SPA is a Research, Advocacy and Network Building Programme funded by the Ford Foundation and IDRC. Our main purpose is to undertake research and policy advocacy which contributes to overcoming barriers to the extension of social protection to poor and marginalized groups across Asia. We seek to identify and promote innovative forms of social protection which contribute to sustainable poverty reduction and long-term development.

A competitive call for research proposals on Social Protection in Asia was made in September 2007. Ten projects have now been selected and are in their initial stages. The countries covered currently include India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Social Protection for Rural-Urban Migrants in Vietnam and China
Le Bach Duong of the The Institute for Social Development Studies, Hanoi, Vietnam (ww.bnu.edu.cn/eng/ and Yu Zhu of the Center for Population and Development Research, Fujian Normal University (www.fjtu.edu.cn/contents/English/) China will undertake a comparative study aimed at assessing the current provision of social protection measures for migrants in China and Vietnam in the contexts of increasing mobility.

Institutional and Governance Challenges in Social Protection - The Right to Work Programme in India.
Alakh Sharma and colleagues at The Institute for Human Development (IHD) in Delhi, India (http://ihdindia.org/) will explore mechanisms for increasing the impact of the National Rural Employment

Examining the NREGA: Women's Participation and Impacts in Himachal Pradesh and Kerala.
Ratna Sudarshan and colleagues at The Institute of Social Studies Trust, Delhi, India (www.isst-india.org/) will examine women's participation in the NREGA to assess the impact of the programme on well being, mediation by women's groups, and wider development impacts

Inclusive Urbanization – Social Protection for the Slum and Pavement Dwellers in India.
Led by Darshini Mahadevia CEPT University and in collaboration with Mahila Housing Trust, and SEWA Bank, Ahmedabad, India, (www.cept.ac.in/) will explore the linkages between vulnerability and multi-dimensional forms of deprivation in urban slums, and explore the role of social protection programmes in addressing the insecurities faced by slum-dwellers. "

Residential Land as Social Protection: Local Mobilisation in Pakistan. Inclusive Urbanization – Social Protection for the Slum and Pavement Dwellers in India.
Haris Gazdar and colleagues at The Collective for Social Science Research, Pakistan, (http://urlblockederror.aspx/) will examine the relationship between residential land security schemes and the mobilization of socially excluded and marginalized groups.

Social Support for the Aged in Rural China – The Role of Local Communities
Xiaomei Pei of Tsinghua University, Beijing (www.tsinghua.edu.cn/eng/index.jsp) will lead a team seeking to understand the role of local community, culture and tradition in existing

Caring for One Billion: Assessing the New Health Protection Programme in Rural China
Led by Linxiu Zhang of The Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Beijing, (www.ccap.org.cn/english/index.asp)

The Dynamics of Intra-household Decision Making Processes in Indonesia's Conditional Cash Transfer Programme
Led by Stella Aleida, researchers at the SMERU Research Institute, Indonesia (http://www.smeru.or.id/) will evaluate the effectiveness

Building Pathways for the Poorest: Operationalizing the Concept of Graduation
CGAP and Ford have carefully studied BRAC, CARE, and other institutions with experience working with the poorest and have concluded that combining the comparative advantages of good safety net programs with those of microfinance can create the basis to successfully graduate the poorest out of chronic food insecurity. This "graduation" model builds on the fact that the

Programme Themes
A number of key themes have emerged from the initial discussions of the research projects. We hope that developing these cross-cutting themes will strengthen both the comparative value of the research programme as well as SPA's contribution to region-wide debates about social protection.

Themes currently identified include

The SPA launch event was held at the close of the International Conference on Universalizing Socio-Economic Security in South Asia in Delhi and was attended by approximately 100 academics, policy makers and other experts working on social protection from across the region. Prof. Abhijit Sen, Member of the Planning Commission of India, gave the key note address, identifying a core challenge in extending social protection to marginalized and vulnerable people in ways which promote their livelihood security while enhancing their voice and citizenship. He drew in particular on the Indian

The Boulder Institute of Microfinance and the Institute of Development Studies are pleased to announce that the registration process for the Boulder Executive Training Program for Development Professionals "Integrating Microfinance in Development" is now open at www.bouldermft.org/sussex/ The Integrating Microfinance in Development training program is offered to development professionals and specialists in Agriculture, Health, Education or Livelihoods who need to understand microfinance for their

work. Integrating Microfinance is a short intensive program that will explore the role of microfinance in the lives of poor families, identify where and when it can be effective and understand how to fit it into development programming. This training program will be held from September 1st to September 5th, 2008 and hosted by the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.

The SPA launch event was held at the close of the International Conference on Universalizing Socio-Economic Security in South Asia in Delhi and was attended by approximately 100 academics, policy makers and other experts working on social protection from across the region. Prof. Abhijit Sen, Member of the Planning Commission of India, gave the key note address, identifying a core challenge in extending social protection to marginalized and vulnerable people in ways which promote their livelihood security while enhancing their voice and citizenship. He drew in particular on the Indian

Thinking on social protection, concerned about possible distortions of the labour market, has done little to stem the spread of informal employment. Despite policy commitment to poverty reduction through labour-intensive growth, the gains for the poor have been ambiguous. These themes were explored in a 2007 workshop convened by IDS and WIEGO. Bringing together researchers, practitioners and policymakers, their contributions now make up this IDS Bulletin. Articles cover the changing nature of the global economy, flexible labour market policies in different regions of the world, conceptualisation of labour markets, implications for macroeconomic policies, and the scope for social protection. The conclusion is the need for a better understanding of the way labour markets function in the 'real' world if we are to find policies that will better deliver on the outcomes they promise.

Social protection has come a long way in a short time. Ten years ago, it was a new phrase for social safety nets, and was limited to interventions that provided short-term support to people lacking the capacity to cope on their own Since then, both social protection thinking and practice have taken several new directions. The collection of briefing notes that go together to make this issue of In Focus explore and contribute to some of these.

Social protection is fast becoming one of the most important themes in development policy. This collection examines the political processes shaping the formulation of social protection policies; compares the key conceptual frameworks available for analysing social protection; and provides a comparative discussion on the policies focused on the poor and the poorest. Drawing on key case studies from Africa, Latin America and Asia, the contributors outline solutions for the future of social protection in developing countries.

Forthcoming events

Hot topics in social protection

Our colleague, beloved friend Wina (Wenefrida Widyanti) has passed away at 14:15pm on Friday, May 23, 2008 at Abdi Waluyo hospital located in Menteng, Jakarta. She had heart failure during backbone surgery and was in a coma for about 12 hours before she died. She will be buried in Salatiga on Sunday, May 25, 2008 at around 14:00pm. She would be 38 years old in November

Best regards,
Sudarno Sumarto
The SMERU Research Institute Jakarta – Indonesia