Social Protection and Labor

Access to social protection and labor programs is critical to provide vital support for millions of people facing poverty, crises and life’s uncertainties.  It helps protect people against shocks today and build resilience and human capital to make the most of tomorrow.

Social protection goes well beyond direct cash or in-kind support; it includes policies and programs that bridge skill, financial, and information gaps, helping households and workers manage crises, escape poverty, navigate transitions, and seize employment opportunities. The three pillars of social protection—social assistance, social insurance, and labor market programs—help create pathways to self-reliance and independence.

Well-designed social protection programs have a high return on investment. For every dollar transferred to poor families, there is an estimated multiplier effect of $2.50 in the local economy.  The evidence also suggests outcomes ranging from nutrition and early childhood development to climate adaptation and mitigation to women’s empowerment and livelihood diversification.

Despite tremendous progress over the last decade, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2 billion people around the world remain uncovered or inadequately covered by social protection. Today three out of four people in low-income countries have no form of basic protection with half in lower-middle income countries lacking adequate protections.  The World Bank Group is working to reach 500 million people, half of them women, with social protection and labor programs by 2030.   

At the same time, we are facing significant labor market challenges: In emerging markets alone, 1.2 billion young people will be of working age in a decade. Yet, current forecasts indicate that only about 420 million jobs will be created. To tackle this looming crisis, social protection programs will be key. 

Scaling up social protection programs to achieve our target and create more job opportunities demands more and better spending.  Low-income countries, particularly in Africa and South Asia, where coverage gaps are highest, will continue to need additional external support.

Efficiency gains are possible through resource reallocation, away from regressive subsidies; through diversification of financing, including innovative financing mechanisms; and through digital delivery systems.  It also demands redoubled attention on the knowledge agenda to develop evidence and promote learning, as well as to pursue partnerships that leverage collective action toward universal social protection. 

Better use of existing resources could also make a big difference. For instance, redirecting cash transfers from the wealthy to the poor could cover nearly half the cost of providing social protection to the bottom 20%.

The new State of Social Protection Report 2025 documents advances and challenges to strengthening social protection and labor systems across low- and middle-income countries and discusses avenues to gradually close the coverage and adequacy gap for the world’s poorest. Our recent report, The State of Economic Inclusion 2024, shows that 90% of economic inclusion programs target women, with nearly one-third of all programs focusing on improving their economic participation.  

Last Updated: Apr 16, 2025

The World Bank envisions a world where social protection systems are a cornerstone of sustainable development, unlocking opportunities for the poorest and most vulnerable to build a world free of poverty on a livable planet. In emerging markets, 1.2 billion young people will be of working age in a decade, when only 420 million jobs will be created. To tackle this looming crisis, social protection programs will be key.

Social protection is more than cash transfers. It is a set of policies and programs that help bridge the skills gap and promote efficient labor markets that support entrepreneurship, access to finance, and better connect workers to jobs and businesses to markets. 

Our goal is to scale up social protection programs, alongside partners, to reach 500 million poor and vulnerable people by 2030, with a special focus on women and children. Through adaptive, digitalized social protection systems, we aim to ensure that every household has the tools and resources to prepare for, cope with, and recover from shocks avoiding the poverty trap. We believe that social protection is not only essential to end extreme poverty but also a key driver of gender equality, access to better jobs, and climate resilience.

To achieve our goal, we are working with four interconnected policy and investment areas:

• Adaptive social protection
• Employment and labor
• Aging and pensions
• Digital delivery systems

These areas are designed to address the multiple dimensions of poverty, aging, and labor market challenges. The strategy is tailored across four critical lenses—food and nutrition security, gender equality, fragility and conflict, and climate adaptation and green transition—ensuring that social protection systems remain inclusive and equitable.

The World Bank social protection strategy is detailed fully in the 2022 “Charting a Course Towards Universal Social Protection”, also known as the SPJ Compass. The SPJ Compass prioritizes the vision of universal social protection (USP). It recognizes that the progressive realization of USP, which ensures access to social protection for all whenever and however they need it, is critical for effectively reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity. Countries across the globe are increasingly using this vision to guide their policy.

Last Updated: Apr 16, 2025

As of April 2025, the World Bank is providing $29.5 billion in financing, including $15.5 billion through IDA, to respond to the growing demand for social protection solutions amidst overlapping global crises.

As of 2024, our programs supported over 222 million people, with more than half of the beneficiaries being women. These initiatives help individuals cope with and adapt to various shocks, access and secure jobs, enhance productivity, support the health and education of their children, develop skills throughout extended working lives, and safeguard aging populations and persons with disabilities.

We have also significantly expanded our efforts in fragile, conflict, and violent settings, where we are reaching 57 million people with social protection measures. Additionally, over 18 million people have seen improvements in their earnings, particularly through microenterprise support. Our focus on jobs and skills programs has led to the creation of over 100 initiatives, with a particular emphasis on empowering youth and women in vulnerable communities.

Achievements:

Latin America started in the early 1990s, with conditional cash transfer programs like Prospera in Mexico. As school enrollment increased and nutrition improved as a result of the program, this simple idea took off, spreading quickly throughout Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Initiatives like the Income Support Program for the Poorest in Bangladesh reached 600,000 women over nearly a decade and improved their children’s nutrition, cognitive development, and readiness for school.

