探讨社会保护对萨赫勒地区社会凝聚力的影响

September2025 SUMMARY Vulnerability, poverty, competition over naturalresources and lack of economic opportunities havedistended social bonds and fueled conflict in the Sahel. Climate change exacerbates existing social,political, and economic tensions and conflicts. Policies and programs seeking to address poverty and otherdrivers of vulnerability, such as social protection, have the potential to support social cohesion. Untanglingthe relationship between social protection and social cohesion is essential to maximize this positive impactand prevent unintended detrimentaldynamics. Social protection can have several effects on socialcohesion, but few studies have evaluated such effects systematically in the Sahel. In addition, littleevidence exists on the impacts of different components or design features on multiple dimensions of socialcohesion, and the importance of institutional and social contexts in contributing to these impacts.Public Disclosure Authorized Globally, evidence points to the potentially significant role social protection can play in improvingsocial cohesion.1For instance, safety nets can help build institutional trust and strengthen the citizen-state contract. They can also strengthen trust within and across groups; as well as promote greatercooperation within groups. Finally, they can contribute to greater unity and peace. However, to be able toinform program design and enhance its positive impacts, more knowledge is needed on the pathwaysthrough which program design and implementation features, as well as contextual characteristics, operateon the different dimensions of social cohesion (potentially in circular fashion). In addition, the evidencebase in the Sahel is marked by significant gaps, with most evidence focusing on social cohesion within-community or bonding relations. Further analysis should helpfill gaps in evidence around cohesion orbridging relations (such as between host populations and displaced populations) and vertical cohesion orlinking relations (between citizens and the state).Public Disclosure Authorized Better understanding the relationship between social protection and social cohesion is essential forpolicy and program design and implementation, as well as to support advocacy. UNICEF, the WorldBank (WB) and the World Food Program (WFP), building on a strong partnership forged to support socialprotection systems in the Sahel, are jointly implementing a research project focusing on identifying themultiple linkages between social protection and social cohesion. The research project combinesqualitative and quantitative methods to quantify the causal effects of social protection interventions ondifferent dimensions of social cohesion while shedding light on the channels through which these impactsmanifest. The quantitative study will analyze social cohesion-related indicators from impact evaluations ofselected safety nets in the Sahel, while the qualitative field study will analyze both contextual features andprogram design and implementation at community level to gain more detailed understanding of theirimpacts on social cohesion.Public Disclosure Authorized TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.Motivation..................................................................................................................................31.1. Why social cohesion and social protection are important in the Sahel...............................................31.2. The joint UNICEF/WB/WFP research project....................................................................................42. Conceptual framework: linkages between social protection and social cohesion..............................52.1. What are the dimensions of social cohesion?..................................................................................52.2. Pathways through whichsocial protection programs may affect social cohesion...............................62.3. Existing evidence of the impact ofsocial protection on social cohesion in the Sahel..........................93. Objectives and key dimensions of the research project..................................................................113.1. Key objectives and research questions..........................................................................................113.2 Proposed research methods..........................................................................................................114. Conceptual framework for the research project.............................................................................144.1. Key program design and implementation features..........................................................................15(1)Program design: objectives, components, activities, and benefits......................................15(2)Outreach and communications about the program during implementation.........................16(3)Intake, assessment of needs and eligibility decisions....................................................