institutionalizing social assistance in africa · institutionalizing social assistance in africa...
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Institutionalizing Social Assistance in Africa
Renata Nowak-Garmer, UNDP &
Luis Frota, ILO
Session: Social Protection in the Changing World
March 22, 2018
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DATABASE
Thematic studies
Country profiles
Database: 106 SA programmes
profiled
Thematic studies: Legal
Frameworks, Financing,
Institutions
Country profiles: 55 countries
pages with key indicators of SA
Online platform
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Emerging findings: Social assistance in
Africa
• Expansion: number of programmes is increasing,
especially in the last decade
• Domestication: laws, policies/strategies,
institutions and structures, domestic financing
• Gaps: coverage, adequacy of transfers,
institutional capacity esp. at local levels
Emerging findings: Social assistance in
Africa
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1 0
6 7
1
57
15
61
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
1926-1935 1936-1945 1946-1955 1956-1965 1966-1975 1976-1985 1986-1995 1996-2005 2006-2015
Num
ber
of pro
gra
mm
es
Social Assistance in Africa by start date (1926-2015)
Programme start date
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135.61
1939.75
19.34
Lesotho (2010) South Africa (2011) Other African countries'average
Am
ou
nt
in U
S D
olla
r p
er y
ear
Source: UNDP database, State of Social Protection in Africa (forthcoming)
Social Assistance Expenditure per Poor Person in a year
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Institutionalization of social protection involves the
formation of programs that reflect a “social and political
agreement, with roles, rights and responsibilities of actors,
rules and standards of behaviour.
Szekely et al (2015)
Institutionalization of social
protection
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1. Consistent, sustained, yet adaptable, strategy over political cycles
or socio economic conjunctures;
2. Primacy of the State in ensuring socially and politically determined
clear and transparent rules,
3. Coordination amongst implementing actors to execute the policy,
share information, articulate efforts;
4. Focus on permanent technical capacity building of domestic
organisations and staff with reliable systems for data collection;
5. Incorporation of institutional control and accountability
mechanisms including regular reporting and accessible claims and
redress mechanisms,
6. Participation of diversity of actors that reinforce and exercise social
control and monitoring beyond governments
Martinez’s (2017) typology for institutionalizing social assistance
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Countries adopt a consistent and sustained strategy
across political cycles or socio economic conjunctures
• Countries have moved from fragmented, non uniform, to more coherent
set of sustained social assistance programs
• National social protection strategies have become norm, and include
institutional coordination mechanisms; these not all operational
• Social protection investment plans feed strategic medium term
frameworks to ensure the strategies are progressively backed by
domestic resources.
• Combination of national specific events (elections, necessity led by
hazards such as drought,..) led to growth of social assistance
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0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
350000
0
2000000
4000000
6000000
8000000
10000000
12000000
14000000
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
South Africa Child Support Grants (Ind.) Malawi SCT "Mtukula Pakhomo" (HH) Lesotho Grants Programme (HH)
Zimbabwe Harmonized Social Cash Transfer (HH) Zambia's Cash Transfer programme (HH)
Cabinet approves National Social Protection Policy
Decision to incrementally increase Child Grants by age category
Cash top ups for El Nino drought relief also increases domestic funding
Retargeting and expansion began after first evaluation
Evolution of beneficiaries and key defining moments: selected countries
Source: authors based on Davis, B., Handa, S., Hypher, N., Rossi, N. W., Winters, P., & Yablonski, J.
(Eds.). (2016). From evidence to action: the story of cash transfers and impact evaluation in sub Saharan
Africa. Oxford University Press
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– Evidence of cost efficiency and impact of investments in social protection
have established their credibility
– Some countries are at cross roads in meeting partners contributions (Ug,
Zmb)
– If countries fund directly the benefits, they still remain dependent on
development partners for external expertise and operational support.
Share of government spending in programmes supported by external partners, selected
countries in Africa (percentage of programme expenditure)
Source: Independent Evaluation (2017); dashed lines represent allocation rather than actual spending.
Role of State in ensuring socially and politically
determined rights is reflected in growing fiscal
allocations …
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Limited national legislation can jeopardize
continuity of programmes
• African Union SP framework (2008) = Social assistance a State
responsibility
• Nationally, some constitutions and Legal frameworks establish
obligations
– of the State to do the most to protect its citizens
– a few establish individual rights.
• BUT: very limited number of countries have overarching
legislation on social assistance.
• Rising civil society awareness and participation in demanding formal
regulations based programmes
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Rules are more stable and widely known, and ensure
continuous support and legitimacy to social assistance.
