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SOCIAL SAFETY NETS FOR FOOD AND NUTRITION IN WEST AFRICA
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THE SET-UP OF THE SEMINAR

The ECOWAS regional agricultural policy aims to contribute in a sustainable manner to meeting the food needs of the population, economic and social development and poverty eradication in Member States, as well as reducing inequalities between territories, zones and countries. Achieving this vision has required the mobilization of several instruments, including social safety nets, in order to significantly reduce the vulnerability of populations to food insecurity, which remains a concern in the region. Given the increasing complexity of the crises in the region (security, food), amplified recently by the negative effects of Covid19 , it has become necessary to develop relevant and adapted instruments that will enable the region to improve existing mechanisms by focusing on social safety net programs or projects that have demonstrated greater impact. It is in this context that ECOWAS organized from 19 to 23 November 2021, an international experience sharing seminar on social safety nets in order to facilitate the sharing of good practices on the theme, developed in West Africa and in the rest of the world. Also, with a view to revising the regional support program for national social safety nets adopted in 2013, the conclusions of this seminar will provide input for this revision. ;



The overall objective of the seminar was to share the main results of the implementation of projects and programs on social safety nets, to deepen the success factors but also lessons learned in order to enrich national and regional crisis and shock management mechanisms in West Africa.

Specifically, the aim was to :

  • Present the main orientations of the ECOWAS Regional Program to Support National Social Safety Nets;

  • share experiences and results from projects and programs implemented by ECOWAS and its partners or by other actors in the implementation of Social Safety Net pilot projects, including models, instruments developed, good practices and lessons learned, challenges, etc;

  • Discuss and formulate recommendations for taking into account these achievements in the various national crisis and shock management mechanisms; Capitalize on the various innovative experiences of productive social safety nets in relation to food and nutritional security developed in other regions in order to enrich the current experiences in West Africa;

  • Present the Phase 2 project document on the pursuit of major achievements to ECOWAS Member States

The seminar was organized around three themes with an introductory session on social safety nets at the heart of vulnerability reduction policies in Africa. The themes addressed were (i) food distribution, child development and access to social services, (ii) development of the main source of income, resilience and gender, (iii) development and testing of targeting methods. For each of the four themes, presentations were made by project leaders financed by Ecowas in the implementation of the social safety net project with financial support from Spanish cooperation. The thematic presentations were followed by a panel of experienced actors on the different issues. All the presentations were broadcasted through a drive link..

At the end of the meeting, the following key messages were delivered : 

  1. Social safety net programs encompass a variety of instruments that are useful for a better redistribution of wealth and ensure social justice and equity. For this reason, the States must take ownership of the SSF programs and commit national resources in a more substantial manner to pursue the dynamics already underway and to scale them up;

  2. In the face of security challenges and climate variability, it is necessary to implement integrated initiatives that rely on local actors to rebuild the resilience of populations;

  3. The commitment of humanitarians to align themselves with regional initiatives and the strengthening of cooperation between actors will contribute greatly to ensuring the coherence and complementarity of actions;

  4. Taking into account local dynamics (local food processing) to support capacity building of women for local processing of products will strengthen their empowerment;

  5. the establishment of appropriate conditions to prevent formal social safety net programs from destroying the endogenous dynamics of resilience

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Over 500 participants (face-to-face and online)

MAIN CONCLUSIONS

At the end of the meeting, the following key messages were delivered: 

  1. Social safety net programs encompass a variety of instruments that are useful for a better redistribution of wealth and ensure social justice and equity. For this reason, the States must take ownership of the SSF programs and commit national resources in a more substantial manner to pursue the dynamics already underway and to scale them up; 

  2. In the face of security challenges and climate variability, it is necessary to implement integrated initiatives that rely on local actors to rebuild the resilience of populations;

  3. The commitment of humanitarians to align themselves with regional initiatives and the strengthening of cooperation between actors will contribute greatly to ensuring the coherence and complementarity of actions;; 

  4. Taking into account local dynamics (local food processing) to support capacity building of women for local processing of products will strengthen their empowerment;;

  5.  the establishment of appropriate conditions to prevent formal social safety net programs from destroying endogenous resilience dynamics..



