Social Protection and Human Development Strategies

One of three priority areas of IPC is to strengthen the capacity of developing countries to design, implement, and monitor effective strategies for enhancing people's capabilities and increasing their socioeconomic security.

Objectives
Activities
Resources

Objectives

The centre will leverage the combined experiences of UNDP and its Brazilian partner, IPEA, to assist developing countries in the design, implementation, and evaluation of national strategies and programmes that create the conditions for enhancing human development and social protection.

Too often, this package of social policies suffer from a host of problems that limit their effectiveness in reaching target populations and achieving intended outcomes. Policymakers involved in the design of such strategies may lack basic inputs (administrative, institutional, or analytical support) to make informed policy decisions. Other times, macroeconomic and social policies - while individually well designed - may be out of sync with each other and human development objectives, in effect turning self-defeating. As a result, even well-intentioned policies and programmes can end up producing sub-optimal outcomes due to pervasive breakdowns in targeting methods, monitoring and evaluation, coverage, and/or policy coordination.

Sharing knowledge and practice between countries can help to overcome these policy barriers and promote strategies that further social protection and human development. Many developing countries already are attempting to implement new approaches, tools, and mechanisms to increase policy and programme effectiveness for tackling these issues. Some have taken steps to improve institutional coordination among the bodies responsible for domestic economic and social policies. Others have introduced substantial innovations in social policy design that can serve as models to be adapted and replicated elsewhere for enhancing human development objectives.

Apart from improving the design, focus, and coordination of social policies, there is also a need to assist countries to develop complementary programs that protect society's most vulnerable. Creating a system of safety nets can provide a level of social protection for those who do not directly benefit from these overarching measures by providing additional economic incentives, employment opportunities, or social investment. IPC plans to work with countries to meet the growing demand for such programs and to lessen the excessive levels of risk born by the most vulnerable among the poor.

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Activities

IPC will provide a range of services and activities that expands policy options and strengthens the capacity of developing countries to best address social protection and human development.

Specific activities include:

The aforementioned activities will offer opportunities for policymakers and specialists from various world regions to share knowledge, network with other research facilities, and participate in training seminars sponsored by IPC.

Moreover, all activities will emphasize the need to track and share social policy innovations in developing countries, including how best to integrate disadvantaged groups into poverty reduction strategies using social protection schemes.