ECONOMIC POLICY RESEARCH CENTRE REPORT ON THE REGIONAL CONFERENCE
ON FINANCING SOCIO-PROTECTION IN EAST AND CENTRAL AFRICA AT LAKE VICTORIA
SERENA HOTEL ON OCTOBER 22ND TO 23RD 2013.
BY Esther Nakkazi (This is a report from the two day meeting where I was a rappotuer)
Summary of Executive
Director, EPRC, Dr. Sarah Ssewanyana’s speech at the regional conference on
“Financing Socio-Protection in East and Central Africa.”
This conference is very important and timely partly because
the population affected by poverty and destitution remains very large in the
region and without reliable and predictable resource allocation to socio-protection,
some countries in the region may not be able to meet part of the international
commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
At the same time, the relatively high population growth
rates in most of the countries in East and Central Africa means that the
demands for socio-protection are likely to continue rising for the foreseeable
future.
Declining Socio
protection budgets
The socio-protection landscape is changing fast on the
African continent and this calls for rapid response to the changing environment
by governments as well as other players. First, the overall budget allocated to
socio-protection has declined in the recent past as national governments are
focused on expanding infrastructure.
The decline in budgets is happening against a backdrop of
renewed global commitment to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030. As such, there
is need to engage the Ministries of Finance in our respective countries on the
need for additional resources for SP programmes.
Small scale cash
transfer schemes
Two, different countries are pursuing different SP
programmes. For instance, a number of countries in the region have initiated
socio-protection programmes the most notable being cash transfer schemes. But
most of these schemes being implemented are relatively small scale in
comparison to the need. As such, identifying ways of expanding such
socio-protection schemes is a major priority for the various actors engaged in
socio-protection programming including policy makers, development partners,
politicians and researchers in the Uganda.
Natural resource
discoveries and socio protection
Three, the discovery of commercially viable deposit of
natural resources in the East and Central Africa region has the potential to
change the socio-protection financing landscape in the region.
Uganda is in the process of developing its oil resources in
the Albertine region while Kenyan process is also underway in Turkana. Such
vast natural resources, if utilized appropriately, offer an opportunity to
finance nationwide socio protection programmes exclusively from the national
budget.
Members here should actively engage in debate in their
respective countries on how the proceeds from natural resources should be
governed and managed.
Training and Research
on SP
Four, development partners have responded to changing
post-conflict environment by supporting SP training and research. For example, the IDRC sponsored the
initiation of the Master of Socio-Protection degree at the University of
Mauritius.
Similarly, IDRC has also supported universities in Kenya,
Burundi and Uganda to undertake a regional research project examining the
impact of socio-protection programmes on the welfare of vulnerable groups. It
notable that academicians have also taken a keen interest in socio-protection
issues in the region—either through training or research.
The two day conference focusing on financing
socio-protection in east and central Africa was organised by the Economic
Policy Research Centre (EPRC) and Development Research and Training (DRT).
EPRC’s mandate is to contribute to evidence-based policy making and the Centre
has over the past few years actively engaged in the design of socio-protection
programmes as well as regular monitoring of the performance and reach of
Uganda’s socio-protection programmes.
For instance, EPRC and DRT contributed to the design of the
Uganda’s social cash transfer scheme—the Social Assistance Grants for
Empowerment (SAGE) scheme and also participated in the baseline survey for the
impact evaluation of the SAGE programme being spearheaded by the Oxford Policy
Management (OPM).
Participants were from Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, South
Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and the host Uganda. Unfortunately, participants from
Rwanda and Ethiopia could not make it due to lengthy clearance procedures. Renowned
socio-protection experts from outside Africa (Italy) also shared their
experiences.
The conference was organized by EPRC and DRT with support
from the Think Tank Initiative (TTI) at IDRC and the Friedrich Ebert
Foundation. Check out EPRC’s research activities from the website www.eprc.or.ug or follow the Twitter handle
EPRC_Official or like the Face Book page Economic Policy Research Centre, Uganda
or the blog http://eprcuganda.blogspot.com.
