The capacity to cushion households when shock arrives: safety nets that exist before the crisis, scale in it and reach the informal economy, so that national shocks do not become family catastrophes.
The Capability Development Index tracks the events that move a capability — operational use, technical breakthroughs, procurement decisions and the industrial base behind them — and places each on the record with the date it happened.
Recent developments cover the current period. Historical developments are the inflection points that produced Social Protection & Household Resilience as it stands today.
Trajan widened an existing grain programme to cover more of the empire's poor citizens and created public funds supporting destitute children. It is cited as one of the earliest examples of state-provided social protection, establishing the principle that a central authority could cushion households directly.
Organised welfare was uncommon before this period, when both states built systems of national insurance aimed at industrial workers. These schemes marked the birth of the European welfare state model of social insurance against unemployment, sickness, disability and old age.
Following Germany and Britain by several years, the United States created relief programmes for those hit hardest by the Depression. This extended organised state social protection to a major economy under acute crisis conditions, pioneering the use of safety nets as shock response rather than routine provision.
The report examined social protection in the context of shifting labour markets, cataloguing existing schemes worldwide and presenting simulation data on their potential costs. It framed the policy debate over extending coverage beyond formal employment.