Representatives from 12 African governments will meet in Zambia from 20-23 March, 2006 to look at new and innovative ways of protecting society’s poorest and most vulnerable people, particularly the oldest and the youngest.

Finance, welfare and social services ministers from Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe will gather in Livingstone, at a meeting hosted by the Zambian government and co-organised by HelpAge International, with support from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development.

The three-day workshop will be opened by President Levy Mwanawasa of the Government of the Republic of Zambia. The aim of the workshop is to look at deliver basic national social protection programmes.

Breaking the poverty cycle

Poverty is being handed down from generation to generation and mechanisms are urgently needed to help families break this cycle. Participants will share experiences and discuss how governments can provide long-term help for those who cannot provide for themselves.

One of the main focuses of the workshop will be on regular cash transfers to reduce the poverty of vulnerable households or individuals.

Evaluations of existing programmes show that cash transfers deliver a range of benefits to individuals and their families. The money is used to pay for the family’s basic needs, and spent on investments which support livelihood activities and economic growth.

Injecting cash into communities

72-year-old Phini Supinho, from Tete province in Mozambique, has 11 children. He lost his livelihood as a carpenter because of failing health. Phini received a cash grant through HelpAge International and UNICEF’s Living Together programme and used the money to re-train as a blacksmith.

He began by making tools on a small-scale. The business has grown and he now supplies the community with tools which they were previously unable to buy locally.

His income means he has money to buy food and in turn support other local businesses. “I now have the money to support my family with immediate needs like sugar, oil and salt and during hard times with maize,” says Phini with renewed pride.

Support for older carers

Social protection measures are especially important in responses to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Research shows that in countries severely affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa, half of all older people care for children orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS and/or people living with AIDS.

Yet most of these households do not receive any form of support because older headed households are often not targeted in government programmes. A cash transfer in the form of a non-contributory pension, as in South Africa, would enable these households to buy food, pay for shelter and send children to school.

Pensions support intergenerational households

Maria Papela, from Pretoria in South Africa, receives a pension of 640 Rands (US$103) which helps support a large household of four generations. This includes her daughter Margaret, who is in her late forties, Margaret’s son Timothy, and three young grandchildren left behind by Margaret’s two daughters who both died from AIDS.

Maria and Margaret are frugal and resourceful, as Maria is the main breadwinner. She owns the house and lets out four rooms. Rental income from the tenants almost doubles her income.

Thanks to Maria’s pension and rental income the family have a chance of escaping the cycle of poverty that many other families affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic are trapped in.

Social protection schemes work

Some social protection schemes in Africa such as the pilot Cash Transfer Scheme in Kalomo, Zambia or the Food Subsidy programme in Mozambique. These have shown they can deliver the following benefits:

• Improved health, nutrition and social status
• Strengthening the “social contract” between state and citizen
• Reduction of income inequality amongst the chronically poor, resulting in reduction of risk and economic growth
• Progress towards the achievement of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals
• Reducing the impact of HIV/AIDS, particularly amongst carers and children

“Social protection is a basic human right and helps promotes equality in society,” says Mark Gorman, HelpAge International Director of Policy and Development.

“Social security should become a key aspect of poverty reduction strategies in African countries and offer poorer people a helping hand in times of need, while also helping to promote national investment and economic growth.”

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