Enhancing our community of practice
This online community offers a unique space for people with diverse backgrounds to exchange documents, insights, and news in order to collectively and progressively learn how to expand social protection to often hard-to-reach crisis-affected populations.
The community’s topic of interest encompasses issues referred to as social protection across the humanitarian-development nexus, shock-responsive/sensitive social protection, linking humanitarian assistance and social protection, or social protection in contexts of fragility and forced displacement. It is concerned with the linkages between social protection and humanitarian cash transfers, as well as other equally important aspects to improve social protection in crisis contexts, including how national social protection systems can continue to operate in crisis contexts, what national governments can do to provide effective social protection for resilience building in crisis-prone contexts, and how national governments can improve their own emergency responses.
The community is open to anyone concerned with the topic. It brings together individuals from diverse backgrounds, practitioners, policymakers, experts, as well as academics and students, working on social protection, disaster risk management, or humanitarian aid. With over 240 members, it is one of the largest and most active communities on socialprotection.org.
Created as an unbranded, member-based online space, it intends to offer a one-stop-shop and common platform for various practitioners and researchers working on this vast, complex, and hot topic.
Over the years, different institutions have supported the community while individual members have ensured its constant growth and sustainability towards its goals.
The community's space hosts a few organizational initiatives (including the European Commission’s Guidance Package on Social Protection across the Humanitarian-Development Nexus and the Grand Bargain’s Cash Workstream Sub-Group on Linking Humanitarian Cash and Social Protection), as well as individual members’ initiatives.
It also provides access to key relevant resources: Documents, Glossary, Webinars, Discussions, Calendar, and Announcements.
Moving forward, there is a recognized need to enhance the Online Community's space to further facilitate the exchange of experiences, and offer an easily accessible state-of-the-art resource center on the issue.
Administrators of the Online Community have identified a number of priority actions to undertake for the space to become a reference, user-friendly platform for anyone willing to learn about the issue, access the latest evidence, receive updates, share ideas or ask for inputs on a specific related issue. These have been captured in a concept note for the attention of any individual members and organizations interested in supporting the Online Community’s development.
Priority actions identified for enhancing the Online Community include:
- Integrating a D-group functionality to ease interactions between community members;
- Organizing and expanding the Library;
- Introducing Directories of cross-country initiatives, training courses, and peers;
- Compiling a Compendium of Experiences;
- Encouraging Individual Members’ Initiatives;
- Introducing a dedicated Blog series.
Contact information
Interested in supporting the development of this Online Community? Please contact us!
