Mapping social policy development in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Over the years, a large body of literature about social policy development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has emerged. However, due to a concern for pressing humanitarian and development issues, most of the scholarship devoted to contemporary African social policy is not grounded in systematic theoretical models aimed at explaining policy differences between and within countries. Because a large body of literature has been published in recent decades to tackle this type of issue within the advanced industrial world, it is important to assess the relevance of existing theories of social policy development for policy analysis in SSA. This article makes a direct contribution to the comparative welfare literature because it draws attention to the limitations of existing theories for understanding social policy development in Africa, while highlighting their relevance for the analysis of the development and transformation of social programmes in the region's countries.