Social protection and poverty reduction in the Southern Africa Development Community

This article explores the contributions of social protection to poverty reduction in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It is based on a review of secondary data. The article commences by conceptualizing poverty and social protection before examining the contributions of the different components of social protection towards poverty reduction. The author observes that the SADC is not a homogenous region and therefore, countries in the region offer different levels and menus of social protection to their citizens. Whilst countries such as Botswana, Mauritius and South Africa have made notable progress in setting up robust social protection systems, the majority of the countries only offer rudimentary social protection. This notwithstanding, social protection in the SADC region has made some contribution towards the reduction of poverty among certain categories of the population. The impact at national level, however, tends to be minimal owing to a number of factors. The paper explores some of these factors, which include the use of a categorical approach to social assistance, limited availability of resources and extremely low coverage of social insurance schemes. The article concludes with an observation to the effect that social protection needs to give greater emphasis on strengthening the livelihoods of the poor. KEYWORDS: Social protection, livelihoods, social security, poverty, social insurance, SADC, social assistance.