Social Protection System: A new safety net for the poor

Nigeria, like most other developing countries, is dogged by inequality in wealth distribution as well as opportunities that create them. Societal practices and nepotism, which tend to entrench such discrimination have existed for so long that they have created a worrisome gap between the privileged few and the vulnerable poor who are in the majority.  To provide a road map for countries enmeshed in this unjust development, especially as it affects access of women and children to reasonable means of lively, good nutrition and education, the World Bank has  initiated a bi-annual forum known as The Social Protection and Labour South-South Learning Forum (SSLF). CHUKA ODITTAH reports from Abuja

The objective of that intervention is to provide an opportunity for developing countries like Nigeria to understand and enhance adherence to the practice of Social Protection and non-discriminatory labour laws.

Social protection as defined by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development is the prevention, management, and overcoming of situation that adversely affects people’s well-being.

It is also known to consist of policies and programs designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability by promoting efficient labour markets, diminishing people’s exposure to risks, and enhancing their capacity to manage economic and social risks, such as unemployment, exclusion, sickness, disability and old age.

Historically, social protection has been in use in the European Welfare state, and other developed countries. It is a protocol used to maintain a basic living standard, as well as address transient poverty. It is designed as a bailout to recipients for the reduction of deprivation and to tackle inequality in wealth distribution in society.

By way of mending fences, Nigeria is currently taking deliberate steps to incorporate Social Protection system in the management of poverty level in the country even at the executive level.

Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo who made this assertion in Abuja during the just concluded Social Protection Cross Learning Summit (SPECS 2016), said that Nigeria is fully in support of the idea behind Social Protection and had begun processing an enabling law that would give effect to its implementation across the board.

Making this position known, Osinbajo in his remarks said that the Social Protection initiative is fundamental to erasing the gap between the rich and the poor, in addition to enhancing human capital development and sustainable livelihood among all Nigerians.

The vice president said the country not only subscribes to the uniqueness of the welfare system but has indeed gone a step ahead to formulate a National Social Safety Net Programme, (NASSP), to serve as Nigeria’s template to tackle poverty and inequality, using already established protocols of social safety nets system. “This administration believes strongly in Social Protection System,” he said.

Osibanjo who was represented at the summit by Mariam Uwais, Special Adviser to the President on Social Investments, said the enactment of NASSP which is due to be made public soon, would help Nigeria in doing away with discriminatory practices against the vulnerable in society. He further said the system would create a single register of the poor and vulnerable, effectively addressing errors of inclusion or omission, which often characterized past attempts to tackle poverty in the country.

“The single register is established on the basis of a well thought-out community-based targeting approach where communities are afforded the responsibility to identify the poor households from among them. A manual has been developed that will guide the establishment of the register of the poor to ensure state governments, development partners, and other interested organization not only have confidence in the process and the output but provide an objective database of the poor”, the vice president said.

Already, the Department for International Development (DFID) has started offering social protection assistance to some Nigerian children and women by way of helping to establish empirical data on poverty eradication and gender social safety nets. Although the intervention is limited to two states of Jigawa and Zamfara, where certain social practices have been known to impede equal opportunity for economic growth on a gender basis, the program is a five-year pilot scheme targeting 70,000 pregnant women.

Known as the Child Development Grant Programme (CDGP), the welfare scheme is designed to tackle poverty and hunger, as well as reduce malnutrition in children from conception to two years of age.

Elaborating on the concept of CDGP, Mercy Jibrin, a nutrition expert at the Save the Children (SCI) international, lead Non-governmental Organization consortium facilitating the program in partnership with Action Against Hunger (AAH), said that the program entails direct empowerment of women in the randomly selected states and communities.

Jibrin said that the programme aims to enrol women within 155 target villages in Zamfara and Jigawa state. She said upon confirmation that women in these mapped areas are pregnant with medical proof; they are immediately given a cash grant of N3, 500 on a monthly basis till child delivery of up to two years.

According to her, although there have been some cases of foul play in certain instances where women who were not pregnant falsified pregnancy report or presented urine samples of other pregnant women just to obtain the N3,500 grant, the system has helped to empower many women, in addition to improving the nutrition level of their newly- born babies.

Studies, she said have shown that babies require high nutritive feeding in the first two years of life to fully develop their cognitive brain power, and other essential body features such as bone mass, height, and weight..

“Under the CDGP funded by the DFID, 70,000 pregnant women have been targeted over a space of five years. An independent evaluation will be conducted to produce strong evidence of the program’s impact for purposes of statistical record for the Nigerian government. The CDGP transfers a regular unconditional grant of N3, 500 to all pregnant women from the moment their pregnancy is confirmed until the child reaches two years. We have however encountered a situation where some women out of desperation to also benefit from the program do falsify pregnancy results. This clearly shows that these women need such empowerment and would go to any length to get financial support”, the nutrition expert said.

She, however, said that the unconditional cash transfer system is done after necessary checks have been done with the help of field volunteer staff who help to cross-check for facts, under the permit of the village heads.

Prof. Folusho Okunmadewa, Task Team Leader, Youth Empowerment and Social Operations of the World Bank who represented the World Bank at the summit organised by Office of the Vice President, Budget and National Planning Ministry, in conjunction with DFID, among others, stated that state governments have been engaged to oversee implementation and document key learning for referrals.

“The independent evaluation of the unconditional cash transfer is conducted by a consortium led by Oxford Policy Management (OPM) who is contracted by DFID. At impact level, the programme aims to reduce the prevalence of stunting among under-5s in CDGP communities by 10 percent.

State governments have been actively engaged to oversee implementation and document key learning for scalability. The program also proactively engaged Federal level and related stakeholders, including the World Bank to influence policies and practice in line with the recent interest in social protection by the Federal Government of Nigeria. The program will also generate evidence and learning on the impact of an unconditional cash transfer on child poverty, nutrition, and food security outcomes,” he said.

Deputy Director, the Budget and National Planning Ministry, Dr. Samson Ebinmaro of Department of Social Development, who represented the ministry, stated that the Federal Government was putting finishing touches to the nation’s blueprint on Social Protection procedures and how states and other stakeholders would buy in.

He added that the blueprint would ensure donor coordination, bringing all Social Safety Nets (SSN) donors together to pool resources that will be channelled towards achieving a common objective for ease of tracking and avoidance of duplication.

Dr Samson also said that the study tour to Pakistan, made by 24-member Nigerian team comprising officials from the office of the Vice President, Federal Coordinating Unit of the Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO), the Budget and National Planning Ministry, National Directorate of Employment, Federal ministry of Finance, YESSO state level operators (Bauchi, Ekiti, Kogi, Kwara, Niger, Osun, and Oyo),the World BANK Team, among others, was to strengthen capacity and delivery ability of key YESSO personnel towards accomplishing the objectives of the welfare scheme.

Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Ahmed Isa Dutse, said in his remarks that the Federal Government was highly committed to eradicating poverty and making sure that Social Protection System works for all classes of Nigerians hitherto considered as vulnerable.
He stated that the National Assembly had in agreement with the Executive voted large sums of money to tackle poverty in the 2016 budget, saying that Nigerians should expect a major shift in the way poverty was being addressed in the country.