The Imperatives for Social Protection
Nigeria must establish a social assistance/security system that caters to vulnerable members of society such as the extremely poor and the disabled. This fund must be targeted at persons who have not and/or cannot make any contribution to pension.
Africa Must Improve Its Social Services
The African welfare state and how it distributes resources is an interesting point of analysis. While some people see an all-inclusive welfare state structure, others see a system that overwhelmingly favours an economic elite. I belong to this latter group, writes Tochukwu Akunyili. Most African countries lack a coherent welfare...
Is Nigeria’s Social Protection on the cusp of transformation?
Will the design of a direct cash transfer in Nigeria ensure its ongoing popularity and sustainability? Guest blogger Gbenga Shadare considers Nigeria’s social protection issues. Will community-based targeting of those in poverty provide a necessary safety net? In the course of the last presidential campaign in Nigeria, which saw the People’s Democratic Party overthrown...
Enabling Market Conditions for Pay-As-You-Go Solar
A deep dive into the digital financial services industry in Nigeria, outlining the requirements for digital infrastructure readiness and the nuances behind regulatory restrictions that are currently hindering the industry’s growth.
Third strike and you’re out? PMT performance against financial diaries and wealth-ranking data
What do you do when your most important poverty measurement tool on a poverty outreach programme looks as if it is not working? Guest blogger Julie Lawson-McDowall writes. Not so long ago, we at CRS’s Expanding Financial Inclusion (EFI) project (https://efiafrica.crs.org ) had a bit of a moment: it looked as...
The IMF and Social Protection: A lost cause or is there hope?
For all its ambivalence, the IMF is a, if not the, key actor when it comes to social protection arrangements in low- and middle-income countries, writes Philip Alston. In a new report that I will be presenting to the UN Human Rights Council on 21st June – but which has now...
How Basic Income paves the way to a Social Protection Floor for all
The recent Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) Congress 2018 provided a platform for a fascinating conversation on the convergence between the UBI and the Social Protection Floors debates. Development Pathways Associate Rasmus Schjoedt and I presented preliminary findings on the potential benefits of a progressive introduction of a UBI in...