This fifth contribution to the challenge paper on the Grand Challenge on Inequality and Exclusion, part of the Pathfinders initiative, explores innovative social protection. We acknowledge the current partnership between the World Bank, the OECD, and the econonomic justice initiative of the Open Society Foundations in carrying out this research. 

Member states agree—in principle—with the Secretary-General that the United Nations should do more to­­­ prevent crises before they emerge, including through assisting countries to tackle root causes. But translating this approach into practice sometimes raises sensitivities and questions.

This briefing, our third in a series on prevention at the UN, maps out a wide range of member states’ concerns around the approach to prevention at the UN, based on dialogues with a regionally diverse group of 20 member states. It also identifies key areas of common ground that can provide the basis for forward movement on practical implementation of the prevention agenda.