This toolkit aims to support policy decision-making that aims to strengthen appropriate social protection responses to the current economic downturn and ensure continued progress against a range of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It provides an analytical framework and decision-making tool based on analysis of historical lessons of international experience, and informed by current thinking in terms of the existing crisis. The toolkit links social transfer choices to wider social protection strategy, as one of potentially many responses to the global economic downturn, and within a broader context of overall social policy.

The toolkit complements existing guidance and other toolkits supported by the U.K. government’s Department for International Development (DFID) by drawing more general lessons not only for the recent economic downturn but also for other types of future crises. This toolkit focuses in particular on options in low-income country contexts, and draws on social analysis for responding to impacts on different groups. The issues addressed in the toolkit receive more detailed treatment in the recently published second edition of the DFID-funded guide Designing and Implementing Social Transfer Programmes.