1. Social Protection and Pro-poor Growth in Africa
Investing in
Social Protection in Africa
Regional Expert Meeting
on Social Protection
Dakar, Senegal
9 – 11 June 2008
It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to participate in this workshop.
I will discuss the relationships between social protection and economic growth, with a particular emphasis on evidence from South Africa.
Before tackling the main question, it’s useful to speak briefly about the problem of poverty that social protection addresses, and how we think about it.
Michael Samson

2. Overview African approaches to social protection
Importance of social solidarity
Particular relevance for food price crises
Impacts on pro-poor growth
Design and implementation matter

3. African approaches to social protection and pro-poor growth
Poverty reduction and inclusive, pro-poor growth
Cash transfers
Legal protection
Social insurance
Social services
Public works schemes
Targeted inputs
Subsidies
SOCIAL PROTECTION

4. Use of transfer by type of spending and program
Sources: Acacia Consultants 2007; Devereux 2002; Devereux et al. 2006a; Devereux et al. 2007;
MCDSS/GTZ 2006; Moller and Ferreira 2003.
1 In the case of Zambia SCTS the figure represents the proportion of overall spending by
beneficiaries on health. In the case of Malawi DECT, these spending numbers refer to 3 months
of the 5-month program period: January-March 2007.
SOURCE: IFPRI 4

5. Impacts of unconditional cash transfer programs on nutrition
Sources: Agüero et al. 2007; Case 2001; Duflo 2003; MCDSS/GTZ 2006; Samson et al
OAP impact on boys only if pension received by woman (national)
CSG impact only if received during 1st year of life and for at least 2/3 of 1st 3 years
SOURCE: IFPRI 5

6. Impact of cash transfers
Empowerment
Upliftment
Health, education
Access to markets (nutrition)

7. Social protection for the life cycle
Livelihoods
Public Works
School fee waivers & vouchers
Early Childhood Development
Maternal & Child Health & Nutrition
Nutrition support
Older people
Adults
High school
Secondary
Primary
0-5
Prenatal
- Social
Transfers
-Insurance
SOURCE: IFPRI

8. Human capital development promotes pro-poor growth
Social protection
Human capital
Labour productivity
Pro-poor growth

9. Human capital development promotes pro-poor growth
South Africa
Social protection
Human capital
Labour productivity
Pro-poor growth
Increase wages % more
than the cost
of transfers

10. Higher investment and growth
Social protection promotes better risk management and encourages investment
Higher investment and growth
Risk Manage-ment
Social protection

11. Social protection improves labour market participation and employment
COMMENT FROM KF 4 there are a lot of slides on CSG - not sure how you're planning to present these, but wonder if it's a bit too detailed, and again could maybe go in a handout, and maybe referred to in the presentation.
n= n=1795

12. Social protection facilitates economic reforms that promote pro-poor growth
IMF Working Paper, African Department
Who Can Explain The Mauritian Miracle: Meade, Romer, Sachs or Rodrik?
Prepared by Arvind Subramanian and Devesh Roy1, August 2001
“In return for guaranteeing the rights of the sugar owners, the political majority did implicitly extract a compromise in terms of transferring some of the rents from sugar to itself. One important aspect of this transfer was a large, relatively well paid, civil service (staffed predominantly by the majority Indian community) and a generous system of social protection,particularly related to pensions, The success of the sugar industry in Mauritius can thus be seen as an example of what can be termed as optimal rent sharing between the political (predominantly Indian) and economic elites (predominantly non-Indian).” MauritiusPensionExplainGrowthMiracleIMF.pdf, page 37
Mauritius

13. Design and implementation matter
National social and policy context
Targeting
National and local capacity
Systems
Complementary programmes

14. Delivery systems Single Registry Admin Rights M&E Payments
Another design issue is addressing fiduciary risk. Particularly in fragile states, but wherever there is fraud or corruption or inefficiency—and we’re covering a lot of ground here—there’s possibilities for improper allocation of funds. Good systems help address fiduciary risk, appropriate monitoring and evaluation contributes also. But there needs to be an explicit policy initiative. It’s virtually impossible to eliminate fraud—we’re looking at millions of transactions and information that’s difficult to verify. When the fraud hits the press, if the implementing agency—usually govt—can’t demonstrate a good faith effort to control fraud, the political costs may well exceed the direct costs of the fraud.
As mentioned before, civil society can help prod slow progress, and provide an important advocacy role that supports oversight.
M&E
Rights

15. Conclusions
An evolving model of social protection in Africa focuses on developmental social cash transfers
An emerging evidence base documents powerful impacts, increasingly demonstrating support for pro-poor growth
But these impacts are not automatic— they depend on effective design and implementation