Social protection vital in policy formulation
Published on Thursday, 14 February 2013
By DOREEN NAWA
SOCIAL protection is often considered as something exclusive to developed countries like Zambia, even though some forms of it are often unstructured in every society.
As defined by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, social protection is concerned with preventing, managing, and overcoming situations that adversely affect people’s well-being.
SOCIAL protection is often considered as something exclusive to developed countries like Zambia, even though some forms of it are often unstructured in every society.
As defined by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, social protection is concerned with preventing, managing, and overcoming situations that adversely affect people’s well-being.
According to Platform for Social Protection (PSP) Zambia in a document titled, ‘Social Protection in Zambia - An eye on Policy,’ social protection consists of policies and programs designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability by promoting efficient labour markets, diminishing people’s exposure to risks and enhancing their capacity to manage economic and social risks such as unemployment, exclusion, sickness, disability and old age.
Poverty and vulnerability are amongst the biggest socio-economic challenges facing Zambia.
Ms Mutale Wakunuma, Country Coordinator for PSP Zambia says poverty in Zambia currently stands at 60.5 percent and extreme poverty at 42 percent countrywide.
“Extreme poverty is measured using a food poverty line, which by translation means these households’ total incomes will not deliver a basic food basket on the table. Social protection is an emerging key sector in pro-poor development. Globally, it has been necessitated by the realisation that as we approach the 2015 deadline for the MDGs, poverty still remains rife and locally by the overwhelming vulnerability and mass indigence in the country,” Ms Wakunuma said.
PSP Zambia with financial support from Irish Aid advocates for the development and implementation of effective policies and programs for social protection.
PSP, a non-governmental organisation aims to raise policy awareness on social protection among civil society and other stakeholders and to facilitate and enhance effective stakeholder participation and contribution to social protection processes in Zambia.
Undoubtedly, achieving the MDGs targets will require a reversal of the poverty trends.
According to Ms Wakunuma, reversal of poverty and vulnerability rates can only be if there is excessive focus on market oriented policies.
“Leaving the country’s development to market dictates has unfortunately resulted in a yawning gap between the haves and the have-nots, with the gini coefficient, which measures income inequality, at 64 percent, reflecting the serious income inequality in the country. The conclusion is obvious; the rewards from general economic growth in the country are not inclusive and are not helping narrow the inequality gap,” she says.
What measures are needed to close the inequality gap and raise the majority of Zambians out of poverty?
Social protection stands out as one measure that addresses poverty and yet is not recognised as such, with the main argument against it being creation of dependency.
“The only difference is that social protection calls for support to the indigent to be more predictable, proactive, sustained, and if necessary better targeted as opposed to emergency responses which are temporary, reactive, one off and rotational, although this is not to say that emergency relief has no place in the social protection discourse.
“Thus the need for policy thinking that ensures relevance and effectiveness of social protection programming for as well as the need for enhanced targeting to maximize use of limited resources. As the sector formulates the policy, it would be strategic to ensure true government leadership in social protection thinking,” the document titled ‘Social Protection in Zambia - An eye on Policy,’ reads in parts.
According to the document, a policy helps to define the scope of Social Protection in the country and will provide stakeholders with a common understanding of Social Protection and what instrument will be used to achieve its goals.
The policy will outline the strategies and objectives that all stakeholders will contribute to and that government will be held accountable for.
“A policy as a statement of intent serves as a guide for decisions and helps achieve rational outcomes. A policy is typically a reflection of commitment and as such allows leaders to be held accountable for their actions. Bureaucratically, a policy would also help administrators to make decisions and priorities based on the relative merits of a number of factors; a policy merely guides actions toward those that are most likely to achieve a desired outcome. And paramount, a policy helps to define spending priorities,” Ms Wakunuma says.
As Zambia edges towards formulating a National Social Protection Policy, a comprehensive policy that will harmonise several policies that tackle issues relating to poverty and vulnerability, it is important to reflect on Social Protection, how it is defined, what it should focus on and how it should be done to have the most impact on poverty and vulnerability in the country.
Based on a Wikipedia article on Social Protection, social protection has been used in the European welfare state and other parts of the developed world to maintain a certain living standard, and address transient poverty.
