Social Protection

Paper Summary:

This paper explores in-depth capacity building for enhancing social protection in developing countries. Even some useful comparisons are made with some developed countries. Many theories of social protection systems and ideas of building such as social capital, lesson-drawing and inter-organizational relationships are some of the issues explored. The paper also looks at recommendations and predictions for the future of social protection, which may be threatened in some cases, by globalization and which are afforded for developed and developing countries alike.

From the Paper:

"Within the context of the developing world, emphases on capacity building have most recently centered on the need for improving the levels of access to, benefits from, as well as the quality of social protection. Of crucial importance to this debate is the idea that even with increased globalization currents and Neo-Liberal orientations and the conflicting and often contradictory roles of state capacity building, there has also been much concomitant focus on the building of networks and partnerships within developing countries to enhance the social protection or security of disadvantaged groups. Consequently, the broader focus on other actors within societies is today seen as a more efficacious means of tackling areas of social protection in the continuous grope for robust mechanisms and approaches for improving social development policy. In particular, labor markets, old-age pensions, income securities especially for the unemployed, poor or limited access and quality of health services and educational facilities and other forms of social safety nets, are being evaluated in the light of capacity building strategies to address these problem areas for the least advantaged or poorest segments of societies across the developing world. Some distillation will therefore be given of central concepts, important themes and approaches that have in the past been germane to the idea of capacity building for social protection. There will also be special modern focus on social risk management and social inclusion, alongside the evolution of such emphases, concepts and approaches, within the present era of social protection reforms. In this regard, then, countries in Africa, East Asia as well as the Latin American and Caribbean region will be examined to obtain a critical view of the successes and failures of attempts at social protection reforms. Accordingly, therefore, the role of capacity building in the path towards restructuring systems of social protection for the poor and the disadvantaged will be emphasized. It is recognized, that corruption and political patronage are some political realities that stymie both the operation and improvement in social security systems across countries in the developing world. Some such countries are, for instance, those in Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean region. Nevertheless, analysis in this respect will be treated parsimoniously for the most part, in this paper."

More papers on Social Protection:

• Book Review # 109651 : "Perspective on the Social Responsibility of Firms"
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• Research Paper # 113098 : "Assessment and Framework In Social Work"

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