SOCIAL POLICY & THE RIGHT TO FOOD CONCEPT UAL DEFINITIONS THE APPROACH TO SOCIAL POLICY/ PROTECTION IN SOUTH AFRIC

1. SOCIAL POLICIES AND FOOD SECURITY IN SOUTH AFRICA: BETWEEN RELIEF AND COMPREHENSIVE SOCIAL PROTECTION: SOME CHALLENGES FOR SOCIAL POLICY TRANSFORMATION Viviene Taylor Department of Social Development --- University of Cape Town • SOCIAL POLICY & THE RIGHT TO FOOD • CONCEPT UAL DEFINITIONS • THE APPROACH TO SOCIAL POLICY/ PROTECTION IN SOUTH AFRICA & AFRICA • SOME FORMS OF SOCIAL POLICY INTERVENTIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA • BETWEEN RELIEF AND COMPREHENSIVE SOCIAL PROTECTION- ADVANCING AN AGENDA FOR SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION Between Relief and Comprehensive Social Protection: Advancing an Agenda for Social Policy Transformation by Viviene Taylor - 2012, Dept of Social Development, University of Cape Town

2. SOCIAL POLICY & THE RIGHT TO FOOD • Constitutional mandate: Section 27 of Chapter 2 (Bill of Rights of RSA Constitution of 1996:13) 1.“Everyone has the right to have access to: a) health care services including reproductive health care ; b) sufficient food and water and c) social security, including if they are unable to support themselves and their dependents, appropriate social assistance. 2. The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of each of these rights. 3. No one may be refused emergency medical treatment.” Between Relief and Comprehensive Social Protection: Advancing an Agenda for Social Policy Transformation by Viviene Taylor - 2012, Dept of Social Development, University of Cape Town

3. SOCIAL POLICY & THE RIGHT TO FOOD • There is a social & economic imperative in the context of mass based chronic poverty, structural unemployment and increasing inequality to focus on the links between economic and social objectives. • There is a moral imperative given the shadow of apartheid and resulting structural barriers to social and economic development to promote social inclusion, redress & equity. • The constitutional mandate for social and economic rights implies a normative injunction to progressively realise rights and entitlements to social rights such as social security, food security, children’s well being and others as expressed in the Bill of Rights. • Social Policy responses that are relief oriented target symptoms and are short term, incremental measures and do not address the structural roots of poverty, unemployment, inequality and food insecurity in South Africa. • South Africa’s social policy responses lie between relief and a basic comprehensive social protection net. Between Relief and Comprehensive Social Protection: Advancing an Agenda for Social Policy Transformation by Viviene Taylor - 2012, Dept of Social Development, University of Cape Town

4. CONCEPTUAL DEFINITIONS SOCIAL POLICY FROM A TRANSFORMATIVE PERSPECTIVE IS UNDERSTOOD AS Laws, policies and practices that provide guidelines on: • Courses of action to address peoples’ social conditions, needs & concerns • Links micro level concerns with macro social and economic interventions • Promotes equitable distribution of goods, services and benefits • The establishment, maintenance and legal enactment of social services & provision • Framed within a rights based approach to entitlements they give expression to constitutional mandates. • Government and society wide action to address structural barriers to people’s development – all spheres of society. Between Relief and Comprehensive Social Protection: Advancing an Agenda for Social Policy Transformation by Viviene Taylor - 2012, Dept of Social Development, University of Cape Town

5. CONCEPTUAL DEFINITIONS : SOCIAL POLICY & SOCIAL PROTECTION SOCIAL PROTECTION IS A TOUCH STONE OF SOCIAL POLICY. • The ILO (2005) states that social protection or social security should be understood as a set of institutions, measures, rights, obligations, and transfers whose primary goal is:to guarantee access to health and social services; and to provide income security to help people cope with important risks at various stages of their life cycle (inter alia, loss of income due to invalidity, old age, or unemployment) and prevent or alleviate poverty. • Social security and social protection are terms that are often used interchangeably. • Social protection differs from social security in that it has wider application and can include developmental strategies such as active labour market strategies for training, retraining, and ensuring that people are able to access economic & social opportunities such as work, food and the capabilities to participate in decision-making structures. Between Relief and Comprehensive Social Protection: Advancing an Agenda for Social Policy Transformation by Viviene Taylor - 2012, Dept of Social Development, University of Cape Town

