The COVID-19 pandemic has led to steep drops in employment, income, and access to markets, pushing tens of millions of people in low- and middle-income countries into poverty.Social protection programming has emerged as a critical response to the social and economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.Many of these programs are social assistance measures, which provide benefits to individuals even if they have not previously paid contributions to the program.Before the pandemic, cash-based social assistance has been shown to successfully reduce poverty and enhance well-being along a number of dimensions, across many different countries.

On October 27-29, 2021, Innovations for Poverty Action and the Global Poverty Research Lab (GPRL) at Northwestern University hosted the 2021 Annual Researcher Gathering.