Social Protection Podcast
Episodes
Supporting Adolescent Girls Through Social Protection: a Turning Point for Inclusion
10 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this first episode of the Social Inclusion Series*, we shine a spotlight on adolescent girls. Adolescence is a turning point—but one that ofte...
Ep. 59 | Building Sustainable Pathways Between Humanitarian Assistance and Social Protection
05 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Between 2015 and 2025, the number of displaced people worldwide nearly doubled. Today, more than 123 million people are forcibly displaced globally...
Ep. 58 | Ending Hunger and Poverty: The Role of the Global Alliance
06 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, launched under Brazil’s G20 Presidency in 2024, seeks to accelerate progress towards ending extreme ...
TRANSFORM Series Ep. 3 | Institutionalizing TRANSFORM as a Primary Social Protection Package
20 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we explore how TRANSFORM is being institutionalized as a core approach to continuous capacity building for social protection practiti...
TRANSFORM Series Ep. 2 | Promoting a Culture of Social Protection in Africa
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we explore how TRANSFORM has helped promote a ‘culture of social protection’ across Africa, shaping how civil servants approach t...
Ep.57 | Rethinking Poverty, Power, and Social Protection: a Conversation with Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur
11 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this special episode with Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, we explore where global efforts stand tod...
Ep.56 | Social Protection Myths and Misperceptions Part 2
14 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Do cash transfers drive inflation? Is social protection a cost to the economy, or an investment in its future? And who should these systems ultimat...
TRANSFORM Series Ep. 1 | Social Protection Capacity Building in Africa: 10 Years of TRANSFORM
28 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode introduces listeners to the origins and essence of the TRANSFORM initiative—an innovative, leading capacity-building program designed ...
Ep.55 | World Summit for Social Development 2025: a New Chapter for Social Protection?
24 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Thirty years after the landmark World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen, the world reconvenes in Doha for the second edition of the Summit —...
Bonus ep. | Social Protection in Gaza: Delivering Support Under Siege
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this bonus episode, we explore the critical role of social protection in Gaza. Our guest expert unpacks how humanitarian community has found creati...
Ep. 54 | Social Protection Myths and Misperceptions Part 1
29 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Is social protection just a handout? Does it discourage work? Or are the systems plagued by fraud? In this episode, we unpack some of the biggest myth...
Ep. 53 | Social Protection over the Past Decade (and 10 years of socialprotection.org!)
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This year, 2025, marks the 10th anniversary of the socialprotection.org platform—a milestone that offers the perfect opportunity to reflect on how f...
Ep. 52 | Integrating Social Protection into National Climate Policies
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In face of the climate emergency, integrating social protection into countries’ nationally determined contributions (NDCs) is essential for supporti...
Ep. 51 | Financing for Social Protection: Turning Commitments into Action
20 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As the world prepares for the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4), the need to rethink how we fund social protection ...
Ep. 50 | Towards Universal, Inclusive Social Health Protection
30 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Health is a human right, as well as a cornerstone of social protection systems. Yet globally, millions remain excluded from essential care, with fi...
Social Protection in Conflict and Protracted Crisis Series Ep. 3 | Humanitarian, Development & Peace Nexus Approach
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In conflict settings, ensuring that social protection is responsive, durable, and conflict-sensitive is critical, yet often underexplored. In this epi...
Social Protection in Conflict and Protracted Crisis Series Ep. 2 | Localisation and local social protection systems in conflict and crisis
27 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The need for greater ‘localisation’ of humanitarian and social assistance is clear in conflict and protracted crisis settings. The increasing diff...
Social Protection in Conflict and Protracted Crisis Series Ep. 1 | Women and Other Marginalised Groups in Fragile Contexts
28 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In times of conflict and protracted crises, social protection systems are often strained, yet they remain vital in supporting the most vulnerable popu...
Ep. 46 | Harnessing AI for Social Protection: opportunities and risks
10 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming industries worldwide, and social protection systems are no exception. From improving targeting and ser...
Ep. 45 | Looking Back on Social Protection in 2024
05 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Join us for the 2024 Year in Review episode of the Social Protection Podcast! In this year’s special (and final) episode, we delved into pivotal d...
Ep. 44 | Social Registries and Beyond
07 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Data and information systems are fundamental building blocks of social protection programmes. They all need a process and a mechanism for collecting, ...
Ep. 43 | World Social Protection Report 2024-26
03 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The World Social Protection Report is the ILO's flagship publication, offering an in-depth look at the state of social protection globally. The 2024-...
Bonus ep. | Partnerships for Social Protection: bridging divides, driving change
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the dynamic landscape of social protection, partnerships and collaborations serve as vital pillars of strength, innovation, inclusivity, and sustai...
