In addition to these compensatory, protective and adaptive functions, social policies can have a broader function in supporting structural transformations. When social policies are closely aligned with broader developmental and productive objectives, there is the greatest potential for structural transformations that are inclusive, sustainable and
equitable. This requires integrating economic and social policies that address distribution and reproduction as well as protection; confronting underlying contours of social disadvantage; recognizing that market initiatives may reinforce rather than challenge unequal distributions of resources and power; and undertaking more systematic analysis of the distributional consequences of economic policies.