This week, if you were browsing AllAfrica.com (http://allafrica.com/stories/200804240734.html), or if one of your local newspapers happened to carry the news, you may have noticed an article about a meeting in Kampala this week of governments and civil society organisations from eastern and southern Africa. The aim of the meeting was to discuss programmes and policies on social protection.
The chances are that you didn’t notice, though, as the meeting did not receive much media coverage (at least it didn’t here, in SA). But in fact this meeting is part of a continent-wide process that has huge potential in fighting poverty.
Well, you may ask, what is social protection and why is it so significant? In a nutshell, social protection refers to policies aimed at providing regular, long-term assistance to those living in poverty, or vulnerable and in danger of falling into poverty. The idea is to move away from short-term emergency-based responses to poverty and hunger, and to put in place long-term, reliable and coherent policies to assist the poorest and most vulnerable in society. Old age pensions, child support grants and disability grants are good examples of social protection measures.
These policies have been pretty controversial. For example in 2004, Lesotho’s government decided to introduce an old-age pension, and was strongly advised against it by donors and the likes of the IMF (they went ahead anyway and now it’s seen as a big success).
While social protection is pretty much taken for granted in developed nations, for some reason many governments and even international donors have opposed putting in place such measures in Africa. But there is clear and growing evidence that social protection policies and programmes have huge impact in reducing poverty. For example, in South Africa, which has a pretty good and well-developed system of social protection, research has found that children in households that received a pension, were on average taller than children in households without a pension. That kind of measurable difference is hard to argue against! (If you’re interested in looking into this, there’s loads of research and updates available online at www.wahenga.net).
Anyhow, in March 2006, senior government representatives from 13 African countries gathered in Livingstone, Zambia, and signed what’s known as the Livingstone Declaration. The Livingstone Declaration recognised social protection as a human right, and it called on African governments to put together social protection plans within 2-3 years. The declaration was subsequently adopted by the African Union.
So now, in 2008, the AU is spearheading what’s known as Livingstone II. The meeting in Kampala this week is the first of 3 regional gatherings (the others will be in Cairo for north Africa, and Dakar for west Africa), leading up to the first ever African Union Conference of Ministers of Social Development, in October. The aim is to assess progress since 2006, discuss challenges in implementing and funding national social protection programmes, and map the way forward.
As I say, so far it’s not getting the media coverage it deserves — perhaps because journalists are always sceptical of so-called ‘talk-shops’ — where a lot gets said, and very little gets done afterwards. And to be honest, that is always a danger – but that’s why it’s important that we pay attention to this process. Civil society organisations and ordinary citizens across the continent should be watching the Livingstone II process, and making a noise in their own countries to ensure their governments make clear commitments to social protection, and then follow up with practical implementation.
This process really has the potential to transform the lives of millions of Africans — it’s up to all of us to make sure that this potential becomes a reality.
(This post first appeared on the Citizen Journalism in Africa portal – www.citizenjournalismafrica.org)