Ep. 42 | Social Protection in Latin America: Stratification, Politics and Influences
06 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we delve into the world of social protection with one of its foremost experts, Professor Armando Barrientos, Emeritus Professor of Po...
Ep. 41 | The Evolution of Universal Basic Income: From Pilots to Policy
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Across the world, interest for universal social protection mechanisms has skyrocketed, in particular following the pandemic and its transversal effect...
Ep. 40 | SDGs, Social Protection and Evidence Building
05 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a global effort across a wide range of areas in which countries are working to achieve the targets set ou...
Emerging Trends in the Indo-Pacific Series Ep. 3 | The Future of Climate Change and Social Protection Responses
31 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout the Indo-Pacific region, climate change is already threatening livelihoods and exacerbating poverty. Extreme weather events and rising sea ...
Emerging Trends in the Indo-Pacific Series Ep. 2 | Social Protection for Gig Workers in Southeast Asia
26 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In Southeast Asia the gig economy is growing fast. Attracted by the promise of flexibility, independence, and low entry costs, gig workers offer their...
Emerging Trends in the Indo-Pacific Series Ep. 1 | The Evolution of SP in the Pacific
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode will explore the ways social protection has evolved in Pacific Island countries, starting with provident funds to the slow growth of l...
Ep. 36 | Gender-Transformative Social Protection
01 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In today's episode, we delve into a pressing topic: the evolving landscape of social protection systems and their critical role in addressing the uniq...
Ep. 35 | Exploring COP28: Supporting Just Transition through Social Protection
02 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Among the decisions made at the last Conference of Parties (COP28), was the establishment of the new Loss and Damage Fund, designed to assist count...
Ep. 34 | Looking Back on Social Protection in 2023
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join us for our special End-of-Year episode, where we unravel the tapestry of 2023, exploring the critical discussions and ground-breaking studies tha...
Ep. 33 | Shaping the G20 Agenda: Social Protection, Development and Global Priorities
24 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we’re talking about the G20 – an annual gathering of the world’s largest economies and a major global forum for discussing a...
Ep. 32 | Children on the Move
27 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2022, an estimated 100 million people were displaced, and more than 40 million of those were children. Many of these children were displaced for at...
Ep. 31 | Accountability in Social Protection and Humanitarian Contexts
28 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this engaging episode, we delve into the vital concept of accountability within social protection programmes and humanitarian initiatives. Our host...
Ep. 30 | Impacts of Social Protection
31 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This September marks the eighth anniversary of socialprotection.org, and we are celebrating across the platform by looking at social protection and it...
Ep. 29 | Home-Grown School Feeding Programmes
27 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It is estimated that around 418 million children benefit from school meals—around 41 per cent of children enrolled in primary school, a figure that ...
Ep. 28 | Care Economy: Reducing Unpaid Work and Inequality
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The value of unpaid care and domestic work has been estimated at around 11 trillion US dollars—roughly 9 per cent of the world’s gross domestic pr...
Ep. 27 | Resilience Building through Adaptive Social Protection
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Adaptive Social Protection is an area of social protection that aims to build resilience of poor and vulnerable households by developing their capa...
Ep. 26 | Breaking the Cycle of Poverty: Active Labour Market Policies
27 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, our guests focus on the role of active labour market policies (ALMPs) in guaranteeing, supporting or even creating income-generation ...
GBV Series Ep. 3 | Addressing and Supporting Survivors of Violence through Social Protection
30 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the "Social Protection for Prevention of and Response to Gender-based Violence" series, our guests talk about how social protection...
GBV Series Ep. 2 | Designing Social Protection to Safeguard and Mitigate against Gender-Based Violence
16 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the "Social Protection for Prevention of and Response to Gender-Based Violence" series, our guests discuss how economic factors ...
GBV Series Ep. 1 | How Can Social Protection Impact Gender-Based Violence?
24 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kicking off the three-part series ‘’Social Protection for Prevention of and Response to Gender-Based Violence’’, this episode presents a deep ...
Ep. 22 | Digital Financial Inclusion
26 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The COVID-19 crisis has led to an acceleration in electronic payments of social protection benefits through individual bank accounts or mobile money. ...
Ep. 21 | Looking Back at Social Protection in 2022
15 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After 2 years of COVID-19-dominated headlines, record inflation rates, and climate events taking centre stage in the global debate, it comes as no sur...
Ep.20 | Addressing Climate Risks through Social Protection
24 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the aftermath of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27) and the important debates that followed, this episode discusses the re...
