萨赫勒地区的融合：如何将人道主义现金援助与国家社会保护系统联系起来？

Written by Mira Saidi and Claudia Santamaria Ruiz Based on Corinna Kreidler, Sophie Battas, Karin Seyfert, Mira Saidi (2022),Linking Humanitarian Cash Assistance and National Social ProtectionSystems, SASPP Flagship Report, World Bank, Washington DC. SASPP Policy Note Series BACKGROUND AND KEY MESSAGES1 Increasing convergence with national systems can lead togreater efficiency and effectiveness of humanitarian andgovernment interventions, particularly shock responses.Convergence can encourage cross-learning, prevent duplication,reduce confusion among beneficiaries, increase coverage ofprograms, minimize transaction costs, and optimize responsetime. In the Sahel, compounded crises have increased thepressure on fiscal spaces, which necessitates optimizingresources for maximum impact. Convergence can be seen as afluid and adaptable concept in which some elements of programsmay be more amenable to harmonization than others. Convergence is the merging or coming together of separate elements.In the realm of social protection, this translates into theeffective coordination and alignment of different humanitarianand development initiatives toward a shared national vision.Convergence between humanitarian operations and nationalsocial protection systems has gained momentum in the last fewyears, as reflected in the humanitarian-development nexus. In the Sahel, a growing overlap between humanitarian activitiesand government interventions is emerging, particularlywith the advent of adaptive social protection.Humanitarianassistance tends to operate in emergencies and volatile contextswith short-term horizons. In contrast, national social protectionsystems—including regular social safety nets—typically arelonger term, more predictable, and focus on issues such asstructural poverty rather than emergencies. However, both typesof interventions share a broad goal to protect the poorest andmost vulnerable and to promote their resilience to future shocks.Hence opportunities to better connect humanitarian assistanceto the national social protection system do exist, particularly inthe context of protracted crises. While important, convergence does not always result inbetter outcomes.Convergence can be a helpful approach tostrengthen national social protection systems. However, anymeasures taken towards it must be appropriate for the country’scontext and aimed at improving responses to the fast-growingregional needs. Evidence shows that linking the two can presentdefinite benefits but also potential drawbacks.1 What fosters convergence?Convergence is usuallystronger when social protection systems are matureand trusted by the development and humanitariancommunities. Having pre-established relationshipsbetween partners and government with a history ofcollaboration and collective learning is critical forenabling convergence.2To create a common historyand promote convergence, encouraging long-termthinking and national ownership of adaptive socialprotection systems is essential. What hinders it?Several factors can impedeconvergence, such as irreconcilable programelements, conflicting priorities, and insufficientgovernment leadership. Incompatible datamanagement systems, divergent approachesto data privacy, varying timeframes for financialplanning, and political economy dynamics can alsopose significant barriers to collaboration. What could work?Some factors could enableconvergence but do not yet do so. For example,implementing global policy commitments relatedto strengthening convergence would directhumanitarian actors to determine whether theirresponses could be implemented through existinggovernment systems. What are other practices, that can both foster, whenexisting, or hinder convergence, when not?Donorpolicy and administrative procedures, governmentleadership, clear and coherent policy objectives,institutional set-up and division of governmentresponsibilities, coordination, and capacity building ofgovernment counterparts can either enable or hamperconvergence depending on context. HOW IS ‘CONVERGENCE’ UNDERSTOOD AND ANALYZED?2 This policy note consolidates key highlights of a study fundedby the Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Program (SASPP),which explores the convergence between national socialprotection systems and humanitarian cash assistance in theSahel.The analysis is based on six country case studies: BurkinaFaso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal. The reportprovides strategic, policy, and operational reflections on thepotential for harmonizing the two kinds of assistance and thepotential value added of doing so. It does not assess the qualitiesof convergence or performance of the systems themselves,but rather it identifies the opportunities to align further the twosystems and the key factors that either enable or constrain thisconvergence. For each country, different interventions are examined.InMauritania and Senegal, the analysis focused on responses torecurrent seasonal food insecurity, while th