From Safety Net to Springboard

As climate risks intensify, there is a significant, and untapped, opportunity to use social protection not just as a safety net, but as a strategic tool in the fight against climate change.

This paper shines a light on how funders and policymakers can achieve this by systematically integrating financial services into social protection programs, and calls on social protection practitioners to see financial inclusion as a fundamental part of their climate resilience toolkit.

To inspire action, it analyses five priority areas – smarter payments, savings to protect against climate risks, innovative climate-triggered credit mechanisms, climate-responsive insurance, and combined financial services - that deserve further investigation, experimentation, and investment to scale.