Social Protection Pathways to Nutrition: Synthesis report

The Social Protection Pathways to Nutrition study is a partnership between the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

The overarching goal of the Social Protection Pathways to Nutrition study is to review the evidence and propose an analytical and operational framework that links social protection to better nutrition outcomes.

The study seeks to strengthen the positive impacts of social protection interventions in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) on diet and nutritional status outcomes, by building a robust evidence-base focused on ‘what works’, ‘how’ and ‘why’, in order to contribute to enhanced wellbeing in the region. 

Within this context, one of the study’s objectives is to unpack the impact pathways by jointly exploring design and implementation features of different social protection instruments, and to identify barriers and enablers that hinder or facilitate positive nutritional outcomes in the short to long run.

A key outcome of this study is the production of 2 frameworks, which were developed against the backdrop of broader evidence on social protection pathways to nutrition, which was garnered through case studies and an evidence review, all of which discussed with key internal and external stakeholders.