Summary of Beatrice
Mugambe, the Executive Director for Development Research and Training (DRT) at
the regional conference on “Financing Social Protection in East and Central
African:
Learning from Experience.
Purpose of the
conference;
We hope to stimulate discussion and learning about various
options of financing of Social Protection programmes, particularly in low
income countries, especially in Eastern and Central Africa.
We are keen to hear about innovative ways of mobilising
resources and effective ways of using them to achieve Social Protection
objectives in our countries. These objectives rotate around eradication of
extreme and chronic poverty, vulnerability, income inequality and social
exclusion.
The work of EPRC and DRT is to support decision-making
processes, give evidence-based analysis, information and data to guide decision
makers and donor agencies, government, private sector and civil society among
other stakeholders.
Some of the processes that have led us to this moment are in
2005 Launch of the 1st Uganda Chronic Poverty Report; 2006-2008 Design of a
Cash transfer scheme; 2008 1st International Conference on Social Protection
for the Poorest in Africa; 2010-2013 Launch of Pilot Senior Citizens Grant
(SAGE) in selected districts, Learning & documenting lessons and
experiences on the pilot and ongoing process of developing a Social Protection
policy framework.
In 2013, there is this 2ndIinternational Conference on
Financing Social Protection in East and Central Africa: learning form
experience.” What is next?
Financing of Social Protection programmes has featured in
various formal and informal meetings and low income countries but in many of
these countries, Governments have not reached a consensus on committing to
finance Social Protection programs due to various reasons. Yet others have
already designed and implemented innovative interventions. More positively
also, the debate is increasingly involving policy makers, development partners,
civil society, media and ordinary citizens.
The debate has also generated consensus that Social
Protection interventions are among key strategies that will contribute to
significant changes in the lives of majority of people that are currently
unable to find employment, feed and send children to school, find quality
public health care and deal with weather-related risks that affect their main
source of livelihood. On the other hand, many countries are aspiring to become
middle income and First World in the next 3-4 decades.
The discussions today will set us in motion to answer some
of the questions that remain unanswered in policy debates. The conference has
over 10 interactive sessions, appropriately chosen to help focus our discussion
to those policy issues that resonate to our country needs at this point in
time. At this meeting, the 2nd chronic poverty report was launched.
DAY 1: A summary of the issues raised about ‘Financing
Social Protection’;
Declining Social Protection budgets;
Budgets in East and Central Africa are more focused on
infra-structure development while Social Protection budgets are declining. There is a need to engage the
ministries of Finance and the society to streamline Social Protection and the
program gets integrated with other government programs. All stakeholders should
be involved.
Sharing of experiences:
Countries should be encouraged to share what works because
what worked for one country does not necessarily work for the other. It’s
important for countries that have just discovered minerals like those in the
East African region to try and copy what other countries did, for example
Brazil.
In 2001, Norway came with the fiscal policy, all government
revenue is put in the pension account, and only the returns are used for future
refunds and to keep people safe. It’s not because they have oil revenue, it’s
because the revenue from the mineral resource are taxed. Real returns on
investments are the ones used to handle other expenses which are not oil
generated. The idea is that we collect taxes from you then we put it back to
the people collectively.
When you invest in dealing with poverty, it helps other
sectors because poverty has a pull down effect hence affecting those who are
not poor. It is important to support others. After all, the fastest growing
countries are those with fine equality investments schemes for poverty
eradication.
Natural resource for financing Social Protection:
The discovery of natural resources is one way to improve Social
Protection. Natural resources can now be used to facilitate Social Protection.
Governments are being encouraged to mobilize revenue from Natural wealth to
fund it.
The most dangerous
part of Social Protection is when the mineral resources will come in,
prioritization and allocation may become a problem.
Cash transfer or not?
