes no further mention (Republic of Kenya 2011).…”