Moving forward in Zimbabwe - Brooks World Poverty Institute - The ...

Moving forward in Zimbabwe
Reducing poverty and promoting growth
Moving forward in Zimbabwe
Reducing poverty and promoting growth
CHAPTER 8:
Social protection in post-crisis Zimbabwe
8.1 Introduction
This chapter looks at social protection reforms and priorities that
a post-crisis Zimbabwe will have to consider. It is divided into
five sections. The first section defines social protection and its
constitutive parts: social insurance, labour-market regulation and
social assistance. The second section describes Zimbabwe’s social
assistance system as it developed in the 1980s. The third examines
what happened to this system of welfare during the reform decade
of the 1990s, before the fourth section sketches out the main
welfare challenges in present-day Zimbabwe. The final section
considers possible responses to the social assistance challenges in a
post-crisis Zimbabwe.
8.2 What is social protection?
Social protection has often been seen as action to protect citizens
against livelihood risks, promote the livelihoods and capabilities
of the vulnerable, and enhance the social status and rights of
the marginalised (Wutete, summarised by Manjengwa, 2008: 4).
Importantly, social protection is not limited to reactive welfare
handouts in the event of shocks, but also involves proactive action
taken to build human capital to enhance the capacity of individuals
to survive adverse situations (Stewart, 2008). The responsive and
preventive dimensions of the concept are evident in contemporary
discourses on social protection and are used to shape policies.
Following Conway et al (2000), Barrientos and Hulme (2008)
link public actions undertaken to address vulnerability, risk and
deprivation to social protection for the poor, and group policies
into three categories: social insurance, labour-market regulation and
social assistance. Each of the aspects of social protection differs
from the other in its objectives and how it is normally funded.
Social insurance provides protection arising from work-related
shocks (e.g. unemployment or sickness) and life-course changes
(e.g. old-age pensions), and is typically financed by worker and
employer contributions. Because the welfare of workers is not just
about protection from life-cycle and work-related contingencies
but also fundamentally determined by the conditions of work
they face, a second important aspect of social protection involves
government regulation of the labour market. Specifically, the
welfare of workers is connected to the basic standards of work
they enjoy and the overall rights workers have to organise and
voice their concerns (Barrientos and Hulme, 2008). If the first
two aspects of social protection address the welfare concerns of
those individuals in formal employment, the third, social assistance,
speaks more generally to the rest: the unemployed or poor. Broadly,
social assistance provides support for those in deprivation. Social
assistance programmes are generally funded by the state with the
aim of supporting those living in poverty. Table 8.1 summarises
each of these aspects of social protection.
Aspect of social
protection
Social insurance
Labour-market
regulation
Social assistance
Table 8.1: Aspects of social protection.
Objective
Protection from life-cycle
and work-cycle changes
Provides standards at
work
Protection from poverty
Normal source
of support
Employer and
employee
contributions
Public – legislation
Public –
tax-financed
In this section the focus is on questions around the
reconstruction of Zimbabwe’s social assistance system (namely,
health, education, agriculture, and famine relief), but its intent is
to spur discussion on what an integrated social protection system
ought to look like. Though not directly addressed, the chapter
recognises that a comprehensive social protection regime in
Zimbabwe would require the stabilisation of the economy, such
that privately purchased social insurance schemes are again viable
options.
8.3 Social assistance in the first decade,
1980-89
When Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, it faced dire
economic conditions and an immense welfare gap produced by years
of colonial rule and a bitter war of liberation. However, the end
of the conflict, the removal of sanctions, the strong wage-induced
consumer demand and a stellar agricultural harvest in 1980-81 led
to initial growth of the economy (Sanders and Davies, 1988). With
respect to the welfare gap, especially for rural Zimbabweans, the
new government adopted a ‘state socialist approach which actively
sought to reduce poverty’ (Marquette, 1997: 1142).
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