Mitigating Hunger Through Social Protections

Mitigating Hunger through Social Protections (Student Center Room 2206)

  • Colleen Heflin, MU Truman School of Public Affairs;
  • Kody Olsen, MEANS Database;
  • Amy Crumbaugh, Feeding America;
  • Nicole Carn, WFP – Jordan

Introduction

Social protections, as defined by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, prevent, manage, and help individuals and households to overcome situations negatively affecting their well-being, including food insecurity. Social protections take the form of policies and programs designed, ultimately, to reduce poverty and subsequently vulnerability. Social projects ideally promote efficient labor markets, diminish exposure to risk, and enhance citizens’ capacity to manage economic and social risks (i.e. unemployment, sickness, disability, old age). There are three common types of social protections:

  1. Labor market interventions: designed to promote employment, increase labor market operation efficiencies and protect workers
  2. Social insurance: mitigates the risks associated with unemployment, poor health, disability, or work related injury (i.e. unemployment benefits, state sponsored healthcare, workmen’s compensation, social security)
  3. Social Assistance: use of cash or in-kind resource transfers to vulnerable individuals or households with no other means of adequate support (i.e. WIC, SNAP, TANF)

From a policy perspective many programs are instituted to not only provide a safety net, but provide at-risk households and individuals with the resources they need to permanently overcome their circumstances and reduce their need for such programs. Yet many programs have failed to accomplish this mission. Within a US context many of the programs have become so difficult to access or navigate that many families are prevented from accessing the resources they need. There is also a great deal of stigma associated with participation in social protections. Internationally, institutional social protections have often failed to garner community input or buy-in, and have failed to meet short- and long-term goals of alleviating poverty.

Objectives

  • Explore the barriers to accessing social protections: domestically and abroad
  • Discuss the role of policy in helping communities and nations graduate from social protections
  • Examine the sustainability implications of graduating from social protections, particularly in reference to the Cliff Effect (where moving out of the income threshold for participation eligibility results in an actual increase in vulnerability).

 

Session I: Social Protection and Social Stratification

This session would explore how the socially and economically disadvantaged access social welfare, and the role of social stratification in limiting access to these resources.

Session II: Graduation from Social Protections

This session would examine issues of sustainability and the Cliff Effect in using policy to advance societies or communities from the need for social protections.

 

Concurrent Session 1
Location: MU Student Center Date: February 26, 2016 Time: 2:00 pm - 3:45 pm Colleen Heflin Kody Olsen Amy Crumbaugh Nicole Carn