Why (and how) should humanitarian actors consider looking at existing Social Protection systems from the ‘first-wave’ of an emergency response? A take on the Ukraine crisis.

This brief is a rapid analysis of the opportunities in Ukraine for humanitarian actors to work with existing social protection systems from the onset of the emergency. Doing so is often not prioritised during the early phases of emergencies when there is pressure to deliver. This is because social protection systems are considered to be ‘developmental’ and frequently regarded as part of a longer-term approach to be linked with at later stages during emergency programmes handover or when developing exit strategies. But understanding more about, as well as coordinating and working directly with, existing systems can be a valuable starting point to co-create and deliver an effective, localised and accountable humanitarian response, whilst still being swift, impartial and lifesaving.