Formal safety nets redistribute resources to poor people to reduce chronic poverty or to protect them agains risks to their livelihoods - risks posed by disease, loss of employment, drought, conflict, financial crises, or macroeconomic adjustment, for example. Safety nets can both reduce poverty in the short term and, when coupled with the longer-term approach taken by social protection programs, contribute simultaneously to a broader development strategy. But in order to achieve both short- and long-term goals effectively, policymakers much take up new approaches that involve partnerships between government and civil society.