Africa is now in a much-improved position to support its poor and vulnerable people. It has more money, more policy commitment and abundant intervention programmes. Yet the number of citizens living lives of desperation, or at risk of destitution, is at an all-time high, and still rising. What is turning such positive prospects into such a disappointing result? This book reveals key answers, drawing on empirical studies of cash transfer programmes in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda. The studies uncover the motives of donors, politicians and the poor themselves and why governments are not expanding the donor-driven pilot programmes as expected.

"A study prepared for the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER)"

This book analyses major themes in twenty-first-century east African politics. Predominantly authored by researchers and academics from the region, it examines recent political developments, public policy and governance across east and southern African countries. The book advocates for a regionally-focused comparative approach across Africa, arguing that it provides a greater level of analysis than a complete continental study. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, it covers numerous topics relating to politics, public policy, state and nation-building in Africa. Filling an important void in current literature, the book will appeal to academics, practitioners, politicians and students of politics, public policy and governance. Chapter 16 and 20 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. The Politics of Distributing Social Transfers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia provides a systematic analysis of the political processes shaping the distribution of social transfers in six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. In doing so, the book addresses a notable gap in recent research on social protection concerning the politics of implementation. While considerable attention has been devoted to debating the merits of different policy designs and the political factors shaping the adoption and diffusion of different policy models, ultimately the ability of any social transfer programme to deliver on its promises is dependent on the effective implementation and distribution of social transfers in line with intended objectives. The chapters in this book examine international and sub-national variation in programme implementation in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, and Rwanda, drawing on a common analytical framework that highlights the importance of state capacity and reach, rooted in histories of state formation, and contemporary political competition in shaping the distribution of social transfers. Comparative analysis of the case studies supports the view that variation in the capacity and reach of the state within countries is a centrally important factor shaping the effectiveness and impartiality of distribution. Yet state capacity alone is insufficient. Rather political competition and power relations shape how this capacity is actually deployed in practice. As such, the book underscores the inherently political nature of implementation and questions common technocratic efforts to improve implementation by de-politicizing the social protection policy process.

A new generation of innovative social protection strategies is emerging in southern Africa. Although cash transfers are most prevalent, some country strategies include combinations of interventions such as food, livelihood inputs and support, asset building, public works and social services. The strategies vary in their commitment to social rights, their institutional and funding arrangements, the reach, scope and design of the programmes, and the behavioural conditions attached to grant access. The proliferation of national social protection in the Global South has been widely supported by governments, international agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).This book offers researchers and policymakers much to think about when considering the rapid growth of social protection in southern Africa, the challenges this presents and the opportunities it offers for social development and economic growth. Hence, the book is a contribution to scholarship and policy debate on how to solve intractable social development problems in Africa and elsewhere.This book was originally published as a special issue of Development Southern Africa.

At a time when the development community is grappling with the challenge of raising the required investment—estimated in the trillions of dollars—for attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), countries’ mobilization of their own fiscal revenues is receiving increasing attention. This edited volume discusses the political and institutional contexts that enable poor countries to mobilize domestic resources for global commitments and national development priorities. It examines the processes and mechanisms that connect the politics of resource mobilization and demands for social provision; changes in state-citizen, state-business and donor-recipient relations associated with resource mobilization and allocation; and governance reforms that can lead to improved and sustainable public revenues and services. The volume is unique in putting a spotlight on the political drivers of domestic resource mobilization in a rapidly changing global environment and in different country contexts in Latin America, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. It will appeal to a broad academic audience in the fields of economics, development studies and social policy, as well as practitioners, activists and policy makers.

This cutting-edge Handbook argues for social protection to be situated in a wider system of social welfare and development programmes for low- and middle-income countries. Focusing on the role of citizens and communities in enhancing human development, it explores how welfare systems are unfolding in diverse contexts across the global South.

This book is a comprehensive reference for conducting political analyses of emerging welfare systems in the Global South. It places a central emphasis on decolonizing social policy literature by developing empirically grounded theories and concepts illuminating societies in both the Global South and North. These case studies contribute to theoretical generalizations capable of explaining universal principles that are relevant to both the Global South and North.

While the rise of social protection in the global North has been widely researched, we know little about the history of social protection in the global South. This volume investigates the experiences of four middle-income countries - Brazil, India, China and South Africa - from 1920 to 2020, analysing if, when, and how these countries articulated a concern about social issues and social cohesion. As the first in-depth study of the ideational foundations of social protection policies and programmes in these four countries, the contributions demonstrate that the social question was articulated in an increasingly inclusive way. The contributions identify the ideas, beliefs, and visions that underpinned the movement towards inclusion and social peace as well as counteracting doctrines. Drawing on perspectives from the sociology of knowledge, grounded theory, historiography, discourse analysis, and process tracing, the volume will be of interest to scholars across political science, sociology, political economy, history, area studies, and global studies, as well as development experts and policymakers.

This exciting and innovative Handbook provides readers with a comprehensive and globally relevant overview of the instruments, actors and design features of social protection systems, as well as their application and impacts in practice. It is the first book that centres around system building globally, a theme that has gained political importance yet has received relatively little attention in academia.