This toolkit is intended to inform the development and re-orientation of national social protection strategies to enable them to better cope with future shocks, and has been prepared for an audience of national or donor stakeholders.

The diagnostic approach presented in the toolkit enables an appraisal to be made of the readiness of the social protection sector to respond to shocks in low- and middle-income countries, with the aim of informing planning and resource allocation decisions and identifying priority actions to feed into national strategy development.

Shock readiness is the extent to which existing or planned social protection provision can meet the anticipated needs of vulnerable populations resulting from the impact of endogenous or exogenous shocks which adversely affects livelihoods and labour markets.

This toolkit guides development actors in appraising the shock readiness of the social protection sector at national level and developing an appropriate policy response.