The Social Cash Transfer Program in Zambia, which impacted more than 3 million people—20% of the population—improved the livelihoods of women and expanded access to education for children.

A social safety nets project in South Sudan supported social cohesion. The IDA-supported project exceeded its own targets, with 77% female force participation in labor-intensive public works programs.

In Niger, 18 months after the end of an Adaptive Social Protection program, women in a productive inclusion program saw their incomes and the share coming from non-agriculture activities both increase by up to 100%.

The Urban Productive Safety Net Project (UPSNP)  helped Ethiopia to develop its first management information system to capture data related to both urban and rural poor. The project reached more than 600,000 poor people in urban areas, 60 percent of whom were women. It helped beneficiaries open bank accounts for the first time, resulting in more than $11.3 million in savings.

Last Updated: Apr 16, 2025

The World Bank, working alongside partners, is committed to expanding coverage to 500 million people by 2030, with at least half being women.  

Social Protection Response Umbrella Program

The Social Protection Response (SPR) Umbrella Trust Fund plays a vital role in driving this ambition by strengthening partnerships to catalyze policy and programming reforms that reach those most in need and create opportunities for self-sufficiency.  

SPR supports policies and investments aligned with World Bank priorities—such as labor reform, pension systems, adaptive social protection, and digital service delivery—helping people and communities navigate uncertainties, access opportunities, and foster greater self-reliance.  

By aligning with global priorities and the SDGs, SPR plays a key role in reducing poverty and promoting shared prosperity—leveraging its global reach to engage stakeholders and drive progress through stronger fiscal and policy commitments. 

This work builds on over 15 years of powerful impact through the Rapid Social Response (RSR) program, which mobilized nearly $150 million across 100 countries and helped unlock $30 billion in World Bank and domestic financing. 

 SPR Focus Areas 

  The SPR Umbrella Program leverages its investments to advance World Bank dialogue and operations with partner countries in social protection and related sectors. Its activities are organized around five pillar—data and diagnostics, innovation, evidence-based tools, knowledge sharing, and technical assistance—that support advocacy, learning, and financing. 

The Program operates through dedicated thematic “windows,” a cross-cutting partnership window, and flexible country-specific windows, each guided by a clear mission and tailored objectives.  These include: 

• Shaping the Future of Food and Nutrition

Supported by the Government of Norway and the Gates Foundation, SPR helps countries scale nutrition-sensitive programs through practical solutions and stronger systems—advancing social protection for nutrition, expanding economic opportunities in sustainable food systems, and strengthening readiness and response to food crises. 

• Strengthening Social Protection in Fragile Contexts 

SPR supports efforts to protect human capital, create jobs, strengthen resilience, and promote recovery in fragile and conflict-affected settings. This window is financed by by the UK’s FCDO, with a focus on addressing the unique risks and barriers faced by women and girls in fragile contexts. 

• Transforming Labor Markets

SPR drives innovative, inclusive solutions to tackle today’s employment challenges. Building on Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) and Global Skills Partnership (GSP) initiatives, it fosters private sector engagement, cross-border mobility, and digital opportunities. The program focuses on delivering scalable labor market solutions, with a strong emphasis on reaching women, youth, migrants, refugees, and other underserved groups. 

• Driving Digital Transformation in Social Protection Systems

With support from the European Commission, SPR aims to accelerate the digital transformation of social protection systems by leveraging innovations through digital identification systems, social registries, payment platforms, and management systems. These tools make systems more efficient, inclusive, and responsive—enabling faster, more transparent support to vulnerable populations while reducing leakages and improving accountability. 

• M-GA: A coordinated UN-World Bank Partnership

SPR leads M-GA: the global partnership and multi-stakeholder engagement between UN agencies and the World Bank to implement the Global Accelerator and the Social Protection and Jobs Compass. Through coordinated action and aligned knowledge, the partnership drives sustainable investments that create decent jobs and advance universal social protection.  Germany, Ireland, and Spain provide financing to the M-GA. 

Partnership on Economic Inclusion (PEI)

Housed at the World Bank, the Partnership on Economic Inclusion (PEI) program helps to increase income and assets for extremely poor and vulnerable people by developing economic inclusion programs globally.  This has contributed to evidence-based good practices that can be adapted to local conditions by governments and local or international agencies. 

Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program (SASPP)

The Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program (SASPP) supports the strengthening of adaptive social protection systems in six Sahel countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal), and currently covers more than 2.3 million people.  The program enables individuals, households, and societies to build resilience and better withstand the impacts of shocks that regularly afflict the sub-region, including those triggered by drought and floods, conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE)

A global network of donors, governments, foundations, private sector partners, NGOs, and youth focused on advancing innovative programs that help young people access dignified, productive work. Its activities center on three priority areas: (1) developing skills for employability; (2) expanding workplace-based learning; and (3) boosting productivity for young entrepreneurs.  

Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD)

For more than a decade, the World Bank hosted the KNOMAD, a brain trust of the global migration community. While the program closed in 2024, its multidisciplinary knowledge and data continues to support partners and policy makers around the world in sending, receiving and transit countries.

Last Updated: Apr 16, 2025