Social Protection for Internal Migrants
Strengthen social protection systems and delivery for tens of millions of internal migrant families across South Asia and South-east Asia
Context
There are an estimated ~300 million internal migrants workers in Asia; a large proportion are forced to migrate for subsistence employment due to socioeconomic distress or climate shocks.
Despite being significant economic contributors often in sectors such as construction and manufacturing, migrant families often fall outside of the safety net and lack access to social protection systems.
Initiatives
In 2018, together with Global Development Incubator, we supported grassroots non-profit organisation People’s Courage International (PCI) on an initial pilot facilitating access to social protection for ~30k internal migrant families.
When COVID-19 hit, construction sites were shut down and millions of internal migrants were left stranded in cities without social protection support. In response, PCI launched the Migrants Resilience Collaborative in early 2020, and GDI seconded three full-time leaders into the executive team to scale the initiative.
By 2022, MRC scaled its impact by 62x delivering social protection benefits to ~2 million migrants per year vs. the initial 30k pilot in 2018.
Today in 2026, MRC has registered 6.8m households for social protection benefits and seen more than 7.5m benefits delivered. In a sample of 1,233,971 benefits delivered valued at 287.1m USD from Jan 2022 to August 2025, an average of $1 philanthropic funding in MRC unlocked ~$11 of Government funding in direct benefit transfers to beneficiaries.
Experts & team
Leadership
Warren Ang
Warren founded Voyage to 1) reflect his ~20 years’ experience that scaling impact in Asia requires strategic initiatives, rooted in local leadership and partners, executing over a long-term horizon; and 2) to be a place that sharpened and inspired the best talent to change the ways they saw the world, and their potential to change it. His skillset merges strategy consulting, entrepreneurship, and executive management; all informed by a strong track record in strategic philanthropy across Asia, and a deep curiosity of Jungian psychology and leadership development. He has lived and worked in China, India and Australia, and holds an MBA with Distinction from INSEAD. Outside of work, you’ll find him carving on a snowboard, playing ice-hockey, or hanging out with his forever-puppy Kobi.
Affiliated Experts (former)
Madhumitha Hebbar
Madhumitha Hebbar brings 10+ years of experience spanning research, program design, M&E, and policy advisory work across South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Pacific, particularly in the areas of social protection, livelihoods and digital inclusion. At GDI, she was embedded within the Migrants Resilience Collaborative — a Co-Impact and TED Audacious-backed initiative to expand access to social protection for 30 million informal workers across India — where she built and led an innovation team testing scalable operating models, including government-embedded reform units across multiple states. Prior to joining GDI, Madhumitha led evidence-based programming and policymaking engagements at J-PAL South Asia and Oxford Policy Management. She now runs an independent consulting practice focused on identifying, supporting and scaling cost-effective interventions within resource-constrained public systems. Madhumitha has a Master's degree in Development Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam and is based in Bangalore, India.
Nitish Narain
Nitish Narain is the Managing Director for Migrants Resilience Collaborative (MRC). He provides strategic and operational leadership for scaling MRC’s impact across millions of vulnerable and marginalized workers. Nitish has over 15 years of experience in programmatic leadership, building teams and coalitions, resource mobilization, and organizational development. He also brings global expertise in designing and scaling viable last mile service delivery models and products for the next billion users, largely from low-income communities. Previously, Nitish led the Financial Inclusion and Policy practice at MicroSave Consulting, where he oversaw project delivery across Asia and Africa while managing relations with ministries, regulators, multi-laterals, and financial service providers. Prior to this, he was with Bharat Financial Inclusion Ltd., leading a team of 100+ people implementing complex microfinance operations in India.