Social Protection in Zambia
Social Protection Strategy
The social cash transfer approach is one of the components of the draft Zambian social protection strategy. Social protection is not an entirely new concept for Zambia. Zambia has a long tradition in maintaining a social welfare structure, the Public Welfare Assistance Scheme, and several approaches to social protection have been tried. The social protection strategy, which has been cast into a Social Protection Chapter in the National Development Plan for 2006-2010, is an attempt to harmonize, prioritize and improve existing approaches as well as integrate new ones such as the social cash transfer scheme that form in particular a response to current crises such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The fact that social protection is integrated into the National Development Plan shows Zambia's commitment to supporting the most vulnerable in society and finding adequate protection mechanisms for them. Zambia has realized that social protection is a key prerequisite for any pro poor growth strategy.
The following studies have informed the formulation of the Social Protection Chapter
Institutional setup
Social protection is coordinated by the Sector Advisory Group on Social protection, comprised of stakeholders from key ministries, civil society, donors, NGOs and other cooperating partners. The SAG is chaired by the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services, the lead ministry in the area of social protection. MCDSS has defined Terms of References that spell out how priorities in the sector are defined, how the objectives of the social protection chapter are operationalized, how ressources are allocated, how progress is monitored and efforts are coordinated. Under the Sector Advisory Group, five Technical Working Groups (TWG) have been founded to work on specific issues of social protection: 1) TWG on low-capacity households, 2) TWG on social assistance, 3) TWG on women and children, 4) TWG on disability, 5) TWG on advocacy
M&E system
In order to make future decision on the priorities within the social protection sector The Ministry of Community Development and Social Services as the lead ministry is also currently piloting a M&E system for social protection.
