Africa should scale up social assistance programmes

© Picture-Factory – za.fotolia.com

"There is an urgent need to increase comprehensive social assistance, despite socio-economic challenges such as the global economic crisis. It is also critical for African countries to develop mechanisms for harnessing the continent's lessons and experience in order to build more appropriate social protection systems," said the minister on Monday, 28 April.

Speaking at a gala dinner and opening session of the African Union (AU) Expert Consultation Meeting on Children and Social Protection Systems in Africa, Dlamini said the protection and promotion of the rights of the continent's people is a collective responsibility.

An appropriate social system can be realised through accurate and credible impact assessments, which remain vital tools for mobilising the evidence needed to motivate and sustain the necessary political will.

"In our endeavour to enhance our social protection systems for the future of many African generations to come, we must be guided by the fact that social protection is a human right and a key tool in tackling poverty and multiple deprivations," she said.

To date, many countries have not yet rigorously evaluated the social and economic impact of their social protection programmes. For those that have done evaluation, such as Ethiopia, evidence for the need to scale up the social protection systems on the continent was evident.

"For example, the Productive Safety Net Programme of Ethiopia, which reaches over seven million, shows significant impact in terms of poverty reduction, reducing inequality; promotion of human capital investment in nutrition, education and health," said Minister Dlamini.

South Africa's own social assistance programme, which to date reaches over 16 million people from a low base of 2.6 million in 1994, benefits 11 million children.

South Africa is hosting the first ever AU expert consultation meeting on children and social protection systems in Africa under the theme, 'Children and Social Protection Systems: Building the African Agenda'.

This consultation meeting, which is underway in Cape Town, is a precursor to the fourth AU Conference of Ministers of Social Development, which will be held from 26-30 May in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

With the deadline to the globally agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of 2015 approaching, many African countries have made impressive progress to achieving the MDG targets.

While progress in areas such as poverty reduction, education and health has been made, Minister Dlamini said, the continent faced considerable challenges that must be overcome.

"In spite of the progress we have registered, it is worth mentioning that the continent still has considerable challenges to overcome. For the past decade, the African continent experienced a robust growth with developmental progress, but the global financial and economic shocks over the past years interrupted advancement towards achieving these goals," she said.