Africa’s East, Horn and Great Lakes Region is experiencing increased frequency, severity and duration of crises creating a context of substantial and growing needs, with new conflicts swelling displaced and refugee caseloads. This is combined with the increasingly protracted nature of displacement , growing climatic shocks and inadequate humanitarian resources to meet the needs that these scenarios are generating.

However, despite these challenges progress can be seen in the establishment, strengthening and reach of social protection policies, systems and programmes across the region alongside increased investment in these systems. This is primarily development partner resources, but some countries are seeing a growth in government investment also. COVID-19 has accelerated efforts to scale up social protection systems. There is wide acceptance of the role that social protection can play in reducing poverty and addressing lifecycle risks and vulnerabilities. Pilots are developing into government social safety net programmes, delivery systems are improving and there is an increased focus on developing the shock-responsive capacities of these systems. Coverage is growing despite challenges around fragmentation, capacity, coordination and resourcing. This links to the increasing use of cash transfers as a humanitarian response modality and robust evidence of the efficacy of social protection and social transfers in both development and crisis contexts.

Humanitarian assistance has been performing the same role as social assistance for many years. In contexts of increasingly protracted displacement and lack of durable solutions for most refugees, inclusion in social protection systems, backed by international development investments, can contribute to more predictable alternatives to humanitarian assistance. UNHCR is working with governments and international actors to implement an area-based approach promoting access to social protection programmes for displaced and host populations. An increased focus on developing inclusive systems provides opportunities for broadening discussions on how Persons of Concern (PoC) can benefit from social protection to provide more effective, efficient and sustainable solutions to affected populations. This requires re-examining ways of responding to the basic and protection needs of forcibly displaced communities and exploring the role that government social protection systems can play in meeting the needs of PoC, accelerating the agenda of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR), promoting area-based solutions, efficiencies, inclusion and sustainability.

	Social assistance in crises roundtable: knowledge gaps and policy challenges
	BASIC (Better Assistance in Crises) Research is a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) funded programme examining why, how and when to use social protection approaches in different crisis contexts, to deliver more effective social assistance so that vulnerable people cope better with crises and meet their basic needs. This online roundtable discussion will be a dialogue with other researchers and practitioners on the ground.
	Fragility Forum: Emerging Research on Social Protection in Contexts of Fragility and Displacement
	Fragility Forum, a podcast summarising UNHCR studies and the ongoing WB-DFID Trust Fund and OECD studies on inclusion of refugees in SP systems and a roundtable with representatives from Mauritania, Republic of Congo and Yemen.
	Guidance Package - SPaN resources
	The European Commission (EC) created the Guidance Package (GP) on Social Protection across the Humanitarian-Development Nexus (SPaN) to provide concrete and practical guidance to social protection as an effective short- and long-term response to multivariate shocks, protracted crises and displacement based on the current body of knowledge, including brief definitions, and processes of social protection approaches in most challenging settings. The variety of contexts covered by the GP also includes countries where social protection systems are nationally led and those without any structures in place.