The members of the ADAPTED Work Package 3 'Optimizing the Impact of Poverty Reduction Policies', Natalia Zakharchenko, Irene Among, Ahmed El Assal, Petronilla Wandeto and Guido Maschhaupt will convene a roundtable at the upcoming 2023 General Conference of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) in Lisbon, Portugal. The title of EADI's 2023 General Conference taking place in July this year is 'Towards New Rhythms of Development', the roundtable convened by WP3 is titled 'Politics of Social Protection in Sub-Saharan Africa.'
The roundtable discussion seeks to explore new rhythms of development in the recent wave of diffusion of social assistance initiatives in Africa, particularly around the tensions and synergies emerging from the politics of patronage and dynamics of ‘rightful claims’. It builds on existing scholarship regarding the politics and jurisprudence of social protection, bringing together diverse research projects to facilitate critical discussions around the question: how do different political, legal, and institutional conditions explain the divergence in regime commitments to social protection programs as well as their complex socio-political outcomes?
More specifically, the following questions will be discussed:
-How do legal mechanisms contribute to the coherence of social protection systems?
-Which institutions, political dynamics, and actors are determinants for the outcomes of policy conflicts?
-How do other actors, such as courts, interfere in adopted policy choices and engage with socio-economic rights?
-How do social and political contextual factors and power configuration affect citizens’ claims-making in cash transfer programs?
-How do donors and activists navigate the trade-offs and dilemmas inherent in the introduction of social assistance programs in semi-authoritarian political systems?