• Determination of eligibility and benefit rules by trial and testing and real
life test of cultural and social adequacy.
Ex. Initial multi-category targeting system of the SCT in Zambia, in 2013, was
questioned by communities because HHs with an ‘able bodied’ head should not
be eligible even if the HH had a high number of dependents
• The scaling up of programmes has also brought the need to ensure that
those rules remain simple, equitable and transparent.
Ex. As incomes vary little around the means eligibility threshold (especially in the
provinces), communities questioned why some people were eligible and others not.
This led to introduction of an ‘affluence test”, excluding the wealthier households.
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Use of mixed S&I / targeting methods
Targeting approaches by sub-regions in Africa
0
5
10
15
20
25
Central Africa East Africa North Africa Southern Africa West Africa
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Policy and administrative coordination to execute policy,
share information, articulate efforts
• Evidence of greater number of inter-ministerial coordination
bodies overseeing policy across departments from West to East
Africa.
• The level of effective administrative integration is still limited,
despite some moves over recent years e.g. to create standalone
central government departments (Social protection or social
development)
• Coordination delivery still limited
– lack of domestic resources devoted to implementation
– Limited ownership of administrative solutions under which
programmes operate.
– But this can be due to donor staggered expansion, lack of
maturity of programs, etc…
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Centralised administration
Number of programmes with low, medium and high level of centralisation
– regional variation
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Central Africa East Africa North Africa SouthernAfrica
West Africa Africa
NU
MB
ER
OF
PR
OG
RA
MM
ES
Low Medium High
Source: Manchester Database. Information: Whether local authorities have discretion in implementing programs? 1 to 3 with 1
None, 2 Some, 3 Complete
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Permanent technical capacity and ability of countries to take
over the core functions of social protection administration
still impaired
• Stronger domestic involvement in oversight functions
• Lack of a ‘footprint’ of social protection administrations
– scarcity of a social service workforce,
– spread thinly across the country and competing institutional obligations.
– well-equipped and empowered social service workforce is critical
– Lack of automatized payment systems, resulting in delays
– Problems in meeting demands for case management
• DPs would like to take a longer term approach to capacity building, but
– affect pace of reforms
– Thus overload capacity of governments to absorb reforms
– Thus use of alternative administrative systems
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‘Labour intensive’ preference for cash
Payment mechanism by region
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Cash Prepaid card magneticbank card
voucher bank transfer mobile (van)payments
cell phonepayment
food at school Hybrid Other
Num
be
r o
f p
rgra
mm
es
Central Africa East Africa North Africa Southern Africa West Africa Africa
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Number of government social workers per 100,000 Inhabitants
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Tanzania Zambia Senegal Ghana Kenya Uganda Mozambique Cameroon Cote d'Ivoire Namibia South Africa
Sources: Western Africa (2011 data) http://www.cpcnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/UNICEF-WCARO-Social-Work-Mapping-FINAL-27-
November-2014.pdf ; ; and Southern and Eastern Africa http://www.socialserviceworkforce.org/state-social-service-workforce-2015-report
; for Namibia, Social protection floor Assessment 2014
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Institutional control and formal
accountability mechanisms.
• Sustainability of social protection systems depend on the perception
of their continued legitimacy and responsiveness to public
expectations.
• The development of sound accountability and control systems
requires
– internal mechanisms (e.g. grievance mechanisms)
– social accountability institutions (parliamentary oversight, audits, ombudsmen)
With increased complexity of delivery systems in different realms
(technological, financial, quality service standards, etc.), and size of tax
funded benefits grown, so will public scrutiny;
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Insufficient focus on reliable domestic systems
for M&E, Research, learning and adapting.
• Evidence base and its use has grown (Ex. UNICEF/FAO Transfer project
• More participation of governments in directly commissioning of research
(this leads Government to be the agency and advocate for the
change in the decisive policy fora)
• Availability of administrative data is limited
• More research on institutional and administrative bottlenecks of delivery
systems needed
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• Conclusion:
– Two
– Four 1, 2, and 1,
– One
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summaryAreas of institutionalization Traffic
lightChanges
Consistent and sustained strategy across political
cycles or socio economic conjunctures
Role of State:
- fiscal commitments
- national Legislation
Rules are more stable
Coordination for
- policy (horizontal) and
- execution (vertical)
Technical capacity and ability of countries to take over
the core functions
Institutional control and formal accountability
mechanisms
Domestic systems for M&E
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