This Conference is being organized from 12 to 15 December 2012 at the Marian College, Kuttikkanam, Kerala, by the International Council on Social Welfare, South-Asia, with support of the UNESCO Office in New Delhi, as part of decennial year celebrations of the Marian School of Social Work, with the objective to discuss social protection issues of the South Asian Region and to formulate effective social protection schemes.

Social protection policies are expected to address insecurities related to the failure to meet basic economic and social needs – requiring promotional policies, as well as those related to unexpected contingencies ‐ requiring protective policies.

The purpose of the conference is to bring together a host of participants from the academia, NGOs, policy making bodies and the bureaucracy, in order to share their research experiences on the existing programs, best practices, issues, concerns and policies in different parts of the globe, particularly the developing countries, and to submit a policy paper to Government of India to improve social protection policies in India.

The expected outcome of the event would be to create a network of academicians, activists, and policy makers to deliberate on and to review existing programs vis‐à‐vis their effectiveness for social protection; evolve better clarity about the concept of social protection and its applications to policy and governance; collate suggestions drawn from experiences of other countries, to aid the government in formulating inclusive policies and develop deeper insight into the issues of social protection of marginalized groups.