FAO social protection framework: promoting rural development for all
This document presents the Food and Agricultural Organization's (FAO) vision and approach to social protection. FAO recognizes the critical role social protection plays in furthering and accelerating progress around food security and nutrition (FSN), agriculture development, rural poverty and resilience building. The Organization is committed to promoting a coherent systems approach and to build and strengthen nationally owned social protection systems.
In rural areas, the livelihoods of the working poor are often subject to natural disasters, climate change and economic shocks (e.g. in food prices). As they are often employed in the informal economy, they usually lack sufficient access to social protection. Many of them are women with particularly limited access to productive means. The rural-urban income gap and the high concentration of poverty in rural areas can contribute to conflict, humanitarian emergencies and aggravate vulnerability to man-made and natural disasters. This Framework recognizes that social sustainability goes hand in hand with social inclusion.
Social protection is not new to FAO. The Organization has engaged in rural and agricultural development work that has been shown to serve socially protective functions. It has also undertaken emergency and disaster risk reduction with instruments similar to those that are used in social protection. However, social protection is now framed as a corporate priority, contributing to realizing FAO's core mandate.