10th Anniversary of socialprotection.org
From Knowledge to Action:
10 Years Strengthening Social Protection
An inspiring celebration that reaffirmed the relevance of the platform’s mission and mobilised renewed commitment to social protection as a cornerstone of sustainable development!
Discover more about socialprotection.org’s journey over the past 10 years through our special campaign:
THE BACKGROUND
The world is still striving to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), yet none are on track to be fully achieved by 2030 (United Nations, 2024). In this context, social protection stands out as a key enabler of the SDG agenda, playing a critical role in accelerating progress and ensuring no one is left behind.
Social protection is not only
a human right, but also a proven way to reduce poverty, tackle inequality, and help people navigate risks: from everyday challenges to major crises like pandemics, economic shocks, and climate disasters.
Yet gaps remain huge:
Over
3.8
BILLION PEOPLE
still lack access to any form of social protection (ILO, 2024)
Progress is often constrained by limited national budgets and declining international financing.
This makes collaboration, knowledge sharing, and global solidarity more important than ever.
Now more than ever, we must strengthen collaboration, exchange knowledge, share best practices, and advocate for universal social protection systems with a strong evidence-based and action-oriented message.
Want to know more about this background? Access it here:
In this context, knowledge sharing plays a central role by fostering learning and collaboration, and consequently supporting more adaptive and resilient social protection systems.
Over the past decade, socialprotection.org has grown into a global knowledge platform where practitioners, policymakers, and researchers connect to advance universal and inclusive social protection. What began as a resource database has evolved into a community of over 17,000 members worldwide, fostering learning, exchange, and collaboration.
Marking its 10-year anniversary, socialprotection.org reflected on key milestones, impactful knowledge products, and partnerships, while drawing renewed attention to the need for stronger systems, sustained investment, and cooperation, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
The Campaign
The socialprotection.org campaign included the following products, which will be highlighted in the sequence below. These products encompassed videos, interviews, webinars, podcasts, and more:
- Digital Retrospective
2. #SPorgMilestones series
3. Voices of Experts video series
4. Voices of Social Protection series
5. Country Snapshots
6. Global Exchanges
- Digital Retrospective
Let’s begin with a video highlighting the history, importance, and impact of the platform for knowledge sharing and capacity strengthening on social protection, through the voices of some of our key partners:
2. #SPorgMilestones series
The #SPorgMilestones series revisit the key actions, partnerships, and achievements that have helped fostering informed dialogue, peer learning, and evidence-based policymaking, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, while leveraging collaboration and innovation. You can explore 5 of our main milestones!
Our database figures are equally impressive!
14,484
Publications
Blog Posts
982
Programme Profiles
675
35,717
DOWNLOADS
59
episodes
*since 2021
12,610
7,250
6,190
3,293
1,645
294
167
total
followers!
total members!
17,129
On average, 4 new
members join us each day*
*since 2015
Total of 35
e-courses*
developed or hosted
by socialprotection.org
4,004
certificates
issued
What is
Social Protection:
An Intruduction
was the e-course with the
most certificates issued!
*since 2018
organised
webinars
364
*Numbers from September 2015 to August 2025.
36,252
attendees
148
organisations involved
We've also supporterd or hosted 8 e-conferences
and other events, with:
- 6,022 attendees
- 14 organisations
14 organisations
6,022 attendees
an average of 464
YouTube views
169,028
views per webinar
AND
a. Advancing knowledge through data and initiatives
#SPorgMilestones
As we revisit the moments that shaped our journey, let’s rewind to #2020: a year of global disruption and urgent action. From March to October 2020, socialprotection.org coordinated the COVID-19 Task Force with IPC-IG, DFAT, and GIZ, backed by a strong network
of partners.
Our mission was clear: inform, connect, and strengthen social protection responses to an unprecedented crisis.
We united governments, international organisations, and experts worldwide
to share solutions in real time, transforming collective knowledge into coordinated action.
The COVID-19 Task Force wasn’t just a rapid response, it became a blueprint for more resilient and inclusive social protection systems in the years ahead.
b. Mobilising knowledge and action:
The COVID-19 Task Force
#SPorgMilestones
Over the past 10 years, we have been supporting global responses.
In 2024, we strengthened our commitment to the fight against hunger and poverty by supporting the launch and establishment of
the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty.
c. Strengthening global responses:
The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty
#SPorgMilestones
A milestone marks an important moment in our journey: and what better example than The Social Protection Podcast?
Since its launch in March 2021, the podcast has become a dynamic space for expert-led conversations on topics ranging from universal social protection and climate resilience to gender equity and informality.
With every episode, we’ve expanded how we share knowledge, reach new audiences, and amplify diverse voices from around the world.
d. The Social Protection Podcast
#SPorgMilestones
By connecting people and ideas, we collaborate to build stronger, more inclusive social protection systems! Learn more about the Social Protection Podcast:
Find out more!
Over the past decade, socialprotection.org has not only shared knowledge but also created spaces for meaningful global dialogue.
From high-level summits and international conferences to thematic webinars and online discussions, we have worked with partners worldwide to connect decision-makers, practitioners, and researchers, ensuring social protection stays high on the global agenda.
e. Advancing global dialogue
#SPorgMilestones
3. Voices of Experts video series
As part of the campaign, the Voices of Experts video series brought together a collection of short interviews with leading experts, reflecting on the importance of social protection as a key enabler of the 2030 Agenda across cross-cutting themes such as climate change, gender, and more.
