Discovering Welfare? The Changing Landscape of Social Protection in Africa

• In Event: Democratic Consolidation and the Effects of Democratization in Africa

Abstract

In the comparative study of welfare states Africa stands out as a region of relative scholarly neglect. However, while a recognizable and expansive African welfare state does not exist, states have always provided some degree of social protection to segments of their population. Moreover, over the past twenty years there has been significant reform across the continent, including the expansion of pension access, the creation of health insurance risk pools, and innovations in social assistance programs. This paper explores the changing landscape of formal social protection in Africa through the use of a novel dataset that collates information on various welfare programs between 1960 and 2016. This data offers some of the first descriptive language to identity previously underspecified insights into the structure, universality, and generosity of social welfare in Africa. The paper presents historical variation in the provision of social welfare, which can be attributed to colonial legacies and the nature of ruling coalitions that emerged after independence. Moreover, as in other contexts in the developing world, democratization, economic growth, and urbanization stand out as key factors that explain broader patterns of welfare expansion. However, the data also indicates that within African countries welfare reform progresses unevenly, and is often limited to specific sectors or dimensions of welfare like healthcare access or cash transfers. The paper offers some preliminary hypotheses regarding this outcome, rooted in the role of populism in African democracies and the degree of solidarity between the formal and informal sectors in Africa.

Author

• Yonatan L. Morse, University of Connecticut