One of the first examples of state-provided social protection can be tracked to the Roman Emperor Trajan, who expanded a program for free grain to include more poor citizens of the empire. In addition, he instituted public funds to support poor children.
Organised welfare was not common until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was during this period that in both Germany and Great Britain, welfare systems were established to target the working classes.
The United States followed several years later, during the Great Depression, with emergency relief for those struck the hardest. However, modern social protection has grown to envelop a much broader range of issues and purposes; it is now being used as a policy approach in developing nations, to address issues of persistent poverty and target structural causes. Moreover, it is designed to lift recipients out of poverty, rather than providing passive protection against contingencies.
In Zambia, however, the definition for Social Protection can be found in the 2005 Social protection strategy and in both the Fifth and Sixth National Development Plans.
The Sixth National Development Plan defines social protection as “a poverty reduction strategy that promotes human development, social equity and human rights … The Vision for the Social Protection sector is “a nation with capacity to promote and provide sustainable security against constant or periodic critical levels of deprivation and extreme vulnerability by 2030”. The sector goal is “to empower low capacity households and provide social assistance to incapacitated households and support to vulnerable people to live decent lives”. During the SNDP period, the focus of the sector will be to effectively coordinate and provide social protection through empowering low capacity households, providing social assistance to incapacitated households and supporting various vulnerable groups.”
Of further interest would be the definition from the political point of view, as contained in the ruling party’s manifesto, the Patriotic Front (PF).
The PF manifesto envisions Social Protection as “Subject to the cautions of the preceding paragraph, [in the manifesto], specific measures to be included in our comprehensive policy will include:
*The poorest families will be helped in accessing education and health, to ensure that they and their children are not excluded from basic services;
*Very vulnerable families will be helped into self-reliance through the delivery of input packs in rural areas, and skills training or micro business development activities in urban areas;
*People affected by unforeseen natural disasters or shocks will be supported with programs to support immediate survival, and to restore and strengthen livelihoods;
*Development of a package of life-cycle based benefits, including the development of age-based grants to address widespread poverty, deprivation and suffering;” the PF manifesto read in parts on tackling issues on Social Protection.
Generally, poverty in Zambia remains high among the rural population, especially those in the most remote and underserved districts.
The persistence of poverty both drives and is driven by poor nutrition, low standards of housing and the lack of access to safe water, quality health services, and quality primary education. As a result, poverty prevents the majority of Zambian children from fully enjoying their rights, and undermines future prospects for the country’s development.
Poverty and vulnerability are amongst the biggest socio-economic challenges facing Zambia.
Ms Mutale Wakunuma, Country Coordinator for PSP Zambia says poverty in Zambia currently stands at 60.5 percent and extreme poverty at 42 percent countrywide.
“Extreme poverty is measured using a food poverty line, which by translation means these households’ total incomes will not deliver a basic food basket on the table. Social protection is an emerging key sector in pro-poor development. Globally, it has been necessitated by the realisation that as we approach the 2015 deadline for the MDGs, poverty still remains rife and locally by the overwhelming vulnerability and mass indigence in the country,” Ms Wakunuma said.
PSP Zambia with financial support from Irish Aid advocates for the development and implementation of effective policies and programs for social protection.
PSP, a non-governmental organisation aims to raise policy awareness on social protection among civil society and other stakeholders and to facilitate and enhance effective stakeholder participation and contribution to social protection processes in Zambia.
Undoubtedly, achieving the MDGs targets will require a reversal of the poverty trends.
According to Ms Wakunuma, reversal of poverty and vulnerability rates can only be if there is excessive focus on market oriented policies.
“Leaving the country’s development to market dictates has unfortunately resulted in a yawning gap between the haves and the have-nots, with the gini coefficient, which measures income inequality, at 64 percent, reflecting the serious income inequality in the country. The conclusion is obvious; the rewards from general economic growth in the country are not inclusive and are not helping narrow the inequality gap,” she says.
What measures are needed to close the inequality gap and raise the majority of Zambians out of poverty?
Social protection stands out as one measure that addresses poverty and yet is not recognised as such, with the main argument against it being creation of dependency.