6. Functions of Social Protection Social protection measures provide income (cash) and/or consumption (food, health, education) transfers to the poor, protects the vulnerable against livelihood risks and enhances the social status and rights of socially excluded and marginalised people. It has 5 functions. • A protective function when measures are introduced to save lives and reduce levels of deprivation in a society. • A preventive function when measures are taken to assist people from falling into deeper poverty or becoming vulnerable to risks arising from natural disasters, crop failure, accidents and illness. • A promotive function of social protection aims to enhance the capabilities of individuals, communities and institutions to participate in all spheres of activity. • A transformative function focuses on reducing inequities and vulnerabilities through changes in policies, laws, budgetary allocations and redistributive measures. • A developmental and generative function. Countries that have introduced cash transfer programmes are producing social and economic developmental outcomes (Taylor, 2008) Between Relief and Comprehensive Social Protection: Advancing an Agenda for Social Policy Transformation by Viviene Taylor - 2012, Dept of Social Development, University of Cape Town

7. SOUTH AFRICA ADOPTS A COMPREHENSIVE SOCIAL PROTECION APPROACH In 2003 the South African Government adopted an approach to social protection that includes a comprehensive package of measures to address: • Income poverty – through income support measures (grants) • Capability poverty – measures to address deprivations in Health, Education, etc. • Asset poverty – through housing, land reform, own production – micro initiatives for sustained livelihoods, training and retraining, credit facilities. • Building economic and social assets through a range of affirmative action programmes such as Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) programmes. • Standard social insurance / security interventions (health insurance, pensions, Unemployment Insurance Funds, COIDA, etc). • The Taylor Report argued that such a comprehensive approach is best suited to a developmental process and would ensure the progressive realisation of social and economic rights of those who are excluded from the benefits of economic and social development. (Taylor Report, 2002) Between Relief and Comprehensive Social Protection: Advancing an Agenda for Social Policy Transformation by Viviene Taylor - 2012, Dept of Social Development, University of Cape Town

8. A COMPREHENSIVE DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH TO SOCIAL POLICY AND SOCIAL PROTECTION • The research and investigations undertaken by the Taylor Committee highlighted why a Euro centric or American / industrialised country approach to social policies would not work in South Africa. • Some of the critical factors included: Structurally determined mass based unemployment, Educational and skills deficits, Historic institutional exclusions based on racial discrimination Resource and power asymmetries Geography of apartheid (etc.) • Central to the need for a transformative social policy approach in South Africa is the need to address initial conditions of poverty, deprivations and inequalities. • Examples of a developmental approach that drew on country experiences in the global South (Brazil, Costa, Rica, India & South East Asia) were examined. • Because of the exclusions of the majority of its citizens from social and economic benefits South Africa adopted a developmental approach to rights. Between Relief and Comprehensive Social Protection: Advancing an Agenda for Social Policy Transformation by Viviene Taylor - 2012, Dept of Social Development, University of Cape Town

9. AFRICA ADOPTS A DEFINITION OF SOCIAL PROTECTION • During the last decade debates on social policy and social protection have gained ground in Africa alongside the need for sustainable strategies to address poverty and vulnerability. • Debates on social policy tend to be dominated by two main arguments. One which is economically deterministic and focuses on social policy as pure consumption and a drain on state finances – argued as unsustainable in the long term. The other focuses on the role and functions of social protection to address multi-dimensional poverty using a rights based framework (Taylor, 2008 and 2010). • At the first African Union Conference of Ministers of Social Development—held in Windhoek, Namibia from 27–31.10.2008—a Social Policy Framework for Africa (SPF) was debated and adopted. • This framework promotes the gradual building of social protection in African countries. It promotes social policies that are: • “… based on comprehensive longer-term national social protection action plans. Measures will include: extending existing social insurance schemes (with subsidies for those unable to contribute); building up community based or occupation based insurance schemes on a voluntary basis, social welfare services, employment guarantee schemes and introducing and extending public-financed, non-contributory cash transfers”(Taylor, 2008 citing African Union, www.africanunion.org). Between Relief and Comprehensive Social Protection: Advancing an Agenda for Social Policy Transformation by Viviene Taylor - 2012, Dept of Social Development, University of Cape Town

