Climate Change, Human Mobility and Displacement: the Quest for an Adjusted Social Protection Paradigm

The chapter critically interrogates traditional responses in relation to persons displaced as a result of climate change (which tend to focus on humanitarian assistance) and investigates the need for an adjusted developmental-focused paradigm, informed by the concrete reality of the nexus between climate change-movement/displacement-urbanisation-changing livelihoods—with an emphasis on a displaced persons/societies-centred and whole-of-government approach. There is a need for an adjusted social risk-based conceptual approach, which acknowledges exposure to climate/environmental change as a particular social protection risk, and the associated risk framework, requiring an integrated social protection response framework. An expansion of the traditional ILO risk categories is needed, based on the lived experiences of affected persons. Beyond social protection compensatory measures, there is need for preventive social protection arrangements and integration in the labour market and societal sense of affected workers and their families, and accommodating the transformative dimension of social protection. Furthermore, the concrete implications of expanded social protection implication needs in the climate change human mobility context have to be appreciated. An adjusted social protection paradigm requires critical reforms at the institutional and policy levels, as well as in relation to the redesign of social protection systems, programmes and operations. In view of the transboundary nature of climate change event and the extent of the financial burden to roll out appropriate social protection interventions, innovative financing mechanisms would have to be considered. Especially in the Global South, special arrangements to extend formalised forms of social protection to climate change-induced displacing workers in the informal economy have to be considered. Furthermore, currently absent and inadequate normative parameters have to be designed and implemented. Finally, there is need to strengthen voice and representation for those affected by climate change-induced displacement.