Social protection and food security nexus in the Global South: empirical evidence from West Africa

ABSTRACT Social protection helps in addressing the problem of extreme poverty and enhance food security, while building resilience against shocks. Globally, within the last two decades, social protection has helped in transferring about 150 million households out of extreme poverty and food insecurity. However, only about 45% of the world population is covered by at least one social assistance. This study empirically examines the effect of social protection on food security in the Global South, using West Africa as a case study. Data were sourced from the World Development Indicators and the Country Policy Institutional Assessment for the period 2005–2018. Data cover 15 West African countries that are members of the Economic Community of West African States. To resolve the possible issue of endogeneity, and reverse causality, the study applies the generalised method of moments (GMMs). Result showed that social protection is statistically significant and has a positive effect on food security in West Africa. This implies that a 1% increase in social protection coverage may increase the level of food security by 2.1%. Therefore, the study recommends that social protection intervention should be enhanced to mitigate the impact of socioeconomics shocks faced by the poor and the most vulnerable households.