Technical cooperation in Africa
12 August 2012
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Africa is a continent composed of 54 countries considered as developing countries. Africa is a potentially rich continent, as its sub-soil is full of raw materials needed by the industry, including oil in several countries of the region. Africa does not fully exploit its resources and sometimes, when they are indeed exploited, the wealth created is not fairly divided among the population. This is probably the explanation for Africa’s slower progress when compared to other regions of the world. This situation justifies the wide implementation and reinforcement of social protection systems to create a distributive social justice able to generate sustainable social and economic progress for all.
In a context characterised by remaining uncertainties regarding global economy perspectives and by the political unrest due to the Arab Spring, the African GDP growth rate has slightly decreased, from 5.0% in 2010 to 3.4% in 2011, and has reached a level inferior to the average real trend GDP growth rate that came up to 5.4% for the period 2005-2010. The dynamic and the growth factors in 2011 varied depending on the continent’s sub-regions and even on the countries of a same sub-region. The overall growth for the continent in 2011 benefited from the sustained growth of 5.1% in sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, the Western Africa and Eastern Africa sub-regions benefited from the increase of prices of raw materials during the first semester of 2011, which enabled them to record a strong growth. This growth relies widely on the performance of countries like Ghana (13.7%), Ethiopia (10.7%) and Eritrea (8.2%). Oil exporting countries like Ghana, Nigeria and Angola took advantage on the high oil price, which stimulated the economic activity, both directly and indirectly, guaranteeing tax flexibility and enabling to cover extra budget expenses. Elsewhere on the continent, the fragile global economy recovery burdened growth and exports, mainly in the countries that are more involved in international flows. South Africa, Southern Africa sub-region’s main economy, was specifically hit by the slower global activity. 2011 GDP volume growth remained steady, but with a 3.1% rate only marginally superior to the 2.9% growth recorded in 2010.
Overall, budgetary deficits are expected to remain high in many African countries in 2011, despite a quite robust economic growth. As a series of standard indicators show, the macroeconomic situation in Africa in 2011 demonstrates a certain improvement compared to 2010, when the global economic and financial crisis affected financial markets and altered international trade. On the whole, the 2011 results for Africa are in overall quite positive. Nevertheless, poverty remains and many countries of the region will not be able to achieve the first goal of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which is to halve extreme poverty before 2015.
Africa is facing major challenges: the weakness of structured public and private sectors which economies do not create enough jobs, the enormous size of urban informal sector, the lack of modernisation of rural sector and the gaps of social protection systems that cover less than 10 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan countries. Regarding old-age pensions, according to the last available data only 10 per cent of the working age population in Africa contributes to an old-age pension system. This proportion falls to less than 6 per cent in the sub-Saharan countries and reaches almost 30 per cent in Northern African countries. National social protection policies to be promoted must be in harmony with economic policies that are likely to create growth and wealth.
The African population reached 392 million people in 2011, which represents 11.9 per cent of the total global manpower. Agriculture and non-agricultural rural activities are still predominant in most African economies. The informal sector constitutes a significant percentage of African economic activities, both in rural and urban areas. It is also necessary to conceive innovative social protection systems adapted to the characteristics of the informal sector.
ILO’s social protection floors recommendation (no. 202) is a reference and an inspiration for the implementation of social protection systems meeting the needs of the populations.
Social protection is to play an essential role in Africa for the reduction of poverty by guaranteeing the service of the benefits advocated by these four basic guarantees.
The ILO accompanies African countries since the 1960’s in the framework of the technical collaboration to help the countries that asked for its help to elaborate social security schemes. In the decades following the countries’ independence, the ILO supported the modernisation of operating social security systems. It continues to support them for the reinforcement of their governance systems. The most urgent issue nowadays is the extension of social protection coverage to the majority of persons working in the informal sector. For more than a decade, the ILO has offered to African countries and other developing countries innovative social protection extension systems, in particular the health protection system by mutual health organizations and cash benefits systems, in many forms, to facilitate income access.
The main challenge for social protection in Africa is to extend it in a way that gives access to health care and to basic income security for all. Only this way can the right to social security as it is stated in Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights become a reality on the African continent.
The access to health care is one of the most urgent challenges to take up for social protection in Africa. Many people are confronted to major difficulties to access health care because of financial restrictions. ILO studies showed that health care expenditures are one of the main risks leading to poverty for individuals and their family. Out-of-pocket payments of health care expenditures can bury families into poverty for years, forcing them to spend their savings, sell their production assets and get into debts. Therefore, health insurance mechanisms play a crucial role regarding access to health care services, protection against poverty and vulnerability, and preservation or recovery of production assets.
Existing social security schemes are not sufficient to take up the challenge of the extension of coverage to the majority of the population. These schemes, which were implemented during the 1960’s, were aimed at covering formal public and private services, but not the informal sector. Moreover, the political, economic and administrative environment in which these schemes were developed had consequences on their efficiency, effectiveness and governance, and these consequences haven’t disappeared yet. It is also necessary to conduct reforms that tend to adapt social security institutions to current stakes. Administration and governance problems existing in some social security schemes undermine public trust and support for social security. The coverage of target populations is often narrow, which leaves the most vulnerable, particularly those in rural areas, without any form of social protection.
