What it is
The OECD/EBA paper Social Protection for the Forcibly Displaced in Low- and Middle-Income Countries provides an overview of efforts to extend national social protection systems to forcibly displaced populations. It distinguishes de jure and de facto access and examines enabling conditions for inclusion.
Governance function
The paper functions as an analytical policy framework for inclusion. It connects forced displacement to social protection architecture, showing that access depends on law, delivery systems, registration, financing, host-state capacity, and donor support.
Who is included
The framework covers refugees and IDPs in low- and middle-income countries, with attention to host communities and social protection systems that may serve both displaced and non-displaced populations.
Who is left out
People may remain outside where social protection systems are nascent, underfinanced, citizenship-tied, documentation-dependent, or not designed for mobile and displaced populations.
Where continuity breaks
Continuity breaks between legal eligibility and actual access, between humanitarian assistance and state systems, between refugee/IDP databases and citizen registries, and between short-term financing and recurrent entitlements.
Why it matters
This is one of the clearest analytical bridges between forced displacement and ordinary social protection systems. The political economy archetype is de jure inclusion with de facto exclusion: policy may allow access, but administrative, fiscal, and political barriers determine whether people actually receive support.
Governance coding table
| Political economy archetype | De jure inclusion with de facto exclusion |
|---|---|
| Responsibility | Host governments, donors, social protection ministries, humanitarian agencies, development partners, UN agencies, and local authorities all shape implementation. |
| Eligibility | Eligibility depends on legal status, documentation, programme rules, poverty or vulnerability criteria, registration systems, and national policy choices. |
| Financing | Financing depends on domestic social protection budgets, donor support, humanitarian-development alignment, and multi-year financing for inclusion. |
| Data systems | Social registries, refugee and IDP registration systems, national ID systems, household surveys, beneficiary databases, and interoperability arrangements are central. |
| Delivery system | Delivery may run through state social assistance programmes, social insurance schemes, humanitarian cash systems, aligned payment systems, or hybrid approaches. |
| Portability | Portability depends on whether benefits, registration, identity, and programme records follow displaced people across jurisdictions and status changes. |
| Accountability | Accountability depends on programme grievance systems, legal rights, administrative review, donor monitoring, and inclusion of displaced people in national data systems. |
| Time horizon | Medium- to long-term inclusion agenda, especially relevant to protracted displacement. |