Social protection has become one of the most effective tools that alleviate extreme poverty and generate opportunities for vulnerable groups. Social protection regimes, including cash transfer schemes, social pensions, food stamps, and labor market initiatives, are not only a temporary soothing measure, but instead the gateway that enables people and families to switch between survival and stability and long-term economic engagement. Recent international statistics reveal that the social protection initiatives have led to a lasting reduction of extreme poverty by an average of 37 percent, which goes to highlight how successful the programmes are in tackling the most abject poverty. The programs allow the households to buy basic needs, reducing consumption and avoiding unhealthy coping strategies like child labour, distress migration, or depleting assets by providing predictable income support.

This stability sets up the environment that families require to invest in education, health, and livelihoods, which are the main sources of upward mobility. Social protection coverage has been increasing at a high pace in the last decade. By 2022, programs covered about 4.7 billion individuals in low- and middle-income countries, a figure that implies close to 75 percent of the population in the said countries lived in homes where they had access to at least one type of social protection intervention. The fact that the extremely poor in low-income countries have seen coverage gains by an average of 17 percentage points since 2010 has been the most notable example of gains in coverage, as coverage gains continue to focus on policy, with the help of international assistance.

Although this has been achieved, there are still large gaps. The World Bank projects that globally, approximately 1.6 billion individuals remain uninsured in any way, and an extra 400 million individuals gain advantages that are too minimal to lift them out of poverty or even shield them against shocks. These deficiencies are worst in poor and weak environments where people receive social protection on average less than one in every four individuals. With the increased rate of climate change, economic insecurity, and changes in the labor market, the importance of social protection is becoming critical. The coverage, adequacy, and delivery systems need to be strengthened not only to alleviate poverty nowadays but also to ensure that the social protection is really the first step on the ladder of opportunity between the safety net and the resilience, productivity, and inclusive growth.