Social protection week in Southern and East Africa

With the support of the European Commission, the Social Protection Week was convened by the government of Mozambique from 18 to 22 June 2012. This entire week dedicated to social protection comprised several events to discuss recent developments in the area and challenges ahead to ensure political, fiscal and technical sustainability of social protection schemes in Southern and East Africa.

“Investing in basic social protection is to invest in human capital” was the theme of the international conference held on June 20-21. Discussions focused on key issues related to basic social protection, such as fiscal space, coordination to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the social protection systems and implementation. Country experiences backboned presentations on social protection strategies and interventions, in particular in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Chile, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania and Uganda.

An EC side event was organised on June 21 at a full plenary session of the conference (and in the presence of the Minister of Women & Social Affairs) to discuss on the EC in-volvement in social protection and social transfer programmes in Southern and East Africa. The following services of the Commission were presented: (i) Advisory Service in Social Transfers (ASiST); (ii) Nutrition Advisory Service (NAS); and (iii) the new EC Communication on Social Protection. An EC internal operational working group session was also held with Delegation staff, other Member States and development partners from the region, to discuss the practicalities of EC involvement in national social transfer programmes (sharing of experience, exchange of best practices, practical guidance and funding modalities).

Full details of Mozambique’s social protection week can be found here (most of the documents of the website are available in Portuguese).