At times Social Protection is mistaken for cash transfer. Social
Protection calls for national and international design of Social Protection
programs. The major players in making this decision are the Private sector, civil
society, Donor agencies. Government has not reached a consensus to support Social
Protection, but the big question is can Uganda afford to support it?
Cash transfer welfares should be recognized.
Social Protection is a Right;
Everyone has a right to Social Protection. The responsible
bodies should realize that Social Protection is a human right and not just some
kind of charity given to people others are taking pity on or to eradicate poverty and for those who are socially
excluded.
South Africa has a bill that stipulates that Social
Protection is a basic right. Establishment of a system of social security
encompassing health care contributes to Social Protection .There are rights
that are not restrained to social contribution.
Funding
Social Protection:
There are many ways of financing Social Protection even in
low income countries. Social Protection can be financed through taxing basic income;
progressive realization, natural resource wealth, social grants and
constitutional commitment.
It’s also
important to note that governments should roll out sustainable options to
handle Social Protection. The challenge faced is that of targeting, so as the
work is being done, a lot of consideration should be put on targets.
Another issue is ‘Are we asking the right
question as to why Social Protection is not being funded?’
When dealing with Social Protection, we should know that we
are also dealing with major issues like Education, Health, and Poverty
eradication, so measures should therefore be put in place to handle the
challenges this activities come with.
Credit should be given to civil society organizations and
development agencies that have contributed towards the improvement of the Social
Protection agenda.
Donors funding Social Protection:
Most initiatives are donor funded and even if it’s limited,
it can avert poverty. Other avenues that can be looked at are family networks,
friends and our networks.
Areas that should be looked at to try to improve livelihoods
include, programs for children, Enterprises for women, school feeding programs,
credit schemes and women economic empowerment among others.
Barriers
to Social Protection uptake?
Among the
barriers to the uptake of Social Protection in East and Central Africa are
issues like no one thinking of a holistic approach to Social Protection, the
concerned parties went sector wise, project wise and then stopped there, so
this alone did not help.
Social Protection should be a political and leadership issue:
Until Social Protection becomes a political issue then
resources will be made available. Leaders will explain where the money
belonging to Social Protection cases will have gone and in what ways everybody
will have been taken care of.
So we should then ask ourselves, how do we get Social
Protection institutionalized into government, how do these things translate
into Social Protection, when and how do we integrate the outcomes of Social
Protection into the system, it’s a reality that we need resources, but how do we
tap into domestic resources.
In the East African countries, the evidence available indicates
that it’s not about the availability of resources; it is more of a political
question. There is confusion between government expenditure and Social
Protection. This expenditure doesn’t go down to the very poor because of the in
efficient distribution systems.
Prioritise Social Protection:
Social Protection is not expensive, governments’ activities
are focused on the same expenditure (infrastructure), and it’s an assumption of
tradeoffs between efficiency and functionality. But the major focus is supposed
to be put on prioritization. They assume things are constant, that they are in
a fix and yet when you grow your resource base also grows.
Opportunity cost of Social
Protection:
Social Protection is that before you give you take, with
competing needs, what do you give up? To increase protection, there is need to
prioritize. Leadership in this situation is key, because once resources are
allocated, it is important that they reach the targeted group and that can only
happen with proper leadership.
Consideration should be put on the cost of doing things and
focus should therefore go to a regional agenda. Those pursuing Social
Protection should find a way of how to get recommendations that will come out
with a way forward. When allocating resources, poor people should be put first.
A survey done in Kenya showed that if people who fall in the
category that need Social Protection continued with school, the rate of
Economic shocks, life cycle shocks and copying strategies in case of drought
out breaks would be reduced.
The survey also indicated that if women were to be given a
chance to accumulate wealth, the standards of living would improve. Some
households remained very poor because they were given very little money.
Role of Non-state actors;
Non-state actors inform government because most of them are
non-partisan. These may include community based; faith based; professional groups;
local, national and international NGOs among others.
