Safety Nets in Africa : Effective Mechanisms to Reach the Poor and Most Vulnerable

Abstract

The need for safety nets in Sub-Saharan Africa is vast. In addition to being the world’s poorest region, Sub-Saharan Africa is also one of the most unequal. In this context, redistribution must be seen as a legitimate way to fight poverty and ensure shared prosperity - and all the more so in countries where growth is driven by extractive industries that are not labor-intensive and often employ very few poor people. Given that most African countries face difficult decisions about how to allocate limited resources among a number of social programs, evidence is important. Do Safety Net programs actually benefit the poorest people? This book demonstrates with empirical evidence that it is possible to reach the poorest and most vulnerable people with safety net programs, and provides lessons for the effective use of targeting methods to achieve this outcome in the region.

En Afrique subsaharienne, les besoins en fi lets sociaux sont considérables. Si l’Afrique subsaharienne est la région la plus pauvre du globe, elle fi gure également parmi les régions les plus inégalitaires au monde. Dans un tel contexte, la redistribution doit être considérée comme une méthode légitime permettant de combattre la pauvreté et de garantir une prospérité partagée, a fortiori dans les pays dont l’économie est fondée sur les industries extractives, un secteur à faible coeffi cient de main d’oeuvre employant souvent une main d’oeuvre réduite issue des populations pauvres.