Watch | 4.7 billion people have social protection - most are still left behind

When a harvest fails, work dries up, or a climate shock hits, social protection is how governments help people meet basic needs, survive, and find a way back.

For 4.7 billion people, some version of that system now exists. That is real progress.

But here is the catch. Even among those covered, women receive just 81 cents for every dollar men do. In low-income countries, cash transfers average 11 percent of the income of the poor, a fraction of what most households need to get by.

So even where coverage exists, adequate and fair protection often does not.

The headline figure is 2 billion people with inadequate or no cover at all. The quieter crisis is the billions who are technically in the system but underserved by it,  support that arrives too late, is too small, or never finds the people who need it most.

The systems exist. They just do not reach people where they are.

Dr Fidelis Hove leads that work at Genesis. He works alongside governments navigating tight budgets, young populations, and growing pressure from climate and economic shocks.