Social protection and inequality in Africa: Exploring the interactions

The World Bank (2015) reports that, in 2014, almost 1.9 billion individuals in the developing world – roughly one-third of the population in these countries – benefitted from social protection programmes. This is disproportionately driven by the size of the programmes in large countries such as China and India. The World Bank estimates that nearly one-third of individuals in the developing world receive benefits from a social protection programme. This compares favourably with the estimated average coverage rate of 25.0 per cent in SSA. The latter suggests that approximately 250 million individuals in SSA are beneficiaries of some form of social protection programme, almost equivalent to the number of beneficiaries of India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).

Sustainable Development Goals:

Decent Work and Economic Growth