In the years ahead, development effortsaiming at reducing vulnerability will increasingly have tofactor in climate change, and social protection is noexception. This paper sets out the case forclimate?responsive social protection and proposes aframework with principles, design features, and functionsthat would help Social Protection (SP) systems evolve in aclimate?responsive direction. The principles compriseclimate?aware planning; livelihood?based approaches thatconsider the full range of assets and institutions availableto households and communities; and aiming for resilientcommunities by planning for the long term. Four designfeatures that can help achieve this are: scalable andflexible programs that can increase coverage in response toclimate disasters; climate?responsive targeting systems;investments in livelihoods that build community andhousehold resilience; and promotion of better climate risk management.