Conference to support Poor and Vulnerable Peoples of Africa in Crises Situation

UNICEF and World Bank are going to conduct a 5-day conference together with the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development of Uganda to discuss how social protection programmes can be better tailored to provide timely and effective support to the poor and vulnerable in crisis situations. As such programmes continue to expand across Africa, the meeting will focus on how to make social protection systems in the region more responsive to shocks.

The five-day gathering will bring together the Community of Practice (CoP) on Cash Transfers which includes close to 100 practitioners from Government, development partners, local and international NGOs, private sector, academia and researchers to share experiences and learn from each other on issues related to social cash transfer programs and social protection.

According to the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Hon. Janat Mukwaya said, “The call for social protection programmes is not only based on human rights or moral grounds, but on the belief and fact that social protection is an important instrument for economic growth. It is an investment in human capital development which is no less important than investments in physical infrastructure.”

Countries in Africa have common characteristics of high poverty, high unemployment, high dependency ratios, natural and man-made disasters, and high disease burden. All these require substantial investments in social protection interventions and yet today most of the countries are performing at less than 2 per cent of GDP investment in social protection.

Social security is a human right and a social and economic necessity. It is a core function of development policy emphasized by the Sustainable Development Goals / Agenda 2030. While safeguarding the right to social protection is an obligation of the State, it remains a shared responsibility with partners and citizens.

The Government of Uganda has adopted the National Social Protection Policy, and Intergrated it in its National Development Plan (NDPII), underscoring the importance of social protection in addressing risks and vulnerabilities. Efforts are underway to build a comprehensive national social protection system, including adoption of the policy implementation roadmap, putting in place the national coordination architecture, and a single registry.

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