This Briefing Paper argues that the global financial crisis will exacerbate poverty and inequality and undermine progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. While the nature of this impact will vary between and within countries, developing countries need to address the immediate needs of the poor, as well as investing in growth and stabilisation packages. To date, social protection responses to the crisis in developing countries have been marginal in scale, and the Briefing Paper urges a prioritisation of social protection as a way to mitigate the worst impacts of the crisis.