“The only difference is that social protection calls for support to the indigent to be more predictable, proactive, sustained, and if necessary better targeted as opposed to emergency responses which are temporary, reactive, one off and rotational, although this is not to say that emergency relief has no place in the social protection discourse.
“Thus the need for policy thinking that ensures relevance and effectiveness of social protection programming for as well as the need for enhanced targeting to maximize use of limited resources. As the sector formulates the policy, it would be strategic to ensure true government leadership in social protection thinking,” the document titled ‘Social Protection in Zambia - An eye on Policy,’ reads in parts.
According to the document, a policy helps to define the scope of Social Protection in the country and will provide stakeholders with a common understanding of Social Protection and what instrument will be used to achieve its goals.
The policy will outline the strategies and objectives that all stakeholders will contribute to and that government will be held accountable for.
“A policy as a statement of intent serves as a guide for decisions and helps achieve rational outcomes. A policy is typically a reflection of commitment and as such allows leaders to be held accountable for their actions. Bureaucratically, a policy would also help administrators to make decisions and priorities based on the relative merits of a number of factors; a policy merely guides actions toward those that are most likely to achieve a desired outcome. And paramount, a policy helps to define spending priorities,” Ms Wakunuma says.
As Zambia edges towards formulating a National Social Protection Policy, a comprehensive policy that will harmonise several policies that tackle issues relating to poverty and vulnerability, it is important to reflect on Social Protection, how it is defined, what it should focus on and how it should be done to have the most impact on poverty and vulnerability in the country.
Based on a Wikipedia article on Social Protection, social protection has been used in the European welfare state and other parts of the developed world to maintain a certain living standard, and address transient poverty.
One of the first examples of state-provided social protection can be tracked to the Roman Emperor Trajan, who expanded a program for free grain to include more poor citizens of the empire. In addition, he instituted public funds to support poor children.
Organised welfare was not common until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was during this period that in both Germany and Great Britain, welfare systems were established to target the working classes.
The United States followed several years later, during the Great Depression, with emergency relief for those struck the hardest. However, modern social protection has grown to envelop a much broader range of issues and purposes; it is now being used as a policy approach in developing nations, to address issues of persistent poverty and target structural causes. Moreover, it is designed to lift recipients out of poverty, rather than providing passive protection against contingencies.
In Zambia, however, the definition for Social Protection can be found in the 2005 Social protection strategy and in both the Fifth and Sixth National Development Plans.
The Sixth National Development Plan defines social protection as “a poverty reduction strategy that promotes human development, social equity and human rights … The Vision for the Social Protection sector is “a nation with capacity to promote and provide sustainable security against constant or periodic critical levels of deprivation and extreme vulnerability by 2030”. The sector goal is “to empower low capacity households and provide social assistance to incapacitated households and support to vulnerable people to live decent lives”. During the SNDP period, the focus of the sector will be to effectively coordinate and provide social protection through empowering low capacity households, providing social assistance to incapacitated households and supporting various vulnerable groups.”
Of further interest would be the definition from the political point of view, as contained in the ruling party’s manifesto, the Patriotic Front (PF).
The PF manifesto envisions Social Protection as “Subject to the cautions of the preceding paragraph, [in the manifesto], specific measures to be included in our comprehensive policy will include:
*The poorest families will be helped in accessing education and health, to ensure that they and their children are not excluded from basic services;
*Very vulnerable families will be helped into self-reliance through the delivery of input packs in rural areas, and skills training or micro business development activities in urban areas;
*People affected by unforeseen natural disasters or shocks will be supported with programs to support immediate survival, and to restore and strengthen livelihoods;
*Development of a package of life-cycle based benefits, including the development of age-based grants to address widespread poverty, deprivation and suffering;” the PF manifesto read in parts on tackling issues on Social Protection.
Generally, poverty in Zambia remains high among the rural population, especially those in the most remote and underserved districts.
The persistence of poverty both drives and is driven by poor nutrition, low standards of housing and the lack of access to safe water, quality health services, and quality primary education. As a result, poverty prevents the majority of Zambian children from fully enjoying their rights, and undermines future prospects for the country’s development.
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