Evolving Social Protection in Africa
• Informal insurance
• Safety nets
• Poverty targeted transfers
• Categorical (‘universal’) transfers
4 Main Strands
Directions of Change
1980s 1990s 2000s1980s 1990s
Summary Key Strands
4
1) Diminishing capacity of informal insurance
2) Safety nets: transient, no entitlement
3) Poverty targeted transfers: focus on chronic extreme poverty; externally driven But, difficulty moving beyond pilots
4) Categorical transfers: social pensions and child grants; legislated rights
Achievements to Date
5
o chronic rather than transient extreme poverty
o shift emergency response to routine transfers
o shift food to cash transferso local food sourcing when food
unavoidableo large-scale programmes in specific
countrieso pensions and child grants, some
countrieso OVC frameworks and programmeso pilots and lessons from themo innovative and secure means of
delivering cash
Limitations to Dateo ‘social protection’ term confuses
governmentso confusion SP as outcome vs SP as specific
responsibility towards the weakesto lack of political traction poverty-targeted
SCTs may even have adverse political fallout divisiveness in contexts of prevalent
poverty o donor failures:
to support categorical provision to address concerns about dependency addiction to pilot schemes bypassing government structures