Publication: Adaptive Social Protection in Southern Africa
Date
2022-10-31
ISSN
Published
2022-10-31
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
The countries of the Southern Africa
Customs Union (SACU) - Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia,
and South Africa are exposed to climatic shocks, especially
drought, that pose a continual threat to lives and
livelihoods across the subregion. The pandemic has
compounded these existing vulnerabilities. Climatic shocks
such as these tend to affect the poorest most, exacerbating
inequalities and increasing poverty. Food insecurity, which
is chronic in the subregion and both a root cause of
vulnerability to drought and an outcome of it also increased
as a result of impacts from the pandemic. Social safety net
programs can help poor and vulnerable households manage the
risks they face from shocks, helping to mitigate the impacts
on poverty and food insecurity, but their effectiveness can
be constrained in several ways. The mobilization of social
protection in response to COVID-19 and the challenges that
have emerged to that mobilization have strengthened the case
for investments in preparedness ahead of future shocks.
Adaptive social protection refers to an agenda for preparing
social protection systems to improve their response to
shocks and to build the resilience of poor and vulnerable
households. This report takes stock of ASP in four of the
five SACU countries and provides targeted recommendations
for each country’s development.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2022. Adaptive Social Protection in Southern Africa. © Washington, DC: World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/38256 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”