In this chapter, we review the effectiveness of social protection interventions in reducing poverty, raising food consumption and diversifying diets. We review a broad range of social protection measures, with the main focus on social assistance interventions targeted at poor households, rather than other social protection measures. The majority of these people are in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where social protection coverage is widespread. Far fewer people are protected in sub-Saharan Africa, where coverage is lower and less than 1 percent of the population moves out of poverty each year as a result of social protection transfers.