Ep. 19 | Mind the Nutrition Gap
27 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Social protection can play an important role in ensuring that poor and vulnerable people meet their nutritional needs. What are the factors at play? T...
Ep. 18 | Social protection, sustainability and fisheries
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The UN General Assembly has declared 2022 as the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA 2022) to enhance global awareness an...
Ep. 17 | Social protection as an SDG accelerator
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we are talking about social protection and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent trip...
Ep. 16 | The trade-offs of targeting
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Targeting is one of the most widely debated topics in social protection. Who should receive support from social protection systems? How do we identify...
Ep. 15 | Disability-Inclusive Social Protection
30 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What do social protection systems need to look like to promote inclusion, autonomy and participation for people with disabilities? Cash transfers are ...
Ep. 14 | A Global Fund for Social Protection
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we will tackle the elephant in the room when it comes to discussions around universal approaches to social protection: financing. Whi...
Ep. 13 | Social Protection in Ukraine
28 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Last month, we had a bonus episode about the conflict in Ukraine, and how social protection systems could support a fast-growing refugee crisis. As...
Ep. 12 | What will it take to achieve USP by 2030?
24 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This month, we celebrate our first year of the Social Protection Podcast. Over 16 episodes, we have explored controversial ideas like Universal Basic ...
Ep. 11 | Bonus Edition | Social Protection for Ukrainian Refugees
11 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Since the conflict in Ukraine broke out at the end of February, the world has witnessed the fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II, with ov...
Ep. 10 | UBI and social protection systems
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This is the second of a two-part series about UBI. You can find the first episode here. This month we continue our discussion on the Universal Ba...
Ep. 9 | UBI and the World of Work
27 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This is the first episode of a two-part series about UBI. You can find the second episode here. The first episode of the year in the Social Prote...
Ep. 8 | 2021: A Year in Review
22 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It's December and we've made it to the end of 2021. This was another year dominated by COVID-19 in the field of social protection - and we've certa...
Ep. 7 | The path towards social protection floors for all
25 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We like our metaphors in social protection. We talk about safety nets, even ropes and ladders, to catch people as they fall into poverty, and help the...
Ep. 6 | What‘s changed since COVID-19: Country Cases
28 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for people and governments worldwide, as well as massive new demands for social protection....
Ep. 5 | What‘s changed since COVID-19: Responses, knowledge sharing and advice
29 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for people and governments all over the world, as well as massive new demands for social pr...
Ep. 4 | Bolsa Familia | Flagship Special Episode
27 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Once in a while, a social protection programme becomes famous. Whether because they are efficient, ground-breaking, innovative - or quite the opposite...
ODI Series Ep. 6 | Covid-19 crisis: opportunities and risks for extending social protection to informal workers
22 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the months of June and July, the Social Protection Podcast is hosting a special series in partnership with ODI and GIZ. Across six episodes, our gu...
ODI series Ep. 5 | ODA financing for social protection: lessons from the Covid-19 crisis response
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the months of June and July, the Social Protection Podcast is hosting a special series in partnership with ODI and GIZ. Across six episodes, our gu...
ODI Series Ep. 4 | Have social protection responses to Covid-19 undermined or supported gender equality?
08 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the months of June and July, the Social Protection Podcast is hosting a special series in partnership with ODI and GIZ. Across six episodes, our gu...
ODI Series Ep. 3 | Covid-19: crisis as opportunity for urban cash transfers?
01 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the months of June and July, the Social Protection Podcast is hosting a special series in partnership with ODI and GIZ. Across six episodes, our gu...
ODI Series Ep. 2 | National cash transfer responses to Covid-19: operational lessons
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the months of June and July, the Social Protection Podcast is hosting a special series in partnership with ODI and GIZ. Across six episodes, our gu...
ODI series Ep. 1 | Social protection provisions to refugees during the Covid-19 pandemic
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the months of June and July, the Social Protection Podcast is hosting a special series in partnership with ODI and GIZ. Across six episodes, our gu...
Ep. 3 | Global trends in (near) universal child grants
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In March, the United States brought in a temporary, near-universal child benefit as part of the American Rescue Plan, enacted as a response to COVID-1...
Ep. 2 | Scaling up economic inclusion
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we’re talking about economic inclusion. Economic inclusion programmes typically target the poorest people and seek to address the m...
Ep. 1 | Women in Leadership during the COVID-19 crisis
26 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This month, March, marks a year since COVID-19 swept over the globe, and triggered the first waves of closures and lockdowns in many countries. It has...
Teaser | Social Protection Podcast Ep. 1
15 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is a teaser for our first episode which will launch on March 26. Subscribe now so you don't miss it! If you have discovered this podcast, you pr...