Research and assessment

Social Protection in East Africa: Harnessing the Future

This OECD report (April 2017) discusses the long-term financing of social protection in six East Africa countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The report  examines the likely long-term demographic, economic and environmental trends over the next 50 years. Likely climate change impacts are also investigated. The fifty-year timeframe is consistent with what is envisaged African Union’s Agenda 2063.

Based on its projections, the report anticipates how demand for social protection is likely to change over the next 50 years. It identifies which policy directions will be best suited to addressing the complex and far-reaching challenges confronting the six countries. In turn, these policy responses all have significant financial implications that need to be taken into account in the long-term social protection strategies of the six countries.

While it is not possible to predict precisely how the six countries will develop over the coming decades, the report demonstrates clearly that these trends will interact and reinforce each other.

Dowload the report here (oecd.org)

Read a one-pager of the report (ipc-undp.org)

Read a one-pager with a focus on extending social protection to Tanzanian informal workers (ipc-undp.org)

Webinar discussing the report (22 June 2017)


Download all presentation slides (socialprotection.org)

Social Protection System Reviews

A Toolkit for Social Protection System Reviews

The Toolkit (December 2018) presents steps and tools for informing developing countries how to extend and reform their social protection systems. Specific areas for review would include:

  • Need: an analysis of life-cycle risks and vulnerabilities that raise need for social protection.
  • Coverage: idenitfying existing social protection schemes and where gaps in coverage may exist.
  • Effectiveness: assessing the adequacy, equity and efficiency of social protection provision.
  • Sustainability: assessing fiscal policy and the financing of social protection.
  • Coherence: assessing existing institutions and political processes for social protection and how they align with other policies.

Read and download the Toolkit (oecd-ilibrary.org)

Country reviews

The above described Toolkit has been applied to review the social protection systems of Cambodia and Kyrgyzstan.
Read the full Social Protection System Review of Cambodian (oecd-ilibrary.org)
A brief summary of the review of Cambodian (oecd.org)
Read the full Social Protection System Review of Kyrgyzstan (oecd.org)
A brief summary of the review of Kyrgyzstan (oecd.org)
Read the Social Protection System Review of Indonesia (oecd.org)
A brief summary of the review of Indonesia (oecd.org)

Policy papers

The OECD produced policy papers under the EU-SPS programme which provide insight into country-specific policy issues: how to finance social protection in Ethopia in the long-term; why is social insurance covarege amongst SMEs in Viet Nam so low; and how does fiscal policy and social protection impact inequality and poverty in Togo.
Read "Increasing social insurance coverage in Viet Nam's SMEs" (pdf 1 324 kB)
Read "Financing social protection in Ethiopia: a long-term perspective" (pdf 2,2 MB)
Read "Analyse de l'impact des politiques fiscales et de protection sociale sur les inégalités et la pauvreté au Togo" (pdf 1 314 kB, in French)
Read "How finance social protection in Namibia" (pdf 1 622 k)

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