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Paper short abstract:

Based on lessons from the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper argues that linking public, private sector, and community partnership present a viable hybrid end-to-end social protection model during protracted crises.

Paper long abstract:

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippines was put under one of the longest nationwide lockdowns in the world, which underscored the major gaps in the national government’s social protection system and inability to adequately respond to wide scale disasters. The short period given to address the impacts of the lockdown left majority of local government units (LGU), usually the first line of response, immobilised with limited resources. As the pandemic swept through the lives of the marginalised and vulnerable population, the private sector and affected communities could not stand-by idly. Given mobility restrictions and a highly securitised government approach to the pandemic, the private sector and their partner communities used resources and technology available to them and organised to develop a data-driven proto-social protection system that was able to reach people when the government no longer can.

Examining lessons from the work of the Philippine private sector, non-government organisations, and people’s organisations, this paper argues that linking public, private sector, and community partnership present a more viable social protection model during protracted crises. It is a hybrid end-to-end model that leverages the collective impact framework and is able to overcome the rigidities (i.e. targeting beneficiaries, financing social protection, monitoring, etc.) of massive and more traditional social protection systems. With communities playing a central role, this model also has the potential to grow into a more robust system that is geared towards mutual-aid not only during emergencies, but “new normal” situations.