8. Micro-Insurance: Social Protection

Social protection refers to certain measures adopted by the society to protect its members from socio-economic challenges. Following are some definitions of ‘Social Protection’:

According to The United Nations Economic and Social Council, social protection should be “broadly understood as a set of public and private policies and programmes undertaken by societies in response to various contingencies in order to offset the absence or substantial reduction of income from work; provide assistance to families with children; and provide people with health care and housing”
The UK Department for International Development (DFID) defines social protection as the “public actions taken in response to levels of vulnerability, risk and deprivation which are considered socially unacceptable within a given priority or society.”
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) defines social protection as the net of “policies and programs designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability by promoting efficient labour markets, diminishing people’s exposure to risks, and enhancing their capacity to protect themselves against hazards and interruption/loss of income.” According to the clear-cut approach of the ADB, social protection consists of five major areas: (1) Labour markets (2) social insurance (3) social assistance and welfare service programmes (4) micro and area-based schemes and (5) child protection
The World Bank sees social protection as a measure to reduce the variance of household’s utility over time. Policies promoting growth and increasing access to health and education services try to improve the average well being of the poor, while policies falling under the purview of social protection “creates opportunities for households to manage risks better and to reduce the impacts of shocks.”