Inadequate social protection stifling West Africa’s Economic Development

West African workers are unable to meet their families’ basic needs due to inadequate provision of social protection by governments in the sub-region.

Speaking in Abuja at the sub-regional workshop on funding of social protection in West Africa, the Executive Secretary of the Organisation of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA), John Odah said governments in the sub-region are not paying attention to the young population.

He said: “We can see that ours is a young population. One of the negative characteristics is that we are not providing normal jobs for the young population. Europe is relatively steady because the developed countries provide employment benefits. And in our country, we ought to be thinking about providing employment benefits, so that individuals, if they are not immediately engaged, can have a means of livelihood. This workshop is trying to proffer a solution to the problem.”

He stressed that governments in West Africa must show commitment to push social security coverage to 40 per cent, by 2020.

In her paper entitled: ‘The role of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in enhancing the fiscal space for social protection measures in response to COVID-19 in West Africa’ Sintiki Tarfa Ugbe said the ECOWAS Commission would prioritise advocacy and the implementation of social protection measures.

“ECOWAS will work in close collaboration with partners such as the AUC, ILO and ISSA to enhance Cooperation amongst Member states towards achieving the aspiration target of 40 per cent social protection Coverage by 2030. Thus, the main recommendation to the ECOWAS Commission will be to develop three Regional Action Plan that will guide the operationalization actions and the mobilisation of resources to support the enhancement of social protection responsiveness and inclusiveness in the region, especially for those in the informal and the rural economy,” she said.

OTUWA, in a report, ‘the state of social protection in West Africa’ the regional trade union said the social protection measures leave many sections of the population behind, saying informal sector operators account for more than 90 per cent of the population in most West African countries and yet social protection covers mostly formally employed workers.

“Again, females are disproportionately covered as compared with males concerning all schemes except maternity protection benefits. Migrant workers are hardly covered in most of the schemes. Extending access to social protection and portability of benefits to migrant workers and their families is a major challenge affecting even formally employed migrants. This is an issue that ECOWAS continues to grapple with and should require actions in individual West African countries,” it stated.

The report added that formalising the informal economy is necessary for seeking to expand coverage, enhance benefits, and extend the scope of social protection without discriminating against any category of workers.

It further stated that establishing a clear benchmark for each country and the region as a whole should enable OTUWA and affiliates to monitor and track progress in developing social protection systems.

OTUWA urged ECOWAS and member states to immediately address the social protection concerns as a matter of urgency.

“To this end, OTUWA is demanding of ECOWAS and member states to take a concerted effort to ratify relevant ILO Conventions, develop national legislations in furtherance of social protection, extend aggregate social protection coverage (excluding healthcare) to at least 40 per cent of the population, realise universal health coverage by 2030, ensure social protection for migrants and the portability of benefits and raise public expenditure on social protection to 10 per cent of national GDP.

It also admonished them to establish a clear benchmark against which to measure the progressive realisation of social protection as a fundamental right and progressively reduce and eventually eradicate the gender gap in relation to all social protection measures and schemes,” it said.