Abstract
Social protection is increasingly becoming a powerful tool for enhancing productivity and employment and is, therefore, important for Africa’s agricultural transformation. Thus, this study aims at examining how Africa’s agricultural sector can be transformed through social protection policies and programmes for employment. It applies the Feasible Generalised Least Squares (FGLS) econometric method on a panel of 38 African countries with the data sourced from the Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) and World Development Indicators (WDI) for the period 2005–2017. The results from the study show that social protection has a positive impact on employment outcomes through various channels such as building human resource, equity in the use of public resources, social inclusion, among others. The study concludes by recommending that the governments of African countries should implement effective social protection programmes and policies in the agricultural sector in form of insurance, in-kind and cash support, among others to make farming attractive, thereby increasing employment and productivity.
Highlights
Other variables are stationary at first difference that is at 1% level of significance, except for building human resources, which is significant at 5%
Agricultural social protection should focus on the enhancement of rural households access to mechanisation services, enhance rural households access to quality and affordable agricultural inputs; for example, delivery of quality fertiliser and seedlings, increase in the efficient delivery of water resources and management systems including irrigation, increase households welfare incentives such as medical care services among others
The study made use of secondary data sourced from the country policy and institutional assessment and the World Development of the World Bank for the period 2005–2015 for 38 African countries
Summary
The exposure to risks, shocks and low welfare incentives are the main problems faced by agricultural households in Africa (Osabohien et al, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c; Matthew et al, 2019a, 2019b; Osabohien et al, 2019a, 2019b; Omiti & Nyanamba, 2007). This is as a result of the fact that in Africa various policy and institutional reforms have been less than satisfactory in their outcomes (Beecroft et al, 2020; Igharo et al, 2020). Efficient and effective implantation of social protection programmes and policies will no doubt help the most vulnerable farmers cope with related risks and shocks and contribute to the creation of better employment opportunities for rural workers and their households as shown by India’s public work programmes (Matthew et al, 2019a, 2019b; Osabohien et al, 2019a, 2019b; Samson et al, 2015)
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