Sorting Through the Hype : Exploring the Interface Between Humanitarian Assistance and Safety Nets

Global interest around humanitarian and social protection issues is remarkable. These feature prominently in some of today’s most complex development challenges, whether supporting poor people in times of crises or providing them with a steady hand while pursuing opportunity. To some extent, there is a common thread of themes that underpin both humanitarian and social protection matters, and which, at its core, is about state formation and its strengthening. The objective of this note is to map out some key issues relevant to humanitarian and social protection work, that is, to basically explore their interface. Yet as this note argues, they tend to differ in some fundamental aspects. It then briefly reviews the rationale for public interventions, examines how the debate is panning out in different contexts, and identifies a set of strategic and practical questions for further work in the area.