Climate funds and social protection: What is the progress to date?

This paper delves into the evolving landscape of climate finance for social protection. It gives an overview of current social protection spending, financing and coverage gaps across the world, and explores how climate finance can strengthen social protection systems, build resilience and improve socio-economic outcomes. The brief then zooms into adaptation funds (climate funds focused on enhancing the adaptive capacities of communities) to understand what kinds of social protection-related projects are being funded.

Key insights from the publication include:

• Social protection is not yet well-recognized as a viable adaptation or mitigation option among climate fund applicants;
• Social protection projects related to supporting agriculture, climate-smart farming practices, and smallholder producers seem to be an emerging area of priority;
• The main regions receiving funding for social protection projects in 2022 were sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America which, together, accounted for more than one-third of all projects.