Shahra Razavi
Director of the Social Protection Department, ILO
Renata Nowak-Garmer
Social Protection Programmer Director, WIEGO
Stephen Devereux
Research Fellow, IDS
Jamele Rigolini
Senior Advisor for Social Protection and Labor,
The World Bank
Matthew Walsham
Social Protection and Climate Specialist, FAO
Ralf Radermacher
Head of Programme, Social Protection, GIZ
Felicity O'Brien
Assistant Director,
Social Protection, DFAT
Jennifer Yablonski
Chief of Child Poverty and Social Protection, UNICEF
Katja Hujo
Head of Bonn Office and Senior Research Coordinator, UNRISD
Rana Jawad
Professor of Global Social Policy, University of Birmingham
4. Voices of Social Protection series
Social protection is essential for achieving the SDGs, building resilience, and ensuring human dignity. For the past decade, socialprotection.org has been at the forefront, advancing the global social protection agenda through knowledge sharing, innovation, and collaboration across sectors and regions.
The #VoicesOfSocialProtection is a special edition of our traditional #HumansOfSocialProtection series, created in collaboration with the Social Protection Ambassadors. This series highlights the real people behind the policies, sharing human stories of those whose lives have been transformed by inclusive social protection systems.
Hit Play!
The Country Snapshots series highlighted low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) that had engaged with the platform through webinars since 2015.
The series aimed to understand how these countries had progressed - or faced challenges - in the field of social protection over recent years, in relation to the original webinar themes and dates.
Learn more about the experiences of Indonesia, Jordan and Oman!
Click on the country flags to learn more!
Jordan
Oman
Indonesia
5. Country Snapshots
The campaign also fostered cross-sectoral synergies and dialogue for joint action, reinforcing the importance of knowledge-sharing, capacity strengthening, and multistakeholder cooperation, to overcome fragmentation and address shared priorities.
Main activities included: special podcast episode, blog and webinar.
6. Global Exchanges
The 10th anniversary of the socialprotection.org platform offers a timely opportunity to reflect on the evolution of social protection over the past decade and the path ahead.
Anchored in the Sustainable Development Goals since 2015, social protection has expanded in response to emerging global challenges. This special podcast episode reflects on key moments shaping the field—from the scale-up of programmes during COVID-19 to the growing recognition of social protection in advancing gender equality and supporting climate-related responses.
The episode also looks ahead, exploring what lies next for social protection amid changing global priorities and resource constraints.
Global Exchanges
a. Special Social Protection Podcast Episode
Meet our guests:
Fabio Veras Soares
Researcher at the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Development (IPCid)
Edward Archibald
Independent consultant and PhD student
Zehra Rizvi
Social Policy Specialist, UNICEF
For our Quick Wins segment, we were joined by Mariana Balboni, Coordinator of the socialprotection.org platform. Having been part of the platform’s story almost from the very beginning, Mariana reflects on its major achievements of the past 10 years in building and growing this global knowledge-sharing community. She also looks ahead to the next decade sharing the platform’s priorities for supporting the global community of practice, elaborating on how socialprotection.org will continue to evolve to meet emerging challenges in the field, and her hopes for what the platform can achieve in the years to come.
QUICK WINS
Mariana Balboni
Coordinator of the socialprotection.org platform
Listen now
Funding for research and implementation of social protection programmes has dried up in line with aid cuts and domestic austerity. Innovation in social protection delivery has been piecemeal rather than structural. International policy debates have moved to other pressing issues like migration, security, and climate change”.
As part of our anniversary activities, we invited Armando Barrientos to write a special blog examining whether the global expansion of social protection has lost momentum over the past decade, and what this means for social policy in the Global South.
As part of our anniversary activities, we invited Armando Barrientos to write a special blog examining whether the global expansion of social protection has lost momentum over the past decade, and what this means for social policy in the Global South.
b. Special Blog Post
Global Exchanges
As socialprotection.org marked 10 years of dialogue, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration, we invited participants to join a timely and urgent conversation.
Despite global recognition of #SocialProtection as key to achieving the #SDGs, early 2025 saw major cuts in official development assistance (ODA), shaking the international development and humanitarian fields.
In this special #SPorgWebinar, we explored the urgent need to safeguard and re-prioritize social protection, focusing on gender, climate resilience, and local leadership, and engaged participants in the conversation on the future of social protection — the time to act was now!
Rethinking Support: What’s Needed to Sustain Social Protection, Climate Action, and Gender Equality Amid ODA Cuts.
c. Special Webinar
Global Exchanges
Speakers
Discussant
Moderator
Anna McCord
STAAR Climate Lead and ODI Senior Research Associate
Rebecca Holmes
Independent Consultant on Social Protection, Gender and Social Inclusion
Valentina Barca
Independent Social Protection Expert
Simon Levine
Senior Research Fellow at Global Risks and Resilience Programme at ODI Global
Joanne Sharpe
Host of the Social Protection Podcast for socialprotection.org
Watch now!
The activities carried out under the 10th anniversary campaign convened diverse voices, showcasing evidence and country experiences, amplifying key messages, and fostering dialogue across regions and sectors. By doing so, the campaign helped reaffirm the centrality of social protection in achieving the SDGs and strengthened collective understanding of both progress made and gaps that remain.
These efforts must continue and be translated into sustained action, and the platform remains committed to providing opportunities for exchange, learning, and collaboration.
Only through continued, coordinated action social protection can fulfil its potential as a cornerstone of sustainable and inclusive development!
follow us
Looking Back, Moving Forward!