Invitation: 28/10/2025 – UNU-MERIT Migration Seminar Series: Social protection responses to forced displacement: recent approaches and field practices

For details and to register for the event, please go to: https://unu.edu/merit/seminar/social-protection-responses-forced-displacement-recent-approaches-and-field-practices. 

Abstract: 

Forced displacement has continued to increase year on year, with more than 122 million people affected in 2024 – most of whom are likely to remain displaced on a protracted basis often for decades. The rise in the number of forcibly displaced people, coupled with the complex and protracted nature of displacement, has challenged the capacity of the humanitarian system to meet the growing needs. While policy commitments towards inclusion in national social protection systems have moved ahead, effective inclusion remains the exception in many countries. Most refugees have limited access due to the lack of legal rights, practical impediments, and host governments’ challenges to cover the social protection needs of their own citizens and strained systems in case of mass influx. The overarching challenge for inclusion is to secure the legal rights to social protection systems, while also addressing the multiple gaps between de jure access (acquisition of rights) and de facto access (utilization of rights). In recent years, there has been growing recognition that development-oriented responses to displacement, progressively opening windows of inclusion in national social protection systems, have the potential to provide a sustainable and cost-effective transition out of humanitarian assistance that can also promote dignity and self-reliance for displaced people. Linking with government systems may also provide an opportunity to strengthen national capacity, while enhancing the displaced population’s relations with host governments and their access to rights and services. To help address this need, UNHCR and other partners have been working for ensuring the access of displaced populations to social protection and practical actions across different contexts, which include varying levels of maturity of systems and political will, and different displacement stages, from emergency contexts, to protracted displacement and sustainable solutions. By drawing on examples from different countries, the presentation will outline entry points and enabling factors for linking humanitarian assistance with social protection, including strategic use of international funding and public finance management; emergency responses as entry points for inclusive systems-building; targeting harmonization and registry integration; and adapting service delivery models to the needs of displaced populations. 

About the Speaker: 

Mattia Polvanesi has been the social protection technical lead with UNHCR headquarters in Geneva since 2022. As part of the Division of Resilience and Solutions, he leads UNHCR global work on the inclusion of forcibly displaced people in national social protection systems, with a focus on contexts of protracted displacement. His career in the field of social protection spans across over 15 years working for different international institutions, including the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the European Union and NGOs. His areas of expertise include policy formulation, strategic advice, and technical support to governments in strengthening the design and implementation of national social protection programmes. He has worked in fragile contexts prone to climatic shock and in protracted conflicts – including Mozambique, Palestine, Syria. Mattia holds a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Florence in Italy.