The three-day Intergovernmental Conference on Social Protection was held in Livingstone, Zambia, 20-23 March 2006. It brought together more than a hundred ministers and senior representatives from 13 African governments with the aim of examining new ways to tackle poverty and promote the human rights of the poorest people in Africa.

The conference resulted in the key message that political will is the fundamental driving force for long-term investment in social protection
programmes. The conference identified the need for the joint mobilisation of the determination and actions of stakeholders, including governments, parliaments, civil society and the donor community, to address poverty, deprivation, exclusion and the promotion of human rights.

Discussion focused on the connection between social protection and economic growth, and the positive links between investment in social protection and movement towards national and regional commitments to human rights goals. The meeting reached the important conclusion that social protection interventions must be integrated into national-level strategies and plans in order to be delivered effectively.

It was recognised early in the discussions that regular cash transfers, to identified vulnerable groups, offer a cost-effective means to reduce poverty and realise basic human rights. The meeting generally concluded that increasing investment in basic services such as health and education will only benefit poor people if they have the cash to access them.

Conference participants engaged in a problem-solving approach to barriers to national implementation of social protection and cash transfer programmes.

Delegates identified the need for:

• disaggregated poverty and vulnerability data (by age, gender, disability, ethnicity and consideration of household poverty and household structure)
• policy maker understanding of the impact of regular cash transfers on the lives of poor people.

The meeting agreed that the integration of social protection interventions into national policy frameworks and poverty reduction strategies requires appropriate budgeting arrangements to ensure long-term financing. Similarly, cash transfer schemes need long-term national financing, with support from donor partners.

These schemes also need capacity-building interventions, including investment in the people and national institutions currently responsible for each government’s social and community development programmes. The conference welcomed participant countries’ examples of social protection measures and pilot programmes. These offer the opportunity for future inter-country learning.

The conference’s key outcome is the Livingstone Call for Action. This sets out the call for African governments to prepare costed cash transfer plans within three years, which are integrated into national development plans and national budgets.

Livingstone Call for Action (summary)

Background

The Livingstone Call for Action is rooted in both the conference’s recognition that social protection is a basic human right as stated in the United Nations Declaration (1948, articles 22 and 25) and in delegates’ general agreement on the following points:

1. Social protection strengthens the social contract between the state and citizens and social cohesion.
2. Evidence indicates that social cash transfers play a key role in both reducing poverty and promoting economic growth. As well as relieving suffering, cash transfers can increase human capital by helping families maintain health and educate their children. Transfers are also used for investment and consumption which stimulates local markets and benefits whole communities.
3. A sustainable basic package of cash transfers is affordable within current resources of governments and international development partners.

Livingstone Call for Action:

• Greater cooperation between African and other countries in sharing and exchanging information, including experiences and action, on social protection and cash transfers.
• Cash transfer programmes to be a more-used policy option by African governments. Transfer programmes include social pensions and regular cash transfers to vulnerable children and households, older people and people with disabilities.
• Commitment at national and international levels to social protection and to the promotion of consensus between ministries and institutional coordination, to enable effective national plans.
• African governments to prepare costed cash transfer plans within two to three years that are integrated into national development plans and national budgets, which development partners can supplement.
• Increased investment in institutional and human resource capacity and accountability systems.
• Reliable long-term funding for social protection, from national budgets and from development partners.
• The institutionalisation of biannual conferences on social protection supported by the African Union.

Livingstone, Zambia, 23 March 2006