Emerging Trends in the Indo-Pacific Series Ep. 3 | The Future of Climate Change and Social Protection Responses

Throughout the Indo-Pacific region, climate change is already threatening livelihoods and exacerbating poverty. Extreme weather events and rising sea levels are creating new vulnerable populations in unprecedented ways. To tackle climate change, countries will need to undergo major economic and social transformations, which could risk leaving even more people behind.

So, what do these changing risks mean for the way social protection is designed? And what kinds of radical rethinking might be necessary to build systems for the future? In this episode, our guests are grappling with these questions, working to reimagine social protection schemes to confront the realities of a changing climate.

This is the grand finale of a three-part series of the Social Protection Podcast titled "Emerging Trends for Social Protection in the Indo-Pacific," presented by socialprotection.org. We extend our gratitude to Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) for their invaluable support in shaping this series and facilitating connections with the most suitable guests for each episode.

 

Meet our guests:

• Sreng Sophornreaksmey, Director of the Policy Department at the General Secretariat for the National Social Protection Council for the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
• Palash Kanti Das, Director of the Ultra-poor Graduation Program for BRAC in Bangladesh.
• Anna McCord, Lead for the Climate Change and Social Protection Research Initiative at the Poverty and Inequality practice.

For our Quick Wins segment, we are joined by Inge Stockl, an independent social protection consultant working on a range of social protection assignments in the Asia Pacific region.

 

Episode Resources:

• Publication | Fiji Anticipatory Action
• Publication | On the Front Foot: Envisaging a model for anticipatory action in the Pacific.
• Publication | The Economics of Acting Early - Evidence of Climate and Disaster Actions in the Pacific
• Podcast | Emerging Trends in the Indo-Pacific Series Ep. 01 | The Evolution of SP in the Pacific

 

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As we produced this episode, numerous climate-change related disasters have occurred globally, including incidents in Brazil, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Tanzania, and France.

As you will hear from our guests' discussions in this episode, the impacts of climate change are increasingly evident, leading to more frequent and severe disasters.

In addition to the social protection and humanitarian action provided by different actors, such as governments, NGOs, and international organizations, if you wish to support those affected by these and other natural disasters, please refer to official channels for ways to help. You can also contribute to the UN Central Emergency Response Fund’s Climate Action, which pools contributions from across the globe into a single fund and allocates money to humanitarian partners on the front lines of emergency responses when climate-related disasters strike.