This report summarises and synthesises the outcomes of a project designed to improve nutritional outcomes that can be achieved through social protection systems in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. It has a particular focus on systems integration and the need to shift from the traditional focus on undernutrition to malnutrition in all its forms (i.e., undernutrition, including micronutrient deficiencies, combined with the growing prevalence of overweight and obesity, sometimes referred to as the ‘double burden’). The project consisted of multiple elements, including a scoping of frameworks, evidence review, framework development, stakeholder workshops, and case studies based on 43 interviews across Peru, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador.

A key outcome of this project is the production of two frameworks, which were developed against the backdrop of broader evidence on social protection pathways to nutrition. They are intended to help decision makers to design and implement better social protection systems and related programmes, crucially integrating nutrition-sensitive planning both from the start and over the entire programme cycle. Recommendations emerging from this study and guided by use of the two frameworks include:

• Avoid starting with an ‘instrument first’ approach (e.g., choosing Cash or Food): first assess the system, including the existing landscape of programmes, gaps, population inequities and vulnerabilities and the potential to build agency.

• The need to apply a systems approach simultaneously to social protection and food, rather than considering these separately.

• If possible, integrate multiple nutrition-related objectives across the programme cycle, from project design, targeting and implementation through to monitoring, evaluation, and learning.

• Use the frameworks and other emerging evidence to guide monitoring along the complete impact pathway to identify gaps in programme assumptions and the need for timely course correction. improve programme design and implementation.

• Integrate equity aspects from the outset. To reach the overarching ambition of leaving no-one behind, consideration needs to be given to groups who are marginalized by a number of forms of social position, including gender, age, disability, ethnicity, geographical origin, among others, especially when these intersect.