In a world replete with such enormous wealth, it remains a shocking fact that over half the world’s population still has no access to social protection, and that many who do have access enjoy only partial and/or temporary forms of social protection (International Labour Organization [ILO], 2021). Most of this excluded population live in poor countries in Asia and the Pacific, the Middle-East Arab states and Africa, and disproportionately comprise women (ILO, 2021). Extending social protection to everyone, everywhere has long been seen as a challenge of provision, where the focus is on designing an entire system, plugging gaps in it, and delivering benefits and services more efficiently, effectively and fairly. Who pays for social protection and how is a ‘classic’ public administration and social policy issue all too often approached through the lens of domestic governance and financing structures. This edition of GSP Forum looks at this old challenge from a new perspective: through the lens of finance. We argue that it is a major global social policy challenge where the key question is how to close the yawning funding gap that is perpetuating the cruelty of poverty and stalling progressive development generally and the realisation of universal social protection for everyone, everywhere specifically.