Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation and chairman, ECOWAS Inter- Ministerial Committee on Social Protection, Dr. Betta Edu, has harped on the imperativeness of member countries of the Economic Community of West Africa, (ECOWAS), to work towards achieving maximum social protection.
“Adoption of the social protection framework by member countries and full implementation was critical to overcoming humanitarian and poverty challenges in West Africa,” she said during the concluding session of the hybrid inter-ministerial meeting in Banjul, The Gambia.
“Social Protection is a fundamental human right and should not be regarded as a privilege. It is a social and economic necessity that has proven to be a stabilizer in times of crises and shocks and it is meant to be provided throughout life circle.
“COVID-19 pandemic exposed the yawning gaps in the social protection of the world, particularly in West Africa, which has one of the lowest social protections in the continent.
“Records have shown that the coverage of social protection in the ECOWAS region is the lowest in the continent with an average of about 17 per cent of the population receiving at least one form of social protection benefits and spending is equally low as studies show that as little as one per cent of the GDP of member states is spent on social protection benefits apart from health considered a far cry in comparison to international standards which should not be acceptable in West Africa.”
The minister, however, acknowledged that member states were making giant strides towards addressing issues of social protection at the national level by developing policies and structures/programs to change the narratives: “Nigeria is presently implementing one of the highest social protection interventions that covers 15 million households and, by extension, 61 million individuals through conditional cash transfers.
“This is the first of this magnitude and coverage in Africa by President Bola Tinubu, who is also Chairman of ECOWAS, showing leadership in social protection within the region.
“Furthermore Nigeria has a National Policy on Social Protection developed and other ancillary policies that will facilitate its operationalization, like the Cash and Voucher Assistance policy in Humanitarian context have equally been developed to guide actors in providing cash transfer assistance to the persons of concern in humanitarian setting.
“Also in terms of structures, we have several agencies and parastatals dedicated to providing various social protection assistance to different categories of the population of Nigeria to lift millions out of poverty through different social investment and intervention programmes under the watch of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
“All interventions including humanitarian interventions are now redesigned through the lenses of the Humanitarian- Development-Peace nexus to ensure sustainable response.
“Most importantly, a Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Trust Fund has equally been approved by the Federal Executive Council to ensure the mobilisation of resources for social protection interventions.
“In the light of the region’s exposure to a wide range of covariate shocks and common cross-border socio-economic challenges, the framework aims at fostering higher levels of regional collaboration to broaden existing social protection systems and programs through a more coherent and effective approach to poverty reduction (SDG 1) and food and nutrition insecurity eradication (SDG 2) END HUNGER.”
The framework, according to the minister, contributed to the achievement of several social protection-related SDG targets, especially SDG target 1.3, seeking to implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all.
Vice President of The Gambia, Muhammad Jallow, said: “The framework seeks to address endemic issues such as financing, coverage, climate risk, and informality in our economies amongst others.
“One of the fundamental challenges in our region is that project-based social protection is ad hoc and unpredictable. As a region, we must move to mainstream social protection into our annual budgets.
“The Gambia hosted an international social protection conference earlier this month on the theme; ‘Accelerating Financing for Social Protection to Increase Coverage and Reach.’
“I am particularly pleased to note that the experts have dedicated a similar objective “ Improve fiscal space for comprehensive and inclusive social protection.”