The ILO policy consists in promoting a long term vision and a resource strategy and planning within a national social protection policy.
In a context characterised by remaining uncertainties regarding global economy perspectives and by the political unrest due to the Arab Spring, the African GDP growth rate has slightly decreased, from 5.0% in 2010 to 3.4% in 2011, and has reached a level inferior to the average real trend GDP growth rate that came up to 5.4% for the period 2005-2010. The dynamic and the growth factors in 2011 varied depending on the continent’s sub-regions and even on the countries of a same sub-region. The overall growth for the continent in 2011 benefited from the sustained growth of 5.1% in sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, the Western Africa and Eastern Africa sub-regions benefited from the increase of prices of raw materials during the first semester of 2011, which enabled them to record a strong growth. This growth relies widely on the performance of countries like Ghana (13.7%), Ethiopia (10.7%) and Eritrea (8.2%). Oil exporting countries like Ghana, Nigeria and Angola took advantage on the high oil price, which stimulated the economic activity, both directly and indirectly, guaranteeing tax flexibility and enabling to cover extra budget expenses. Elsewhere on the continent, the fragile global economy recovery burdened growth and exports, mainly in the countries that are more involved in international flows. South Africa, Southern Africa sub-region’s main economy, was specifically hit by the slower global activity. 2011 GDP volume growth remained steady, but with a 3.1% rate only marginally superior to the 2.9% growth recorded in 2010.
Overall, budgetary deficits are expected to remain high in many African countries in 2011, despite a quite robust economic growth. As a series of standard indicators show, the macroeconomic situation in Africa in 2011 demonstrates a certain improvement compared to 2010, when the global economic and financial crisis affected financial markets and altered international trade. On the whole, the 2011 results for Africa are in overall quite positive. Nevertheless, poverty remains and many countries of the region will not be able to achieve the first goal of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which is to halve extreme poverty before 2015.
Africa is facing major challenges: the weakness of structured public and private sectors which economies do not create enough jobs, the enormous size of urban informal sector, the lack of modernisation of rural sector and the gaps of social protection systems that cover less than 10 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan countries. Regarding old-age pensions, according to the last available data only 10 per cent of the working age population in Africa contributes to an old-age pension system. This proportion falls to less than 6 per cent in the sub-Saharan countries and reaches almost 30 per cent in Northern African countries. National social protection policies to be promoted must be in harmony with economic policies that are likely to create growth and wealth.
The African population reached 392 million people in 2011, which represents 11.9 per cent of the total global manpower. Agriculture and non-agricultural rural activities are still predominant in most African economies. The informal sector constitutes a significant percentage of African economic activities, both in rural and urban areas. It is also necessary to conceive innovative social protection systems adapted to the characteristics of the informal sector.
ILO’s social protection floors recommendation (no. 202) is a reference and an inspiration for the implementation of social protection systems meeting the needs of the populations.
Social protection is to play an essential role in Africa for the reduction of poverty by guaranteeing the service of the benefits advocated by these four basic guarantees.
The ILO accompanies African countries since the 1960’s in the framework of the technical collaboration to help the countries that asked for its help to elaborate social security schemes. In the decades following the countries’ independence, the ILO supported the modernisation of operating social security systems. It continues to support them for the reinforcement of their governance systems. The most urgent issue nowadays is the extension of social protection coverage to the majority of persons working in the informal sector. For more than a decade, the ILO has offered to African countries and other developing countries innovative social protection extension systems, in particular the health protection system by mutual health organizations and cash benefits systems, in many forms, to facilitate income access.
The main challenge for social protection in Africa is to extend it in a way that gives access to health care and to basic income security for all. Only this way can the right to social security as it is stated in Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights become a reality on the African continent.
The access to health care is one of the most urgent challenges to take up for social protection in Africa. Many people are confronted to major difficulties to access health care because of financial restrictions. ILO studies showed that health care expenditures are one of the main risks leading to poverty for individuals and their family. Out-of-pocket payments of health care expenditures can bury families into poverty for years, forcing them to spend their savings, sell their production assets and get into debts. Therefore, health insurance mechanisms play a crucial role regarding access to health care services, protection against poverty and vulnerability, and preservation or recovery of production assets.
Existing social security schemes are not sufficient to take up the challenge of the extension of coverage to the majority of the population. These schemes, which were implemented during the 1960’s, were aimed at covering formal public and private services, but not the informal sector. Moreover, the political, economic and administrative environment in which these schemes were developed had consequences on their efficiency, effectiveness and governance, and these consequences haven’t disappeared yet. It is also necessary to conduct reforms that tend to adapt social security institutions to current stakes. Administration and governance problems existing in some social security schemes undermine public trust and support for social security. The coverage of target populations is often narrow, which leaves the most vulnerable, particularly those in rural areas, without any form of social protection.
The ILO policy consists in promoting a long term vision and a resource strategy and planning within a national social protection policy.