The political economy of social protection expansion in Africa

February 10, 2015

by Sophie King

Africa, Ethiopia, kenya, Rwanda, social protection, Uganda, Zambia

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Objectives

This research analyses the political economy of social protection policy formulation and implementation in sub-Saharan Africa, with a view to explaining variation in national experiences.

Cases

Five countries have been selected for in-depth analysis, comprising three countries that are relatively advanced in social protection policy formulation, namely, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Kenya; and two that have made slower progress, namely, Uganda and Zambia. These countries also experience a diversity of political settlements, including broad and narrow dominant party, and competitive clientelist systems. Comparative analysis of these countries enables the project to examine the links between variation in the type of political settlement, the orientation of the ruling coalition towards the expansion of social protection, and the ruling coalition’s openness to ideational influence.

Research question

Under what political conditions do elites adopt and promote social protection policies in sub-Saharan Africa and, in particular, how is this shaped by political settlements and transnational ideas?

Methods and research design

The research has four main components:

An historical analysis of each country’s political settlements.
An analysis of social policy and its linkages to national development strategies, the political and economic objectives of these policies, and the dominant social policy ideas that they represent. This analysis will cover both contemporary policy and past approaches.
Process tracing of the policy process, involving key informant interviews with representatives of key government and donor agencies involved in the design of social protection policies.
Analysis of the politics of implementation as a means of assessing political commitment to policies and the influence of power relations on implementation.

The first two research activities draw on secondary literature, including a growing body of work on political settlements in several of the case study countries, as well as government and donor policy documents and laws. Where gaps in the existing literature and documentary evidence are identified, these are addressed through key informant interviews with relevant respondents.

The third research activity involves process tracing of debates on the expansion of social protection in the country; this constitutes the main empirical contribution of the project. For this process, tracing, documentary and archival evidence may provide useful inputs. However, key informant interviews will be vital to the research objectives.

The fourth activity, on implementation, draws on a mix of key informant interviews and existing policy evaluation work.

How does this project fit within ESID’s research agenda?

This research contributes to ESID’s broader objective of identifying the political drivers of inclusive development, with a particular focus on how different political settlements shape developmental forms of elite commitment and state capacity.

Researchers

Role	Name	Location
Lead Researcher	Tom Lavers	International Labour Organization, Geneva
Researcher	Sam Hickey	University of Manchester, UK
Researcher	Badru Bukenya	Makerere University, Uganda
Researcher	Anna McCord	Consultant, UK
Researcher	Hinda Ruton	National University of Rwanda
Researcher	Professor Frederick Wanyama	Maseno University, Kenya
Researcher	Benjamin Chemouni	London School of Economics, UK
Researcher	Kate Pruce	University of Manchester, UK