Social Protection in Africa: Crisis Resilience and Achieving the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063
Social protection from lack of work-related income, unaffordable access to health care and insufficient family support is essential to people’s ability to cope with and recover from crisis impacts. It is also a human right and critical to realizing the 2030 Agenda and 2063 Agenda commitments. Yet the vast majority of people in Africa are not appropriately covered by formal social protection provisions.
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ilze Brands Kehris, highlighted, "The COVID-19 pandemic and its socio-economic consequences have exposed the fragilities of Africa’s economic and social systems that have traditionally neglected sufficient investments in fundamental public services such as health care and social protection, leaving the most marginalized behind."
Africa’s domestic revenue generation and performance continues to lag behind other regions, and furthermore, Africa lost about US$89 billion (6 percent of GDP) to illicit financial outflows, undermining countries’ domestic resource mobilization. African countries spend on average 3.8 % of GDP on social protection (excluding health) compared to a global average of 12.9%.
Senior Advisor at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, Maria Ploug Petersen, showed that the low coverage rate of 17,4% in Africa compared to a global average of 46,9% is even lower for persons without employment (5,3%), persons with disabilities (9,3%), children 12,6% and mothers with newborns (14,9%). When support is available it is typically insufficient to ensure an adequate standard of living. Commenting on these statistics, Gilbert Sebihogo, Executive Director of the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI), stated “The dismaying statistics are unacceptable since the right to social protection is not an aspirational or illusory human right. It is a binding human right which has been explicitly recognized in regional and international human rights instruments.”
Key messages
Among the key messages was a call on State parties to:
- Bring social protection policies and legislative frameworks in line with human rights obligations and standards
- Draw on human rights guidance, including in the conceptualization, design and implementation of social protection frameworks and related SDG commitments and Agenda 2063 aspirations
- Use country-specific recommendations received by UN and regional human rights monitoring bodies in the conceptualization, design, implementation and monitoring of social protection frameworks
Urging National Statistical Offices to:
- In collaboration with national human rights institutions (NHRIs), collect disaggregated data on the enjoyment of the right to social protection using a human rights-based approach to data collection and use this data to monitor progress in relation to related SDG targets and 2063 Agenda
- Collaborate with national human rights institutions and civil society to incorporate expert and citizen generated data
And NHRIs to:
- Provide advice and the capacity building for duty bearers and rights holders on how to implement a human rights-based approach to social protection in practice
- Review policies and frameworks and advise on how to bring legal frameworks in line with human rights standards on the right to social protection
- Monitor and report on the right to social protection, with a particular focus on marginalized and disadvantaged groups and pay attention to intersecting forms of marginalization
Read the recap and key messages of the event here.
Recording of the event
Watch the full recording of the event below.
