Social protection responses in times of distress in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review and research agenda

Countries in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) bear the most severe human and economic burden of natural disasters. However, mainstream public and social policy analysis still needs to adequately document research on social protection responses to natural disasters. This study analysed empirical literature on the role of social protection during natural disasters in LMICs based on 33 peer-reviewed articles in the past decade. Findings show that most research has been conducted in Asia. The predominant natural disasters (particularly hydrological disasters, geological disasters, storms and extreme temperatures) caused significant disruptions to economic situations, lives and livelihoods and food security. Social protection responses often included ex-post social assistance and reconstruction aid instead of ex-ante programmes, leading to less sensitivity to population-specific needs (e.g. females, low literacy groups and older persons), low-literate groups and poor households. Hence, informal social protection through social networks and communities played a crucial role in householders’ coping strategies but sometimes reinforced pre-existing social divisions and inequalities. Therefore, critical social protection analysis must be brought into public policy inquiries on disaster management. To do this, this paper makes several recommendations to extend current research directions to inform knowledge on shock-responsive social protection in times of distress.