SOCIAL WELFARE IN AFRICA

“SOCIAL WELFARE  IN AFRICA”

Social welfare protection, in the form of insurance and assistance programmes, emerged in Europe in the 1800s in order to provide citizens with an economic safety net during periods of illness, economic hardship, and other shocks (Palacios & Sluchynsky, 2006). Today, nearly every country has some form of social protection developed to provide economic support in times of need (International Social Security Association, 2005). Assistance comes in the form of old-age pensions, survivor benefits, family allowances or other supports. In Africa, social welfare programmes were originally developed in the 1950s and 1960s as a safety net for white workers (Dixon, 1987). Employer-based contributory pensions were the dominant model.

Those who are excluded from these benefits are left to rely upon the traditional safety net of family aid, mutual support, and communal living. This informal system has eroded however, as countries have developed and urbanized, sources of livelihoods have diversified, family sizes shrunk, and the population aged. The reality that social welfare schemes in Africa exclude more people than they cover has been established (Dixon, 1987; Fultz & Pieris, 1999; Taylor, 2001) and yet there are important reasons to revisit this topic. In last decade, a growing number of countries have expanded or developed new programmes in an effort to reduce poverty and respond to the AIDS epidemic, as well as to invest in human and economic development.

SOURCE: - http://www.unicef.org/files/Social_Welfare_in_Africa_-_Meeting_the_...

Running a government is very expensive, it involves different expensive spending.Most developing countries government spend in final consumption and government gross capital formation but, government sending on social welfare is very minimum. Even though the social welfare programmes could well be the mechanism that enables developing countries societies to economically survive and meet basic needs, existing social welfare programs are very few in kind and it excludes more people than it covers.

Poverty, Unemployment, HIV/AIDS, Orphanage, low urbanization being the characteristics of Ethiopia the need for different kinds of social welfare programmes is very essential. Currently the basic social welfare programme in Ethiopia is old-age pension where the government contributes as an employer for public sector workers and this ignores the HIV/AIDS patients, more than 80% of the total population small scale farmer, the orphans and other member of the society.

What type of social welfare programmes are available in your country?

Are they effective in bringing welfare to the society?

Does it cover all the society in need?

Share your ideas and your countries experience on the matter so that we can learn  from one another.