10. AFRICA ADOPTS A DEFINITION OF SOCIAL PROTECTION • The AU understands Social Protection as a "package" of policies and programmes with the aim of reducing poverty and vulnerability of large segments of the population. This it does through a "mix" of policies/programmes that promote efficient labour markets, reduce people's exposure to risks, and contribute to enhancing their capacity to protect and cover themselves against lack of or loss of adequate income, and basic social services (African Union documents, 2007). Between Relief and Comprehensive Social Protection: Advancing an Agenda for Social Policy Transformation by Viviene Taylor - 2012, Dept of Social Development, University of Cape Town

11. SOME FORMS OF SOCIAL POLICY PROVISION & IMPACTS • Social transfers in the form of cash today reach close to 14 million people. • The majority of recipients are women and children • Evidence shows that these cash transfers are the most efficient in targeting the poorest households. • Reductions in poverty and inequality are among the effects. • Poor households use at least 80% of cash transfers on food consumption • The purchasing power of poorest households has increased. • It plays an important role in alleviating hunger but does not guarantee food security. • Cash transfers have a multiplier effect – for every rand spent there are economic gains within communities of at least two rand. Between Relief and Comprehensive Social Protection: Advancing an Agenda for Social Policy Transformation by Viviene Taylor - 2012, Dept of Social Development, University of Cape Town

12. SOME FORMS OF SOCIAL POLICY INTERVENTIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA Between Relief and Comprehensive Social Protection: Advancing an Agenda for Social Policy Transformation by Viviene Taylor - 2012, Dept of Social Development, University of Cape Town

13. Between Relief and Comprehensive Social Protection: Advancing an Agenda for Social Policy Transformation by Viviene Taylor - 2012, Dept of Social Development, University of Cape Town

14. Between Relief and Comprehensive Social Protection: Advancing an Agenda for Social Policy Transformation by Viviene Taylor - 2012, Dept of Social Development, University of Cape Town

15. BETWEEN RELIEF AND COMPREHENSIVE SOCIAL PROTECTION - ADVANCING AN AGENDA FOR SOCIAL POLICY TRANSFORMATION Advancing an agenda for social policy transformation requires countries to focus on how to: • Identify and disaggregate structural barriers to capability enhancing processes including food security. • Ensure distribution and equity in input allocations and outcomes to address initial conditions and inequalities. • Develop strategies for sustainable resource use (natural, financial, institutional capabilities, human. etc) • Design appropriate policy frameworks and monitor regulatory frameworks at global, regional and national levels against violations of basic rights and access to food security and other basic rights. • Ensure transparency guarantees and accountability measures are in place to deal with power and information asymmetries • Provide inclusive processes for effective participation of critical parts of society (government, business, workers, civil society formations and un-organised working people). Between Relief and Comprehensive Social Protection: Advancing an Agenda for Social Policy Transformation by Viviene Taylor - 2012, Dept of Social Development, University of Cape Town

16. REFERENCES • RSA (1996) The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Chapter 2, Section 27 (1)c. • Sen, Amartya (1993) ‘Capability and Wellbeing’ in Nussbaum, Margaret C. and Sen, Amartya (1993). The Quality of Life, Oxford: Clarendon Press • Taylor Report of the Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive System of Social Security for South Africa, Transforming the Present – Protecting the Future, 2002 (Taylor Report), Government of the Republic of South Africa, Pretoria. • Taylor V (2008). Social Protection in Africa: An Overview of the Challenges.Research Report prepared for the African Union. Unpublished Report. Available at: http://www.eprionline.com/wpcontent/uploads/2011/03/Taylor2008AUSocialProtectionOverview.pdf Between Relief and Comprehensive Social Protection: Advancing an Agenda for Social Policy Transformation by Viviene Taylor - 2012, Dept of Social Development, University of Cape Town