Smart Social Protection in Times of Compound Crises: Its Effectiveness in Building the Resilience of Vulnerable Households to Inflation and Climate Risks

Abstract

This study argues that contemporary crises no longer reach vulnerable households as isolated events. Inflation, food and energy price shocks, extreme heat, drought, floods, health risks and informal employment losses interact within the same household budget and erode nutrition, education, health, productive assets and social functioning. The paper develops ‘smart social protection’ as an analytical construct that goes beyond service digitisation. It integrates rights-based inclusion, adaptive and shock-responsive design, anticipatory risk information, dynamic social registries, pre-arranged finance, scalable delivery, accountable digital tools and human-centred social case management. Using descriptive-analytical, systems and comparative documentary methods, the study evaluates effectiveness through absorptive, adaptive and transformative resilience. It finds that technology alone does not create effectiveness. Effective systems preserve the real value of benefits during inflation, act before damaging coping strategies become unavoidable, combine cash with services and economic inclusion, and protect privacy, non-discrimination, due process and human review. The paper concludes with a proposed family-centred operating and evaluation model linking sensing, dynamic assessment, flexible eligibility, multi-channel response, case management, learning and accountability, and specifies social work roles at micro, mezzo and macro levels.