Transnational Transformations in Social Protection – Concepts, Instruments & Contexts

Background

Since the path-breaking work of Gough and Wood (University of Bath) in 2003 on social protection in developing countries, policy and practice on the ground have changed significantly, but scholarship has failed to keep pace. There is an urgent need to respond to this gap in the academic literature, and to translate experiences in social protection reform over the past decade into lessons for policy and practice.

In terms of the international policy arena, social protection is explicitly identified as a required response to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 1 (End poverty in all its forms everywhere), Target 3 (Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable). While the past 15 years have seen a dramatic expansion of social protection internationally, we can expect this to be matched – at least – by the pace of expansion between 2015 and 2030.

This community previously had an Initiator Project: New Paradigms of Social Protection – Policies, Impacts and Outcomes

Project summary

The funds have facilitated GW4 collaboration to develop and disseminate more detailed knowledge on the emerging and evolving forms, functions and outcomes of social protection globally, and what this means for poverty, inequality and social justice.

This culminated in a conference with GW4, national and international attendees entitled “Transnational transformations in social protection: concepts, instruments and contexts”. This two day invitation-based conference aimed to showcase the research initiatives we had embarked upon and to further develop these by reaching out to key international and UK-based stakeholders with policy and research interests in social protection. The conference discussions offered us a chance to highlight the main orientations in our research and interact with key experts in the field.

The community also held a course (“Poverty Research Methods”) for PGR students and ECRs, and a GW4 Social Protection PGR Seminar, both of which gave attendees the opportunity to network with other PhD students and academics working in the field of social protection, as well as receiving training.

The community continue to collaborate, with several publications accepted and a grant proposal in progress.

A collaboration culminated with a major research initiative in collaboration with IDS, University of Sussex. An ESRC open call proposal is currently underway involving Bath, Exeter and IDS that will also address the challenges posed by the Covid pandemic.