Over 1.2 billion people worldwide live on less than $1/ day; an estimated 900 million people will still be living in poverty even if the  Millennium  Development  Goals  are reached. In other words, there are very large numbers of chronically and severely poor people who are not being reached by current  development  policies,  and  whose situation is often deteriorating in comparison even with other poor people. 

Social protection policies aim to address both  severe  and  long-term  poverty,  and to  reduce  vulnerability,  and  are  thus  one of the most significant areas of policy for chronically and severely poor people. In other words, good social protection addresses both factors that push people into poverty and those which keep them there. It can help both poor people and countries move out of ‘low equilibrium poverty traps’, where they are producing low-value added products
with limited returns.

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Author: Rachel Marcus