The African Union Commission of Social Affairs is following up on the commitments to social protection made by African governments in Livingstone and Yaoundé in 2006.

A series of six national meetings and three regional expert meetings are taking place in March-May 2008 to review progress on social protection. The African Union has requested HelpAge International's help in organising these meetings.

At a landmark conference on social protection in Livingstone, Zambia in March 2006, supported by the African Union, representatives of 13 African governments adopted the Livingstone Call for Action.

This asked for African governments to "put together costed national social transfer plans within two to three years that are integrated within national development plans and within national budgets, and that development partners can supplement".

The Yaoundé Call for Action, adopted by African Union member states in October 2006, asks for implementation of the Livingstone Call for Action and the adoption of comprehensive social protection schemes for older people, with particular emphasis on universal social pensions.

New recommendations

Six one-day national consultations are being held in Cameroon, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Tunisia in March. Three regional expert meetings of two to three days each will take place in Egypt, Senegal and Uganda in April and May.

These meetings will bring together government representatives, civil society organisations, NGOs, faith-based organisations, development partners, UN agencies, bilateral and multilateral agencies and academic institutions to review progress in developing national social protection plans, explore inter-country learning and capacity building, and propose next steps including how to embed and resource social protection programmes nationally and regionally under the auspices of the African Union.

A key outcome of the process, which is funded by the UK Department for International Development, will be a set of recommendations for presentation at the first-ever African Union conference of ministers for social development, to be held in October 2008 in Namibia. The conference will review progress in Africa on social development, and discuss a revised social policy framework with social protection issues embedded into it.

Long-term policies

High-level endorsement of the recommendations by the African Union and its member states is expected to put African governments in a position to further develop social protection policies and secure necessary resources for long-term implementation.

“We are honoured to work in partnership with the African Union to further the development and implementation of ground-breaking policy and programmes to change for the better the lives of the poorest people of Africa,” says Sylvia Beales, HelpAge International’s senior policy advisor.

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