Review of social policy in the African context

Abstract

Rescuing social policy in Africa is what this book sets out to do. The book is positioned against two trends seen to have subjugated social development on the continent: The neoliberal agenda that swept across Africa from the 1970s onwards with social policy only playing a residual role. And the current trend of focusing on social cash transfers despite this merely being one aspect of social policy. To emancipate social policy, Prof. Adesina and his colleagues suggest studying social development in Africa through the lens of ‘transformative social policy’ (TSP). The concept of TSP was developed by the late, eminent scholar Prof. Mkandawire. In the first three chapters, his previous colleagues at Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa and United Nations Research Institute for Social Development discuss the concept of TSP and its potential. Adesina highlights how TSP aims at the advancement of human well-being through the integration of social and economic policies and by focusing on social policies’ multiple tasks; the ‘objectives of social policy measures are transformative of the economy, social relations, social institutions and deepening democracy’ (p. 3). Aina discusses how TSP can be related to promoting inclusive development and suggests looking at the founders of modern African nations who regarded social policy as essential in their aspirations for development. Hujo too provides ideas on how to rethink social policy in the African context. All three authors tend to position TSP against neoliberalism and the dominant cash transfer paradigm, rather than pinning down the exact nature of TSP. Mostly, TSP is about what it should achieve: a better world and human flourishing; social policy is transformative when tackling structural inequalities and inequities. Nevertheless, the broad conceptualization of social policy allows for an open and potentially more holistic and integrated view of social policies’ potential for development. This is well illustrated by the remaining chapters in the volume.