Slide presentation of the webinar held on 7 May 2020. With this webinar series, UNDP invites participants to the discussion on the three foundational dimensions of social assistance – financing, institutions and legal frameworks. The current COVID-19 crisis further exposes the relevance of social protection systems in creating resilience to crisis and strengthening countries’ disaster risk response. In this first webinar, we discussed trends in social assistance financing, while considering the implications of African countries’ social assistance financing on COVID-19 crisis preparedness and response.