In a small community off the coast of Sierra Leone, Salamatou Bangura often struggled to feed her children. Though she worked long hours buying and selling seafood from the local fisherman in her village, until recently, it wasn’t enough. “I couldn't afford to cook every day,” she recalls.

That all changed when she began to receive $10 every month through a social safety net program for extremely poor households. Bangura began using the money to put food on the table, pay school fees, and invest in her business. And when tragedy struck, and the family home burned down, Bangura used the money to rebuild, all the while ensuring that her children remained well-fed and in school.

“Before I joined the program, I had nothing,” she said. “But now every day I cook. Now I’m able to feed my kids before and after school.”

Bangura is one of an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide who receive safety nets – including 650 million of the world’s poorest people. Social safety net programs create opportunity, empower families to invest in human capital, and break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. And for families like Bangura’s, they also create resilience, so that families can manage risk, cope with shocks, and continue to invest in their children, even after tragedy strikes.

Watch: How Social Protection Systems Build, Employ and Protect Human Capital

“Strengthening social protection is a key component of our global human capital strategy because these programs benefit not just children, but also entire families, offering the world’s most vulnerable people protection throughout their life cycle,” said Annette Dixon, World Bank Vice President for Human Development. “Social protection systems create the foundations for more just, equitable, and inclusive societies, helping ensure the prosperity and stability of nations.”

Countries are looking for solutions, and the World Bank Group is working with partners around the globe to provide the advice, financing and support necessary to tackle poverty, build human capital, and improve the health, education and skills of poor and vulnerable families. The World Bank helps countries around the world design, deploy, and finance social protection systems so that ultimately, people have the tools to thrive.

“Social protection programs are at the heart of boosting human capital for the world’s most vulnerable,” said Michal Rutkowski, World Bank Global Director for Social Protection and Jobs. “They empower people to be healthy, pursue their education, and seek opportunity to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.”

Caption: Theory of change illustrates how social protection programs can help build and protect human capital.

The role of Social Protection in the Human Capital Project

Last year, the World Bank Group launched the Human Capital Project (HCP) to accelerate more and better investments in people. The HCP ushered in a major push to encourage countries to better develop their citizens’ human capital—the knowledge, skills, and health that people accumulate, all of which enables them to realize their potential as productive members of society.

Social protection has been key to this effort and many countries have embraced social protection instruments such as safety net programs as a means of harnessing human capital. Apart from providing struggling families with supplemental income, social safety nets also increase access to information and services, improve productivity, protect the elderly, and support people while they look for work.  

"Strengthening social protection is a key component of our global human capital strategy because these programs benefit not just children, but also entire families, offering the world’s most vulnerable people protection throughout their life cycle."