BY BETELHEM BEDLU
“I met Desta a few months back when I was in Harar. Desta’s parents do their best to care for her and her siblings despite the financial difficulties they face. Even with the best of their capacity, Desta is not in school yet, but she dreams of becoming a pilot in the Ethiopian Airlines. Her family has high hopes for her to fly as high as the sky. However, they are concerned due to recent hardships. Her father lost his job and the small plots of farmland that they have been working on were severely affected by drought.”
World Bank’s Country Director of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and South Sudan, Ousmane Dione uttered the above remark at the National Social Protection Conference held at the African Union Commission Hall. with the aim to raise awareness on the role of social protection in building resilience and social cohesion and contributing to sustainable development. As he narrated, following the inconveniences they encountered, Desta’s parents resorted to selling the last of their livestock at low prices to meet their basic needs, and now, they are even considering withdrawing Desta’s brother from school.
In fact, the same can be said for many other families across the country and this is not unique to Desta and her family, he added. It is true, social protection is at the heart of boosting human capital and empowering people. It helps individuals and families, especially the poor and vulnerable, cope with crises and shocks, find jobs, improve productivity, invest in the health and education of their children, and protect the elderly as well as PWDs.
For this reason, the government of Ethiopia has made policy improvement and is aggressively working towards ensuring sustainable development and inclusive social protection service. Accordingly, it has designed a wide range of social protection programs and is striving to benefit those that are highly vulnerable to economic and social problems. While opening this similar conference, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Demeke Mekonnen said that social protection is one of the government’s priority areas which lay a social foundation between the government and its citizens to ensure human rights and social protection.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs has formulated a national social protection policy and implementation strategy which is being executed by governmental and non- governmental organizations. The DPM further stated that since social protection embraces all rounded growth to people; and strengthens social cohesion, it is pivotal to invest in vulnerable segments of the society.
In this regard, the works that have been done mainly in organizing volunteers and daycare centers, rehabilitating street children, supporting elderly, providing psychosocial support for GBV victims among others, are promising, as to him. The government has been undertaking several activities to ensure economic growth; create job opportunities, enhance institutional capacity and infrastructural growth in response to global and national challenges by designing various policies.
By the same token, Women and Social Affairs Minister Ergoge Tesfaye (PhD) on her part indicated that government has designed wide range of social protection programs to benefit segments of the society that are exposed to economic and social challenges. Nonetheless, the fact that the majority of people are engaged in the informal sector has made it difficult to provide social protection systems and social insurance fully.
In this regard, she underlined that much is needed to be done to enhance the coverage and quality of national social protection. Despite government’s effort in leading, integrating and cooperating activities to ensure social protection, the role of the private sectors is essential to solve the problem at grassroots. The Country Director said collective work could ensure Desta and her family has access to a reliable social protection system that offers income support during challenging times.
However, social protection serves a broader purpose than merely assisting in coping with shocks. It enables families like Desta’s to invest in health and education, providing their children with a better start in life, a right every child deserves, he added. Social protection can assist Desta’s parents in increasing their income through self-employment and potentially increasing their resilience to withstand shocks.
As such, social protection contributes to the accumulation, utilization, and safeguarding of human capital for nation-building by imagining how things could have been different for Desta’s family with access to social protection. A small amount of money sent at regular intervals can give Desta’s family the means to a healthy, improved life and the ability to support the education of their children. With regular access to finance, Desta’s family do not need to take negative coping actions, such as pulling their kids out of school or selling their assets as they know this support is coming.
With regard to utilization of human capital, he mentioned that social protection programs support working age adults such as Desta’s parents to have opportunities to find decent jobs. They do this by providing access to financing and skills training for self-employment or helping people find work for wages through active labor market programs. Public work programs offer direct employment for people like Desta’s father, thus contributing to the pledge of not leaving anyone behind, which is one in the SDG’ commitments, as to him.
On safeguarding human capital, he stressed that a well-designed network of social assistance and social insurance programs can support Desta’s family during emergencies. Social protection can contribute to sustaining peace and stability, and consolidating national unity which is of utmost importance for Ethiopia at this time. With the task of post conflict rehabilitation and reconstruction ahead of us, social protection should be a priority for nation re-building:
Social protection programs establish a direct connection between individuals and governments, enhancing the social contract. Social contracts are essential for nation-building as they represent an agreement between citizens and the government. Citizens pay taxes, and in return, the government ensures the provision of high-quality services, infrastructure, and protection for its people, he said. Social protection services play a significant role in the social contract, as they directly support families and demonstrate the government’s care for its citizens. They can also contribute to peace building in post-conflict societies by strengthening social cohesion, diffusing tension and grievances, and helping to prevent social unrest and conflict.
Similarly, it is a vehicle to respond to the additional vulnerabilities and poverty created by conflict. Conflicts have resulted in significant socio-economic challenges to millions of Ethiopians. This means that the number of people that require social protection services has grown significantly in the last few years. With some adaptations, existing social protection schemes have the potential to address conflict-induced vulnerability, food insecurity and loss of livelihoods. Hence, it is important to build back better by investing in adaptive and resilient social protection systems to fit post conflict settings.
The country’s 2014 National Social Protection Policy, along with an accompanying strategy, has outlined the expansion of social protection schemes that builds on both rural and urban social protection. Guided by this policy, the government has initiated; and is implementing different flagship programs, in collaboration with development partners including the World Bank. “While we applaud this commitment, the road towards making social protection a foundation for nation building requires us to address key challenges in the sector. So, Desta represents the promising future of Ethiopia. To ensure a prosperous and secure future for all Ethiopians, it is imperative to establish robust social protection systems.”
By prioritizing the key areas of change such as adaptable digital systems, expanded coverage and financing, and optimized economic opportunities within social protection programs, Ethiopia can build an effective social protection sector that fosters unity and stability along with national symbols that rally beyond any differences such as Ethiopian Airlines, he emphasized.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 26 MAY 2023
