Making Social Protection Gender Sensitive for Inclusive Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Authors
- Julie Newton
In recent years, social protection has climbed up the policy agenda as a major policy response to chronic poverty and vulnerability with positive impacts on food security, income and access to basic services. In SubSaharan Africa, persistent levels of poverty and inequality, unemployment and underemployment, and a high degree of labour market informality have encouraged governments to adopt social protection as a key instrument for achieving inclusive development (Miroro, 2015). Its ability to achieve inclusive development is largely due to its catalytic role in redistribution and potential to reach the poorest (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2015; Olivier, 2013). Inclusive development here is defined as a ‘pattern and pace in which the poor and most vulnerable groups participate and which is characterised by income growth, increase of productive employment as well as decreasing inequality in both income and non-income dimensions of wellbeing’ (NWO, 2014).
