By Daniel Kumitz

Thankfully social protection has been talked about a lot more recently. But not all parties refer to the same understanding of social protection. Social protection is a rather broad concept and begs clear definition. Social protection is about providing for those in society unable to provide for themselves, the poor, the incapacitated; the unemployed, those not supposed to work, such as children and women during maternity. Social protection thus deals with life’s contingencies and provides a floor or safety net to keep people from falling into poverty. Society as a whole is easily able to shoulder burdens, collectively, which could crush the livelihood of individual persons or families. In a capitalist world where individual fortune is often decided by market forces far from our control (often even far from the countries we live in), social protection is thus most relevant in protecting human dignity and the human right to social security.