Her Excellency Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, at the International Bi-Regional
Conference on Social Protection and Poverty Reduction, Somerset-West
9 June 2007
First Lady Ms Zanele Mbeki
Honourable Ministers of social protection matters, from Latin America and from
Southern Africa, including local Ministers and Deputy Ministers present
here
Your Excellencies and members of the Diplomatic Corps
The United Nations Resident Representative and Co-ordinator, Ms Scholastica
Kimaryo
The Director for the International Poverty Centre, Mr Terry McKinley
Our international experts
Members of the academic and policy research community
Our social partners present here
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Social protection is evidently a critical policy intervention that we are not
only politically duty-bound to pursue for our people, but is even more
critically as a moral obligation. I am sure that it is incontrovertible that
all our people must be protected from risks and uncertainties and that when
eventualities strike people, especially the most vulnerable in our societies,
we should assist them to recover and reclaim their dignity.
Risks from hunger, from sickness, from accident, from reaching a retirement age
without decent pension and the risk of death ought to be prevented in the case
of death, mitigated. Equally, poverty eradication is a must. We cannot afford
to see our fellow compatriots enduring humiliation inflicted by poverty.
Amartya Sen, among other thinkers on these important issues, has put it well
when he places upon us the responsibility to enhance and expand human
capabilities. Human capabilities, that Sen talks about, refer to a set of
valued things feasible for a person to do â from dependable access to
adequate nourishment to having the possibility of being a respected participant
in community life. Human capabilities define the extent to which people can
lead the kind of lives they value and have reason to value.
As such, I am pleased with the main objectives of this conference, especially
that it is aimed at establishing a platform that is conducive for policy
dialogue, sharing of policy relevant expertise among participants from the two
regions; engaging policy makers on the nature, feasibility and sustainability
of various existing social protection programmes and probing their
effectiveness in reducing poverty; and to put in place some mechanisms for
inter-regional south-south cooperation.
This conference is taking place at an opportune time for Southern Africa as we
are embarking on a number of important endeavours aimed at eradicating
'unfreedoms' that Amartya Sen talks of. Social protection is an integral part
of our developmental agenda to eradicating poverty. For instance in South
Africa, among these is the development of a robust Anti-Poverty Framework for
South Africa. The anti-poverty framework that July 2007 Cabinet Lekgotla will
be discussing will entail a clear plan on how government would close the gaps
in our poverty eradication agenda. An audit of our existing poverty eradication
projects informs this approach. Although South Africa has a number of poverty
alleviation programmes, including a relatively well developed income transfers
programme, currently benefiting more that 13 million people, there are still
many people that remain deprived.
Another reason why this conference is also opportune for us is because the
South African government is currently undertaking a process of retirement
reform to develop a comprehensive social security system. We have a number of
social security interventions and we have been working to improve our system
since the release of the report of the Commission for Social Security in South
Africa in 2002. That report identified a number of areas which needed to be
addressed. Our Inter-Ministerial Committee on Social Security is hard at work
towards correcting all defects identified the Commission's report and also,
more importantly, ensure that our social security system is sufficiently
comprehensive, within the basic principle of equity and social solidarity. We
are also working hard on ensuring that we expand the scope of social security,
by marrying social security with poverty reduction to ensure sustainable
betterment of the lives of the people.
This, in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, sharpens the
notion of social protection which has gradually and increasingly developed into
a broader framework which looks at how the risk and vulnerabilities that poor
people face can be prevented or mitigated, and how poor people can be helped in
their recovery.
As we extend social security to embrace social protection we commit ourselves
to ensure that policies and institutions devoted to ensuring adequate income,
coverage of risks, proper health care access, and a dignified retirement are
major aspects of our developmental strategies.
It is quite befitting that the conference probes experiences of the two
sub-regions, Latin America and Southern Africa. There are many similarities
between these two sub-regions:
Like southern Africa, the Latin American region is home to countries that face
challenges in bettering the lives of its citizens. Also, like us, the Latin
American region is struggling to accelerate economic growth. Like us, economic
growth has been picking up in most Latin American countries in the last few
years. Many years of slow growth and economic instability, in both Latin
America and southern Africa, have taken a toll on the living conditions of
people; poverty has remained stubbornly high, with some exceptions. The good
news is that social protection has played an important part in the reduction of
poverty, for most of the countries that are being discussed here. But,
challenged by persistent historically high levels of inequality, our Latin
American friends, whether their countries have grown fast or not, are correctly
asking themselves: have we done all that we could have done? This is the same
question that also haunts us in our sub-region.
The recent Latin American experience with social protection policies is very
instructive. It tells us that poverty and inequality can be reduced. It teaches
us that scale is critical. It also tells us that targeting is important. It is
also very clear that we must be comprehensive in our approach. We are again
reassured, by the recent experiences of many countries discussed here, that we
can eradicate poverty through effective social protection systems if
implemented properly at large scale.
The recent Latin American experience tells us that, for once, the iron axel
that joins poverty reduction to economic growth can be made flexible, that
social protection policies do indeed deliver results. Also, and perhaps more
importantly, the recent Latin American experience with social protection
policies clearly instructs that social protection, including recent reforms on
social security, needs to be an integral component of the growth and
development strategy of our countries.
No sustainable reduction in inequality can be achieved without a fair
distribution of assets, human and physical, without effective equity. No
sustainable reduction in poverty can be achieved without strong job creation.
Labour market outcomes remain clearly a critical issue as we peddle forward in
improving the lives of our peoples and our nations.
Please do not get me wrong: I am not saying that social protection can only
be effective under the conditions of high economic growth. There are some Latin
American cases that show that good social protection systems can be effective
even when the economy is not growing.
One main message comes home, from recent Latin American countries, that the
role of the State is indispensable if we are to really dent poverty and improve
livelihoods of our peoples in a sustainable way.
In the case of South Africa anything less than the following can easily become
a farce:
* To use our generous social wage targeted to the poor to eradicate poverty as
against alleviating poverty. Our government provide free housing, schools,
water; energy, health, support grant, to deserving individuals and
households.
* This generous package does not alter class, race and gender, power relations
and inequalities, but it is indeed an enormous relief to about 13 milllion
people who are touched by our safety nets.
* Notwithstanding these commitments of our government we are not ending
inter-generational poverty.
* We can and should collaborate better and smarter with all other stakeholders
to ensure, in any family we have a plan to end inter-generational
poverty.
* Educational, income security, access to affordable basic services especially
health and transport, freedom from abusive socio-economic relations, ability to
seize economic opportunities and access to human dignity and equality the law.
All of these together go a long way to END poverty.
Let me now conclude: I am reliably informed that the last two days of the
conference have been illuminating and insightful. I suppose the main policy
question that has to occupy us as we conclude the conference today is whether
countries explicitly design social protection interventions with a specific
intention to reduce poverty or do they design programmes that have specific
interventions on social protection â health, education, shelter, nutrition etc.
Put differently, should the focus be on social protection reforms or on poverty
eradication strategies that conclusively address social protection challenges?
This is key, particularly as many of us here are assisting our governments and
countries in developmental strategies, either poverty eradication strategies or
reforming social protection systems.
Another important policy question, for me, is what are the pre-conditions that
allow for development of a comprehensive set of social policies on poverty
reduction and social cohesion?
Lastly, I take this opportunity to congratulate the team that has made this
important conference a reality. I am looking forward to the concluding day of
this important gathering.
Thank you
Issued by: The Presidency
9 June 2007
