The Changing Landscape of Social Protection in Africa

Session Submission Type: Virtual Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Since 2000, the landscape of social protection across Africa has been rapidly changing. Social cash transfers and old-age pensions have been widely extended to vulnerable populations across the region. Whereas the state provision of social protection had been previously largely limited to the formal sector, there are currently social protection programs in almost every country across the region, including approximately thirty durable social protection programs, which feature old-age pensions and/or social cash transfers to vulnerable populations. This panel examines this changing politics of social protection across Africa. What explains the rapid expansion of state social assistance across low- and middle-income countries? How has regime type shaped the provision and extension of social assistance? What shapes political decisions regarding the design and reach of social assistance programs? How have historical legacies shaped the political space for reform? How do individual beliefs about the causes of poverty and deservingness influence opinion on support for public assistance? Drawing from a variety of methodological approaches, this panel sheds light on how changes in government shape social assistance reform, how historical legacies shape the possibility for pension reform, and how electoral pressures shape program design and public opinion. It brings into conversation research from across sub-Saharan Africa, thus providing a comparative perspective on the political drivers of social assistance. In doing so, this panel furthers our knowledge about social assistance programs, including social cash transfers and old-age pensions, across the region.

Sub Unit

• Division 12: Comparative Politics of Developing Countries

Cosponsor

• Division 53: African Politics

Individual Presentations

• Changes of Government and Cash Transfer Expansion in East and Southern Africa - Hangala Siachiwena, University of Cape Town

• Pathways to Pension Reform in Africa: Trade Unions and Historical Legacies - Yonatan L. Morse, University of Connecticut

• Shaping Citizen-State Relations Through Cash Transfer Program Design - Alesha Porisky, Northern Illinois University

• Partisanship and Public Opinion on Cash Transfers: Survey Evidence from Kenya - Ken Ochieng' Opalo, Georgetown University

Chair

• Sarah M. Brooks Ohio State University

Discussants

• Katharine A. Baldwin Yale University

• Martha Wilfahrt University of California, Berkeley