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The Rise of Social Protection in Development: Progress, Pitfalls and Politics

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Abstract

The rise of social protection on the development agenda is now an established fact. The global financial and economic crisis since 2008 at least temporarily reinforced this, though 5 years later the emphasis seems to have shifted somewhat to so-called productive sectors and the potential of graduation out of social protection. This article reflects on the context in which this rise of social protection has taken place. It argues that reflection on the way approaches in international development practices are embedded in global politics is critical for the legitimacy and sustainability of progressive approaches. In particular, it is important that debates on social protection simultaneously keep an eye on the return of a developmentalist approach partly driven by the new international role of emerging economies, and ensure that the analysis of and advocacy for social protection are embedded in a broader notion of national policymaking in globalised contexts.

Abstract

L’ascension fulgurante du sujet de la protection sociale au sein de l’agenda du développement est maintenant un fait accompli. La crise financière et économique a renforcé ce thème, au moins depuis 2008, même si cinq ans plus tard le centre d’attention s’est maintenant déplacé sur les soi-disant secteurs productifs, et la possibilité de progresser au-delà de la protection sociale. Cet article analyse le contexte dans lequel la croissance du sujet de la protection sociale a eu lieu. L’argument exposé ci-dedans est basé sur l’idée que la légitimité et durabilité des approches progressives dépendent fortement de la façon dans laquelle les pratiques de développement international sont logées dans la politique globale. En particulier, il est important que les débats sur la protection sociale soient vigilants du retour d’une approche focalisée sur le développement, en partie soutenu par le nouveau rôle international des économies émergentes, et que ces débats s’assurent que l’analyse et le plaidoyer de la protection sociale soient ancrés au sein d’une notion plus large de prises de décisions politiques au niveau national dans un contexte globale.

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Notes

  1. The terms international development and aid industry are used interchangeably in this article, in the way they are used and defined in de Haan (2009) following the official OECD definition.

  2. Craig and Porter (2005); note the importance of PRSPs at the time, which ‘represent[ed] both a primary policy device of international development institutions, and an instance of a wider international convergence of public policy around global integration and social inclusion’ (Craig and Porter, 2003, p. 53).

  3. The sources of funding can be diverse: non-contributory schemes can be financed by general taxes, but also from debt and international aid. In many cases, progressive schemes are funded by revenues from natural resource extraction. I am grateful to Carolina Robino for highlighting the distinctions.

  4. World Bank (2012), which defines the goals of its social protection broadly, as improving resilience, equity and opportunities, while stressing the need to move from fragmented to more harmonised approaches.

  5. See Asian Development Bank (2001), Barrientos and Hulme (2008a) and Cook and Kabeer (2009) for descriptions of regional diversity of approaches.

  6. Varying definitions emerged. Sabates-Wheeler and Devereux (2007) and Devereux et al (2011) emphasise how ‘transformative’ social protection widened the range of policies included under the banner, while much of the empirical analysis – and, it seems, political attention – has focused on a much narrower set of instruments.

  7. Voipio (2007) has been among the most active advocates for social protection in the donor community.

  8. A similar emphasis is found at Save the Children; see www.savethechildren.org.uk/resources/online-library/chance-grow.

  9. ILO (2006), Pal et al (2005), Behrendt (2008); assumptions behind these calculations are discussed by Woolard et al (2010).

  10. Not in the sense of expanding social protection instruments in emerging economies, as the history of expansion of social protection has a secular tendency towards ‘growing public’ (Lindert, 2004); it is tentative in the sense of the consensus this provides for international development practice.

  11. The 2008 crisis had a very different impact on East Asia, of course; one of the significant aspects of the international development debate was the emphasis that the crisis had originated in the West (combined with the emphasis on failure of 1997 responses, notably that of the IMF).

  12. Among recent Indian policies, NREGA has received the most attention within the literature, and its rights-based platform has been highlighted as a key departure from earlier practices. Gabrielle Köhler describes a range of social policy innovations across South Asia (www.policyinnovations.org/ideas/policy_library/data/01617).

  13. www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/ASP_Briefing_WebNew.pdf; www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/Siegeletal2011AdaptiveSocialProtectioninRwanda02CSPconferencedraft.pdf.

  14. Mokomane (2012) highlights the need for comprehensice social protection in Sub-Saharan Africa, given demographic and socio-economic transformation.

  15. See, for example, the work by the Abdul Lateef Jamal Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), www.povertyactionlab.org/about-j-pal. Alzua et al (2011) discuss the predominance of multilateral organisations in the funding of impact evaluation studies in Latin America, and low (though growing) participation of local researchers.

  16. Esping-Andersen has already remarked that ‘the thesis that democracy leads to larger welfare states confronts the historical oddity that the first major welfare state initiatives occurred prior to democracy and were powerfully motivated to arrest its realization’ (quoted in Mares and Carnes, 2009, pp. 96–97).

  17. Moore (2000), Putzel (2002), Hickey (2008, 2011), Birdsall et al (2011) for different types of Latin American regimes.

  18. In Indonesia pre-1997 growth was strongly pro-poor, and an attempt to stimulate broad-based political support (Timmer, 2004; who emphasises the government’s heavy investment in infrastructure and human capital, based on revenues from oil and donors).

  19. See, for instance, Barrientos and Hulme (2008a, 2008b), Dercon (2011), DFID (2011), Fiszbein and Schady (2009) and a review in Giovannetti et al (2011).

  20. The Maharashtra Employment Guarantee is often cited as a predecessor of NREGA; however, some important features of this scheme that is generally seen as successful remain absent, including the perceived interests of urban middle classes, and the level of wages set.

  21. It is important to distinguish the practices of piloting and experimentation as implemented in India and China (where experimentation is a core part of reforms), and the way, for example, Bolsa Familia built on local programmes, from the piloting promoted by donors, for example in Zambia.

  22. Dercon (2011). The World Bank (2012) social protection strategy emphasises investment of human capital of children, labour market activation particularly for youth and enhancing workers’ skills and productivity.

  23. This is not in contradiction to Lindert’s thesis on the welfare state as free lunch, quoted above; Lindert’s analysis highlights that the synergy between social spending and growth exists in the long run, and simultaneously with the expansion of ‘voice’, that is, the development of mechanisms of representation of diverse interest.

  24. Some of the social protection programs, notably in Ethiopia, have a clear focus on impacts on broader development or livelihood objectives (see Davies et al (2013) for South Asia).

  25. China’s extensive social services pre-1978 have arguably been key to its successful integration into the global economy; since then, however, its social policies have been marked by a productivist orientation.

  26. Paul Krugman, Leaving children behind, www.nytimes.com/2011/02/28/opinion/28krugman.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=krugman&st=cse.

  27. See Levy (2008) for Mexico, and the study by the Inter-American Conference on Social Security for World Development Report 2013; also Woolard et al (2011) with respect to South Africa.

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Acknowledgements

This article was initially prepared for the IDS conference, and has since evolved following comments and discussions with many, including the editors of this special issue, and colleagues at IDRC, notably Carolina Robino. In addition, the article was written as a part of activities of the Global Research Network on Social Protection in East Asia, which is funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2010-220-B00027). Arjan de Haan is Program Leader, Supporting Inclusive Growth, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of IDRC.

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de Haan, A. The Rise of Social Protection in Development: Progress, Pitfalls and Politics. Eur J Dev Res 26, 311–321 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2014.7

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