This profile was developed with the available information between 26/04/2022 and 13/06/2022, as a supplement to the overarching briefing paper Humanitarian Assistance and Social Protection Linkages: Strengthening shock-responsiveness of social protection systems in the Ukraine crisis.

Key messages:

• Romania’s social protection system is weak and although it has expanded to respond to shocks, it does not provide sufficient safeguards for very vulnerable groups against poverty. This is true both in terms of financial transfers and social care. • The response to refugee influx has been organised through a package delivered by aid agencies on the one hand and support from government on the other through tweaks to the existing refugee social protection programme. The collaboration needs to scale up to identify more precisely the bottlenecks and opportunities for a response that further builds the ability of the government to deliver support through the State social protection system.
• The government may want services to Ukrainians to be on par with those provided to pre-war asylum seekers. Response actors will need to agree with the government on a package of services (cash and non-cash) and commit to their delivery over time and discuss what changes could put it place to this package.
• Through the possible reforms to the refugee package and ongoing work by UNICEF on the minimum package of services, it may be judicious to support a longer-term reform that can put the onus on adequacy, coverage, labour market policies and delivery at local level.