RECOMMANDATIONS


  1. Reflections on the theme: "Social nets at the heart of vulnerability reduction policies in Africa",


The seminar recommends:

1. strengthening the role and participation of local governments, local authorities, community-based organizations in the life cycle of SSF initiatives;

2. Better involvement of village authorities to avoid targeting biases of beneficiaries; 

3. better involvement of civil society and local authorities in the implementation of permanent adaptation schemes (tools and methods) for social protection ;

4. conducting an analysis of the impact of food storage at the local level and the social safety nets ; 

5. the reinforcement of information on the availability of products (Pôles de Développement Economique); the establishment of a normative framework (legal and institutional framework) to guarantee the sustainability of initiatives..

 

  1. Reflections on the theme: "Food distribution, child development and access to social services"


The seminar recommends:

1. the consideration of the diversification of products, in addition to the aspects of food fortification ;

2. the adaptation of food to the real needs of children;

3. taking into account the local context of food processing to involve communities in the transfer of adapted nutritious foods;

4. the resumption by ECOWAS of discussions for the establishment of a regional framework for social protection in a multi-actor approach.

 

  1. Reflections on the theme: "Development of the main source of income, resilience and gender mainstreaming through the Cash Transfer + (Cash +) instrument"


The seminar recommends:

  1. the implementation of tools to guarantee the transparency of cash transfer operations and strengthen household confidence;

  2. The adaptation of transfer mechanisms to technological changes;

  3. the design and integrated management of emergency cash transfer programs with social safety net and food security programs

  4. the development of reactive or adaptive social safety nets;

  5. Strengthening partnerships by taking into account the issue of coordination with national agencies and structures in charge of social safety nets from the bottom up;

  6. the development of actions for the socio-economic inclusion of households;

  7. Taking into account measures to prevent the SF approaches developed from generating inequalities and injustice within the communities;

  8. diligence to avoid that PFS are factors of destruction of local means of resilience;

  9. Improving the integration of gender equality in SF programs.

  10. the establishment of conditions to ensure that women effectively benefit from support - better balance of power between men and women 

  11.  promotion of access to land by women

  12.  the inclusion of gender in the second phase, along with a tutorial to accompany project leaders;

  13.  systematically taking into account people living with disabilities in social safety net programs;

  14.  the promotion and support of local processing of products by women / reservation of market shares for the gender component;

  15.  the provision of processing equipment to women to reduce the drudgery of work;

  16.  capacity building for women's empowerment;

  17.  Ensure that criteria and conditionalities are not factors of exclusion for women.


  1. Reflections on the theme "Taking gender into account in the PFS"


The seminar recommends:

  1. Combining various methods (country situation and data availability) to minimize targeting bias;

  2. Harmonizing approaches to facilitate the establishment of single safety registers;

  3. Conducting ongoing evaluations of SF programs to document the impacts of interventions in order to encourage scaling up;

  4. the development of a guide to good practices in social safety nets;

  5. the establishment of a legal framework for the creation of national registers accessible to all stakeholders.


  1. Reflections on the prospects for phase 2 of the social safety nets project for food and nutrition security in West Africa


 The seminar recommends:

  1. the inclusion of the hygiene and sanitation component in the project prototypes;

  2. The need to take into account the vulnerability of women and children as a condition for access to funding;

  3. the need to establish the link between FSS projects and development projects;

  4. taking into account access to water ;

  5. integration of local communities into FSS programs;

  6. the rehabilitation of the skills of people affected by covid-19;

  7. the operationalization of the humanitarian-development-peace Nexus within the framework of the new program;

  8. Strengthening support for the development of productive capital and IGAs to ensure the empowerment of beneficiaries;

  9. the expansion of social safety net programs to include socio-economic inclusion programs for vulnerable people supported by national agencies;

  10. the commitment of governments to invest more in the mobilization of their own resources;

  11. the commitment of stakeholders to fight against abuse and exploitation of beneficiaries in the implementation of FHP (through the adoption of charters of good conduct and the setting up of complaints mechanisms) ; 

  12. Conducting country-level studies to assess the state of financing of social safety nets;

  13. the generalization of the implementation of single social registers ;

  14. the establishment of mechanisms for auditing social registers;

  15. the establishment and strengthening of consultation frameworks to meet the challenges related to the coordination of interventions;;

  16. more massive support for efforts to digitize social protection services;

  17. the digitization and sharing of registers with all FHP actors;

  18. the development of specific actions for the benefit of women to minimize the risk linked to the digital divide.

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