Institutionalizing Social Assistance in Africa

Renata Nowak-Garmer, UNDP &

Luis Frota, ILO

Session: Social Protection in the Changing World

March 22, 2018

TITLE | 2

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

TITLE | 3

TITLE | 4

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

TITLE | 5

TITLE | 6

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

TITLE | 7

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

TITLE | 8

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

TITLE | 9

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

TITLE | 10

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

TITLE | 11

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

TITLE | 12

– 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 …

TITLE | 13

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

TITLE | 14

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.

TITLE | 15

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

TITLE | 16

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…

TITLE | 17

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

TITLE | 18

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

TITLE | 19

‘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

TITLE | 20

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

TITLE | 21

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;

TITLE | 22

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

TITLE | 23

• Conclusion:

– Two

– Four 1, 2, and 1,

– One

TITLE | 24

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

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME