The first brief focuses on government grants and cash transfers. We assess the strengths and weaknesses of these social protection measures, looking at levels of coverage, eligibility criteria, appropriateness of targeting, accessibility and delivery methods. In the cases of Brazil and Cape Verde, critical to the ability to move quickly has been the presence of large databases through which many informal workers have already been registered under the social system. By drawing on these social assistance databases, these countries have been able to target vulnerable groups directly, including informal workers, and save valuable time in terms of collection and verification of recipient data.