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Key Text Social Protection Mechanisms in Southern Africa

Author: S Devereux
Date: 2006
Size: 74 pages (618 kB)

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Summary

What social protection measures have been implemented by southern African countries? What lessons can be learnt from these responses to deprivation? This paper from the Institute of Development Studies surveys the policies implemented in six southern Africa nations to protect the vulnerable from destitution and promote the incomes and capabilities of the poor. It argues that countries should focus on food security, market failures and longer-term risk management schemes to provide more co-ordinated, predictable forms of support.

There are four types of social protection: “protective” interventions offering relief from deprivation, “preventive” measures targeted at averting future impoverishment, “promotive” policies aimed at enhancing the capabilities of the poor and “transformative” approaches addressing social inequity. Guaranteed social protection programmes are a relatively new concept in southern Africa, confined mainly to social assistance for people unable to work, emergency relief and support to subsistence-based farmers.

The 2001/2 food crisis in southern Africa alerted governments and donors to the increased need for analysing and systematically addressing vulnerability in the region. In Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, various social protection programmes have been implemented, with donor and civil society support, to address such issues as food security, disaster management, HIV/AIDS and welfare for vulnerable groups.

Each of these countries presents its own social protection needs and responses, dependent on individual demographic, economic and political characteristics. However, common themes emerge from the region’s policy experiences:

Food insecurity can adversely affect large populations. On the supply side, currency devaluations and the removal of state agricultural support has caused under-production and hunger throughout the region. On the demand side, the removal of price stabilisation measures prompted price fluctuations and exacerbated the 2002 food crisis.
Attempts to institute long-term, predictable social protection programmes are frequently derailed by sudden crises. The co-ordination and institutionalisation of projects are often limited by governments’ scepticism and donors’ desire to test different policy approaches.
Domestic political will, rather than donor input, is the key determinant in assessing the affordability and sustainability of a policy. National support must be fostered in support of social protection.
Deprivation often stems from weaknesses in food, labour and credit markets. While social transfers can protect the poor from these threats, systemic solutions to market failures include the promotion of food crop trading, employment creation, input markets and financial intermediation schemes.

Southern African countries must learn from their own successes and failures – and those of other nations – in devising future social protection strategies:

Governments should review subsidy mistakes in Malawi and price control failures in Zimbabwe in developing food security policy. They should investigate encouraging smallholders’ access to agricultural inputs through subsidies, credit and co-operative schemes and pilot new measures to ensure food price stabilisation through free trade and seasonal safety nets.
New forms of unconditional and conditional transfers of cash and assets should be explored, in the light of recent experiences in Malawi and Zambia, as well as Latin America and Bangladesh.
Government labour market interventions, such as the Indian law guaranteeing rural households to 100 days’ paid employment annually, should be examined for their domestic applicability.
Short term responses to crises should be supplemented by sustainable social protection strategies for the chronically vulnerable which limit the future need for emergency relief.

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Source: Devereux, S., 2006, 'Social Protection Mechanisms in Southern Africa', Institute of Development Studies, Brighton