Reforming social protection systems has become more important  recently due to various global crises, drawing attention to this unfinished agenda in the Western Balkans.1  The six Western Balkan countries,  Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia, need social protection2 more than ever. Millions of  people in the region remain vulnerable to a range of well-known risks,  with shocks and new sources of vulnerability exacerbating the urgency  of reform. These countries are taking steps to improve their social protection systems to make them fairer, more sustainable, more effective  and better able to respond to people’s needs. However, progress is slow  and uneven.