The webinar raised questions of how to bring a system’s approach to live, such as: What does it require to move from a set of social protection programmes to an overall social protection system? Does a system’s approach always mean that programmes must be interlinked and how is this feasible in resource and capacity constrained countries? Which social protection programmes can and should be combined? How can different programmes best be co-ordinated and harmonised with each other? How much and what kind of information do they have to exchange? And what are the criteria of a system’s based approach? 

Afterwards, the “Handbook of Social Protection Systems” was launched. The book addresses academics, students and practitioners and provide them with a comprehensive and globally relevant overview of the instruments, actors and design features of social protection systems, as well as their application and impacts in practice. It is the first book that centres around system building globally, a theme that has gained political importance yet has received relatively little attention in academia. 

Speakers:  

• Chris de Neubourg, Professor at Tilburg University, and Director of Social Policy Research Institute  
• Veronika Wodsak, Social Protection Policy Specialist, ILO 
• Benson Chisanga, Lecturer, University of Zambia 
• Garima Bhalla, Economist and Social Protection Specialist, FAO 

Moderators:  

• Esther Schüring, Professor, Bonn Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences 
• Markus Loewe, Research Team Leader, DIE