When all these are put together, there is a collaboration
and hence success. In Kenya for instance, 87% are run by Community Based
Organisations (CBOs). So there is need to handle issues arising like lack of
solid government structures, coordination and clear policy frame work. The
sources of funding should be clarified, organizational groups should be formed
and above all sustainable strategies adopted.
Social Protection as a social policy;
It refers to
collective public efforts affecting and protecting the social well-being of
people in a given area. Social policy can be used as a collective intervention
to directly affect social well fare and social intervention. It also has a
multiple tasks effect; it embodies production, redistribution reproduction and
reconciling.
We need to adopt the Prophylactic social policy, where you
treat the disease before you even get it because it will cost you more if you
contract the disease.
DAY 1 Discussion
Highlights and Questions:
·
Integrating and streamlining Social Protection.
·
Integrating the Social Protection agenda with
that of the MDG targets
·
Who are we targeting for Social Protection
because about 50% of the populations in Africa are poor? So which group should
be tackled first?
·
Who takes the leading role in Social Protection?
·
What are the outcomes of inclusive growth
blended with Social Protection
·
When governments focus only on infrastructure
and not Social Protection what happens?
·
How will the discovery of mineral and oil resources
affect Social Protection and what research bench marks will it provide?
·
Who should benefit from Social Protection; the
vulnerable, those at risk, the deprived and critically poor.
·
Can the discovery of minerals and oil change our
incomes and attitudes towards Social Protection?
·
Social Protection is about protecting people
from vulnerability, or risk, that’s not only before or after it has happened.
·
Are we in position to administer the set
targets? Why are we not in position to hit our own targets?
·
Are our countries being pushed to allocate money
strategically for Social Protection?
·
Is it only those at risk, the vulnerable, those
with shock and those in a crisis that should be targeted?
·
Why do governments wait until it becomes a major
issue instead of handling problems when they are still at the initial stage?
·
Achievements should be celebrated because there
is a massive improvement of people living above the poverty line.
·
A combination of traditional and contemporary
approaches should be adopted.
·
What is the exit strategy if the strategies put
in place do not work as planned?
·
It should be noted that the cash transfers that
have been given to some people have helped raise standard of living.
·
When cash transfers are being made, all the
vulnerable people and those at risk including the elderly should be considered.
·
Measures should be taken according to the
location and standards of living ( Area, Location, Household size)
·
Households should be empowered to cope with
shocks.
·
Involve local institutions because they work
well with people at the grassroots.
·
The government should be tasked to explain to
what extent and at what pace its ready and able to handle Social Protection.
·
Communities should be encouraged to organize
themselves into small groups
·
Social Protection assistance should not lead to dependency;
instead they should be linked to empowerment and given empowerment packages.
·
Extended families should be encouraged to take
care of their own and cultural values apprehended. This would cut down on the
numbers of those suffering because everybody is taking part in Social
Protection matters.
·
What is the role of young people who should have
originally taken care of the elderly and now don’t want to help the old because
they are getting money from the state.
·
In South Africa, one dollar 25 cents would buy u
a loaf of bread and a bottle of water, but by August all of them will have died
because they have no clothes and shelter when winter comes. This is a deliberate
type two errors that indicates that only a fraction of the chronically broke
people are the ones being taken care of.
·
The people who receive money cannot share with
those who are not in the project, then we become an open laboratory, and that
brings conflict. The government still needs to handles those things so that
people don’t complain
DAY 1 Challenges;
•
Social Protection is limited in coverage and
outlook
•
Being donor driven comes with its negative
impacts
•
Some governments don’t consider Social Protection
as a development strategy.
•
Programs and policies are not harmonized
•
Social Protection systems are undocumented.
•
Do we share before we grow or we grow before we
share, is the question that we should have at the back of our minds.
·
Transparency in identification of the
beneficiaries is key but how is it handled this?
·
There is
no place, voice and space for children and older people. They are not involved
in the issues that affect them.
·
People just
meet in hotels discussing issues concerning children and the elderly without
their involvement.
