The State of Social Protection in East Africa

Social protection stakeholders in East Africa argue that whilst governments in the region have made significant progress in recognising the value of social protection and increased resource allocation for its institutionalisation, there still exist issues and challenges that need to be addressed.  At the ‘Africacounts’ round table forum convened by Development initiatives’ Africa Hub on 10 October 2012.  Nairobi Kenya, participants agreed that in order to increase its uptake and further drive the agenda, social protection actors in the region need to:

• Reflect on social protection programming and address the prevailing ‘sectorisation’ and ‘projectisation’ of initiatives
• Review the impact of past and current initiatives to consolidate evidence to inform policy
• Empower beneficiaries in order enhance demand for the expansion of social protection resources and programming
• Lobby for greater political support for better resource allocation and policy development
• Address  internal country specific issues  before pursuing an East Africa Community integrated approach
• Define and standardise the scope and conceptualisation of social protection within countries and across the region

The round table brought together a wide range of stakeholders and was attended by nearly 50  policy makers,  government, Civil Society Organisations, the media and researchers all committed to  poverty eradication.

An outcome report of the event is available here. For further information about this forum and future events please contact Kenneth Okwaroh via email: kenn.okwaroh@devinit.org or twitter @Okwaroh. You can follow the event on Twitter with #africacounts