Governments in the Global South have adopted more than a thousand social protection measures to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic aiming to support those most affected by the crisis in coping with and overcoming this truly global covariate shock. To analyse these responses, the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) and partners have been conducting a mapping exercise to document social protection measures adopted by these countries in response to the COVID-19 crisis using a shock-responsive social protection lens. The ‘Social Protection Responses to COVID-19 in the Global South: Online Dashboard’ illustrates the data collected in easy-to-read charts and tables, while also providing direct access to the raw data and related methodological material.

The Online Dashboard has been developed by the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) with the support from the Social Protection Approaches to COVID-19: Expert Advice (SPACE) and the sponsorship of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the German Corporation for International Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit—GIZ) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

To help understand national responses, the Online Dashboard details important aspects of their implementation, including types of social protection programmes, main target groups, financing sources, types of adaptation and links with existing programmes, timeliness of implementation, registration and payment mechanisms, duration, coverage and adequacy of benefits. Results can be filtered by countries, sub-regions, regions, country-income groups, according to the classification of fragile and conflict-affected states, among other filter options.

The Online Dashboard aims to disseminate findings from the IPC-IG and partners’ mapping exercise, support the research on COVID-19 and social protection and contribute to the evidence base that will inform governments, development partners, and civil society on innovations, gaps, and challenges that need to be considered to (i) ensure countries’ recoveries and progress towards the SDG target 1.3 and (ii) to foster preparedness for large covariate shocks in the future.​