As the original creator of Wahenga, the Regional Hunger & Vulnerability Programme (RHVP), fades into the mists of history, so Wahenga passes to its new owner, the Africa Platform for Social Protection. Nicholas Freeland, RHVP Programme Director, says farewell...

Read Nicholas's final RHVP Comment here for more on this exciting transition!

The Centre for Social Protection response to the World Bank’s draft Social Protection and Labour Strategy 2012-2022 urges the World Bank to push donors and governments to include social justice as part of social protection programming. To read the full text of the response, visit http://ids.ac.uk/news/social-justice-must-be-part-of-social-protection.

The Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ), with support from DFID, UNICEF and Irish Aid, has been piloting social cash transfers in five districts with the objective of reducing extreme poverty and vulnerability. In early 2010, the programme was scaled-up to an additional ten districts, while building capacity for implementation and developing evidence to inform a future nation-wide social cash transfer programme.

The Government has now put out a tender for a Payment Service Provider (PSP) that will provide a cost effective, accessible and secure system for the reliable delivery of regular payments to Cash Transfer Programme recipients in targeted districts. The PSP will expand the delivery of cash transfers in a phased manner, to cover 15 programme districts and deliver cash transfers to approximately 66,742 recipients. A single PSP is required to deliver the payments. To find out how to apply for this tender, click here.

There is growing recognition globally that a basic set of social transfers is a key element to realising human rights. UN agencies, with the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the lead, is promoting the social protection floor, which suggests that countries need to provide cash or in- kind social transfers to create minimum income security and access to essential services. At the same time, many countries in Africa have expanded social protection dramatically – whether it is social pensions in Lesotho, the child support grant in South Africa or the productive safety net programme in Ethiopia.

To take stock of these recent developments and discuss ways forward, the Centre for Social Development in Africa (CSDA) hosted an International Symposium themed Social Protection in Southern Africa: New Opportunities for Social Development at the University of Johannesburg from 23-25 May 2011. The symposium brought together specialists from the ILO and other UN and donor agencies, Northern scholars and experts as well as African researchers and practitioners from countries such as South Africa, Uganda, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

To read more about the symposium, click here.

The ninth in the series of Frontiers of Social Protection (FoSP) briefs is now available on wahenga.net. The series aims to summarise the main findings of the respective FoSP studies in a concise and accessible format that will be appreciated by policymakers and practitioners concerned with hunger, vulnerability and social protection in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries.

One of Africa’s poorest countries at Independence in 1966, Botswana has achieved a remarkable economic transformation to upper middle income status and a reputation for sound governance and minimal corruption. Mineral wealth, mainly from diamonds, has been wisely invested in economic and social infrastructure and human resources, resulting in impressive advances against most social indicators.

Botswana has a strong and long-standing commitment to state-led social protection. Programming for poor, vulnerable and excluded groups is comprehensive by African standards, while efforts to tackle HIV/AIDS and its impacts have been outstanding. Yet this impressive track record, which holds a number of lessons for other African countries, has until now remained under-researched and rarely cited. This Brief is based on a recent assessment and policy analysis of Botswana’s social development sector undertaken for the Government’s Department of Social Services with UNICEF and RHVP support. It reviews the status, as of mid-2010, of Botswana’s social protection policies and programmes within their broader social development context, examines their effectiveness and assesses the challenges they face.

To read the full brief, click here.

South Africa is unlikely to feature at the top of the agenda at any international dialogue on food security. The country is a net exporter of agricultural commodities and has a high per capita income, even for an emerging economy. There are no tight foreign-exchange constraints, and the country is not landlocked. The innovative constitution entrenches the right to adequate nutrition, and this is the basis of the national Integrated Food Security Strategy (IFSS). Taking these features into account, one could easily conclude that food ought to be available and accessible in South Africa at all times. But is this conclusion correct? The confusing reality is that despite all the favourable indicators and South Africa’s national “food-secure” status, about 14 per cent of the population is estimated to be vulnerable to food insecurity, and 25 per cent of children under the age of six are reckoned to have had their development stunted by malnutrition (HSRC, 2004).

Against this backdrop of contradictions between positive macro trends and indicators and the challenging reality on the ground, the IFSS should be explored further in order to deepen our understanding of policy directions and priorities on food security. The analysis in this report leads to an overall conclusion that the IFSS is an excellent strategy on paper and a relevant framework for different stakeholders, but in reality it lacks implementing power and is therefore not used to its full potential.