·
There are some strategies that are not feasible
for instance, old people were supposed to have mobile money active phones, but
some of them live in places where there is no power let alone mobile network.
·
When it comes to the administration of cash
transfers, there were administrative inefficiencies.
·
Strict measures like prosecuting the corrupt
should be put in place if not we will never address the Social Protection
problem.
·
The money given is also inadequate, although the
beneficiaries live below the poverty line and whatever little they are given
they are able to do something with it.
·
People may relax because they think government
is taking care of the elderly.
·
It is not easy to convince politicians to adopt Social
Protection.
·
So before all the above, we should then ask
ourselves and to get it institutionalized into government as well as integrate
the outcomes of Social Protection into the system.
·
In some countries, the money the elderly are
given for their upkeep is converted to buying books and pens and yet it is the
duty of the government to handle such issues, so we should stop looking at
things and attend to issues from a broader perspective.
·
While people think they understand Social
Protection, we have policies and not market failure, where people are now
looking at issues narrowly and not as broadly as it’s supposed to be.
DAY 1 Recommendations;
•
Governments should invest in Social Protection projects
•
There is need to finalize Social Protection
policies.
•
Incorporate Social Protection policies in the
national budget
•
Enact
school feeding programs and focus on women entrepreneurship
•
Civil
societies should be actively involved.
•
Social Protection can be financed through taxing
basic income; progressive realization, natural resource wealth, social grants
and constitutional commitment.
•
Rethinking the problem is necessary at this
stage.
•
More thought should be on what lessons we can
learn from the past, we should be looking at the hard ware not the software
kind of attitude.
•
DAY TWO:
Day 2- Discussion
Highlights:
§
We need to have a change of mind about Social
Protection.
§
We should endeavor to improve the wellbeing of
the marginalized society
§
Improve the wellbeing of older people. The
wellbeing of older people is more important than cash transfers
§
There should be a dignity of existence for all
our people.
§
How does mono tasking and mono thinking help
generate these other dimensions of wellbeing?
§
The route you take depends on the political will
because even now in its early stages, governments can decide to put their money
in Social Protection.
§
The model for funding Social Protection depends
on the demands of the country. GDP has generally increased in different
countries. The government can look at what they have then they would allocate
resources according to the needs. Then other money can come from taxation,
borrowing, and grants, among others.
§
Without political power you are just a person people
sympathizes with, Social Protection eligible people should come together as a
constituency and put their demands forward and place their demands for what
they need.
§
Dependency on the good will of the ministry of
Finance does not help without personal commitment. It cannot be sustained by
the will of those who suffer. When you are with the contentious problem, they
will feel for their issues because they affect them directly unlike when
someone else is the one handling their problem or someone talking for them.
§
There is much more work to be done, when it
comes to Social Protection and to put it in its proper place so that it does
not interfere with the rest of the programs or Systems that are consistent with
the already existing policies.
§
Corruption can easily occur when it comes to
allocation of the resources, the articulation and management of systems. A plan
should be put in place so that in the near future, people should be in position
to have NSSF numbers.
§
We are just at the beginning of Social Protection
at the moment. If the beneficiaries can be organized en be elected to power,
then they can be heard in parliament, since they will be represented.
§
Affordability of Social Protection ultimately
means willingness and society‘s willingness to finance specific programs
depends on how they are designed and how they are delivered.
§
It’s important to note that people are willing
to pay taxes when they actually know where that money is going and if it
benefits them directly. Cutting down subsidies and red tape would help in
mobilizing for Social Protection funds.
§
Is Social Protection a public good? Government
provides public goods and private sector provides private goods.
Discussion: How can we
come to some form of consensus?
v
Protecting children mostly those who have lost
both parents.
v
That we all want dignity at an old age.
v
We all want medical insurance in cases of
complicated diseases. People are urging that the politicians are going out for
treatment while peasants stay in the country to die.
v
We also want to help the disabled
v
An Unemployment insurance should also be put in
place for all the able bodied people. Those who lose employment so that
people’s children do not drop out of school.
v
We all want to be treated with dignity. It is
not acceptable when you walk on the street and you find people eating off
garbage cans.
