Harnessing employment-based social assistance programmes to scale up nature-based climate action
| Autor: | Andrew Norton, Arun Agrawal, Nathalie Seddon, Clare Shakya, Nanki Kaur, Ina Porras |
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| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Employment
Conservation of Natural Resources Public economics Climate Change 050204 development studies 05 social sciences Vulnerability Climate change Public Policy Context (language use) Biodiversity Articles Livelihood Global Warming General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology Social protection 0502 economics and business Business Stewardship Natural capital 050207 economics Workplace General Agricultural and Biological Sciences International development |
| Zdroj: | Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci |
| ISSN: | 1471-2970 0962-8436 |
| DOI: | 10.1098/rstb.2019.0127 |
| Popis: | As the severity of the triple challenges of global inequality, climate change and biodiversity loss becomes clearer, governments and international development institutions must find effective policy instruments to respond. We examine the potential of social assistance policies in this context. Social assistance refers to transfers to poor, vulnerable and marginalized groups to reduce their vulnerability and livelihood risks, and to enhance their rights and status. Substantial public funds support social assistance programmes globally. Collectively, lower- and middle-income countries spend approximately 1.5% of their GDP on social assistance annually. We focus on the potential of paid employment schemes to promote effective ecosystem stewardship. Available evidence suggests such programmes can offer multiple benefits in terms of improvements in local ecosystems and natural capital, carbon sequestration and local biodiversity conservation. We review evidence from three key case studies: in India (the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), Ethiopia (the Productive Safety Nets Programme) and Mexico (the Temporary Employment Programme). We conclude that, to realize the potential of employment-based social assistance for ecosystem benefits it will be necessary to address two challenges: first, the weak design and maintenance of local public works outputs in many schemes, and second, the concern that social protection schemes may become less effective if they are overburdened with additional objectives. Overcoming these challenges requires an evolution of institutional systems for delivering social assistance to enable a more effective combination of social and environmental objectives.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Climate change and ecosystems: threats, opportunities and solutions’. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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