Socio-economic context
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A solid grasp of Africa's demographic features is critical for understanding the social protection challenges that the African continent faces today. With a population of 1,008,354 in 20091 and a total fertility rate of 5.12– the highest of any region in the world – the African population is expected to grow in the next years reaching at least 2 billion in 2050.3 What are the main implications of this population growth?
First of all, population growth in Africa is not always mirrored by economic growth, which in some countries is only slowly recovering after the recent economic crisis, which slashed average economic growth from an average of about 6% in 2006-08 to 2.5% in 2009.4 The projected population growth is expected to increase poverty, strain the health, education, and social security systems and burden the already tense labour market by raising unemployment levels. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone the total figure for those in wage or salary employment among all employed is only 22.9 per cent, well below the global average of 46.9 per cent.5 In this context, the establishment of social protection measures that pay particular attention to the society’s most vulnerable – children, women, elderly, informal workers and households affected by HIV Aids – take on new urgency.
Indeed, poverty is a persistent and deepening feature of the African continent – 65 per cent of the population in Africa live with under US$2 per day.6 Therefore, it is extremely important to have a comprehensive and universal approach when dealing with social protection measures.
In fact, job losses during the recession affected not only the poor but also the urban middle class, notably in central and southern Africa.7 Moreover, cutbacks in public sector employment pursued by some African governments in order to reach fiscal stabilization and longer-term structural adjustments8 have made more and more workers turn to the informal economy -a sector which already employs the vast majority of workers and in which female workers are consistently over-represented. In some African countries (e.g. Benin, United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia), the informal sector accounts for almost 90 per cent of total employment.9
This informalization of labour, especially women’s labour, significantly increases the risks and vulnerabilities of workers who are economically active, either in unpaid employment such as contributing family workers or as own-account workers in traditional subsistence agriculture.10 Moreover, rural workers not only receive lower wages than urban workers but they also have more limited access to services such as water, schools, clinics and transports. Their limited work opportunities are dominated by work in agriculture or subsistence farming, which is currently declining because of the risks related to climate change.
In addition to increasing employment opportunities and given the statistically high labour force participation rates, focus should also be placed on the need for decent work, which provides a sufficient level of income and ensures “social security, good working conditions and a voice at work”. This is why social protection measures and new labour market policies must have a complementary role in addressing poverty and inequalities.11
Parallel to the economic insecurity caused by the recent crisis, the region is currently facing the most severe food crisis yet, with recurrent famines and hungers. According to FAO estimates, nearly 16.5 million people in Eastern Africa alone will be in need of food assistance by the end of 201012 In addition, the region is characterized by high maternal mortality rates as well as very high under-5 child mortality rates. These rates reflect major problems such difficult access to health care, malnutrition, lack of safe water and sanitation, and the presence of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.
Further increasing inequalities is the lack of education. Access to primary and secondary schooling, for example, is still limited. This fact represents not only a barrier to the development of children – especially girls, whose low school attendance is striking– but also has significant implications in terms of future income, productivity, infant mortality and health care expensesWith respect to education, access to primary and secondary schooling is still limited. This fact not only represents a barrier to the development of children – especially girls whose low attendance is remarkable in the continent – but it also has significant implications on income, productivity, infant mortality and health care expenses.13
These factors have reduced the potential for economic and social growth in the continent. The introduction of social protection systems, along with employment policies and mechanisms for sharing growth, will thus be decisive in order to expand the social capacity of people and stimulate economic opportunities for the poor.14
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