This case study forms part of a wider Study on Shock-Responsive Social Protection in LAC commissioned by the WFP and undertaken by Oxford Policy Management (OPM) jointly with WFP. The objective of the study is to generate evidence and inform practice for improved emergency preparedness and response in LAC linked to more flexible national social protection systems. The main research question for the study is: What factors enable social protection systems to be more responsive to shocks? This question is examined in the context of the response to Hurricane Matthew, which hit the coastal areas in the southwest and to a lesser extent northwest of Haiti in the night of 4 October 2016, resulting in the largest humanitarian emergency since the 2010 earthquake (OCHA, 2016). However, the study also considers the response to the 2015/16 drought, during which almost 90% of farmers lost their spring/summer harvest in the worst affected areas (CNSA, 2015), and the response to the 2010 earthquake where possible. It is important to highlight that the findings in this study are relevant not only for emergencies caused by natural disasters but also by economic and political shocks.