2026 Seminars

Fragile and conflict‑affected contexts are home to a growing share of people living in extreme poverty, where repeated shocks, displacement, weak institutions, and limited livelihood opportunities undermine traditional pathways to recovery. In these settings, social protection programming plays a critical role not only in meeting immediate needs but also in strengthening households’ ability to cope, recover, and move towards self‑reliance. Shock‑responsive and adaptive social protection systems are increasingly recognised as essential tools for reducing vulnerability, protecting human capital, and supporting longer‑term resilience in humanitarian contexts.

However, implementing effective social protection in fragile and humanitarian settings remains challenging. Programmes often operate in environments characterised by insecurity, limited state capacity, fragmented service delivery, and weak coordination between humanitarian and development actors. Ensuring adequate coverage, targeting the most vulnerable, sustaining financing, and linking cash or transfer mechanisms to meaningful pathways out of poverty are persistent constraints. These challenges are further compounded by climate‑related shocks, displacement, and protracted crises, which strain both national systems and humanitarian responses.

Against this backdrop, the Graduation Approach has re‑emerged as a potentially powerful model for addressing extreme poverty in fragile contexts. By combining time‑bound, layered, and sequenced interventions—such as consumption support, livelihoods assets, skills development, coaching, and access to financial services—the Graduation Approach aims to address multiple constraints simultaneously. While originally developed in more stable development settings, recent adaptations in fragile, conflict‑affected, and displacement contexts suggest growing potential to support more sustainable and dignified pathways to self‑reliance when aligned with social protection systems, risk‑informed programming, and humanitarian realities.

This panel session at AidEx Geneva will explore how Graduation can complement and strengthen social protection programming in humanitarian settings. Drawing on diverse organisational perspectives, the discussion will examine evidence, emerging practice, and adaptation challenges, while reflecting on what is essential for Graduation to be effective and scalable in crisis‑affected environments.