A new generation of innovative social protection strategies is emerging in southern Africa. Similar developments can be seen in Latin America and Asia. Although cash transfers are most prevalent, some country strategies include combinations of interventions such as food, livelihood inputs and support, asset building, public works and social services. The strategies vary in their commitment to social rights, their institutional and funding arrangements, the reach, scope and design of the programmes, and the behavioural conditions attached to grant access. A new paradigm is apparent in developing countries aiming to achieve redistribution through various types of social protection intervention. Some of these interventions target households more than individuals and take a productivist or developmental perspective. The proliferation of national social protection in the Global South has been widely supported by governments, international agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Social protection is now firmly on the southern African development agenda, but much remains for policymakers to consider: the conceptual, theoretical and paradigmatic issues, the relevance to Africa of Eurocentric welfare state approaches for social protection, and the possible alternatives, the effects of various types of programmes on redistribution and economic growth, the ways that countries in the region can finance their social protection and how their interests shape their spending priorities. Lessons can be learnt from the diversity of social protection strategies being deployed in both low and middle income countries. Comparative studies of arrangements in the Global South can offer insights into what social protection is and how it works. Cross-country studies of South Africa and Brazil, both middle income countries, might help us understand the paradigm shift in this field and how these two countries differ. More research can be done on the gendered nature of care and how social protection helps or hinders progress towards gender equality and better lives for children. Social protection tends to favour statutory programmes and neglect the way non-formal provision by families, communities and NGOs can be linked to formal state provision – this is a matter for further investigation. And we might look in particular at what Lesotho, one of Africa's poorest countries, has achieved in social protection reform.
This special issue of Development Southern Africa offers researchers and policymakers much to think about when considering the rapid growth of social protection in southern Africa, the challenges this presents and the opportunities it offers for social development and economic growth. The papers are the product of an international symposium convened by the Centre for Social Development in Africa at the University of Johannesburg in May 2011. We offer them as a contribution to scholarship and policy debate on how to solve some of the region's most intractable social development problems.