Strengthening state-citizen relations in fragile contexts

HelpAge has been working on social protection and cash transfers for older people for a number of years.

Our experience in fragile
states and situations has shown that cash transfers have a number of benefits, both for older people and their households, and for broader developmental objectives.

HelpAge's interest in fragile states and situations is also informed by the fact that they account for a sixth of the world's population and a third of all people surviving on less than US$1 a day.

Fragile states have poverty rates averaging 54%, compared with 22% in other low-income countries.

Older people - particularly older women and their households - are vulnerable because they are severely affected by the scarcity of state provided support systems, ranging from lack of access to basic health and education services to lack of access to basic income support.

This report examines the role of cash transfers in strengthening state-citizen relations in the context of long-term development in fragile states and situations. Cash transfers as part of a wider social protection system have the potential to strengthen state-citizen relations and by extension the legitimacy of the state. However, the current development debate on cash transfers focuses predominantly on the narrow objective of poverty reduction.

In the context of fragility, however, it is important to move the debate on cash transfers beyond vulnerability, risk and poverty to using them as a tool to address a central underlying manifestation of fragility - the absence of a functioning state-citizen relationship.

Download Strengthening state-citizen relations in fragile contexts (1mb)