What are the weaknesses
and myths of Social Protection?
v
It encourages people to be lazy and idle
v
It taxes the hardworking people to help the idle
ones
v
It shifts priority from economic growth and
development to poverty and re distribution
v
It is a foreign conspiracy to increase dependency
on the west.
v
There will come a time when we will have to
accept the idea because we have orphans and vulnerable people as well as the
old.
Dr. Ezra Suruma; Social
Protection is a Human Right
Dr. Ezra Suruma, the Economic advisor to the President of
Uganda, said his views on Social Protection have changed after listening to a
discussion at the conference on ‘Financing Social Protection’ in East and
Central Africa at Lake Victoria Serena Resort in Lweza organized by the
Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC).
The former minister of Finance said that when he was still
minister, he had opposed the idea of cash transfers to poor people under the Social
Protection programme.
“In 2005, one of the junior ministers in the Ministry of
Finance traveled to a conference and came back with the idea of Social
Protection. He wanted us to adopt the idea of some donors making cash payments
to our vulnerable people. I had spent 20 years in government trying to bring
about poverty alleviation and we had some degree of success. Having donors pay
our people seemed unsustainable. I was not convinced. I thought it would
involve donor dependence yet we were trying to be donor independent,” said Dr. Suruma.
But now his position on Social Protection has changed mainly
because of the prospects of oil revenue. One of the ways to use oil revenue is
to follow Alaska and Norway, which have a fund in which Ugandans are owners or
chairs in the fund.
Currently, the policy is that all oil resources should go to
infrastructure. It is good but it benefits foreigners especially those who
build roads and railways.
Suruma would like to see Ugandans benefiting directly
especially for purposes of accountability. “Oil will continue to be a big
problem if some of the funds are not paid directly to the citizens,” he says.
The Ugandan government and the community are yet to grasp
the essence of Social Protection and this is the main problem; it seems like it
is an idea from the outside. We have not yet reached a point where Social
Protection is a widely and fully accepted program. We need to create more
awareness among the communities.
What are we trying to do in Social Protection? Everybody
gets old and ill. So there should be a common ground on how to move together to
deal with illness, old age, health, destitution, unemployment, poverty.
All this, in my view, we are still way down the line in
terms of competing with other ideas, policies and programs for the government
budget.
We need to convince and persuade government because
potentially there is a constituency of people who will benefit from old age
pension, medical institution and disability payments.
This is something that cuts across the whole country and I
believe with the oil coming we can get a Norwegian type of funding where we get
a cash transfer for old people benefiting from Social Protection.
We also need to politicize Social Protection because the
issue of dignity is important in a person’s life. In German, it is not
acceptable for a German citizen to fall into a sub-human state. I wish this
idea could come to my country so we can value human life to the point of it not
being an individual responsibility but a social responsibility.
The debate in Uganda is if you are poor that is your problem
and that you are not working hard enough. We need to recognize that some people
through no fault of their own are poor. It is a social responsibility to ensure
someone in that state gets adequate help.
We need to focus on a targeted continuous campaign on
raising awareness on Social Protection. In 2005, I was not convinced on Social
Protection but now I am on board.
Financing Social
Protection conference closure:
Summary of the closing remarks by Minister Madada:
The minister in his closing remarks emphasized
communication, understanding and appreciation of Social Protection saying there
are resources available for Social Protection, but it is a matter of
understanding and appreciating the issue.
For instance, the government of Uganda in 2009, gave special
grants for people with disabilities, it therefore means that there is money in
government. If we do not allow Social Protection the rich will become richer,
while the poor are becoming poorer.
In Uganda, Vision 2040, Social Protection is embedded in the
system. Chronic poverty cannot be broken without affirmative action. Social
Protection should not be limited to direct income support.
Ends.