Social Protection

Social protection refers to public policies or programs carried out by government or societies to provide support and assistance for the poor in dealing with their vulnerability, difficulty and deprivation. This may include health, education and gender. Efficiently and accurately reaching the poorest households has proven to be an important challenge in the improvement of social protection programs.

SMERU has conducted several studies around social protection, including Social Protection in Asia, Improving Social Protection Effectiveness, and The Politics of Gender and Social Protection in Indonesia.  Findings from these studies show that efforts to tackle poverty and gender vulnerabilities have not been optimal and gender aspect has not been deeply incorporated into the design of social protection programs in Indonesia.