Social Policy & Rural Development in Africa

In the first phase of the CRC 1342 “Global Dynamics of Social Policy” (2018-2021), we investigated the historical dynamics of social policy making in the fields of food, health and education in six African countries (Egypt, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda). One central finding of this research is that welfare statism across Africa has mainly been an urban phenomenon and that modern social policies have been firmly segmented and favour the welfare interests of formally employed male workers in public and private sectors. While this welfare state segmentation and its political and socioeconomic legacies have been well researched in past years, much less is known about social policy measures in rural spheres.

Therefore, in the second phase of our project (2022-2025), we address this knowledge gap and explore the role social policy plays in rural settings in the Global South in general, and in African countries in particular. The main question driving our research is: Which social policy measures have been developed to address the rural social question in African countries?

Based on the concept of “coupled arenas” in internationalized politics, we systematically investigate the interplay between international discourses, domestic politics and local implementations of rural development ideas. First, we highlight the socio-economic changes of the countryside and the transformative dynamics of agrarian policies in Botswana, Mozambique, Morocco, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia to spell out the demand for social policy responses to tackle rural poverty and exclusion. Second, we comparatively analyse the policy solutions developed in rural development policies in these countries since 2000.

Regarding research design and methodological orientation, the project comprises case analysis, process tracing and case comparisons. As to the empirical material under investigation, it covers policy documents, archival resources, descriptive statistics, and primary data generated in field research, including interviews and ethnography.

Projektmitglieder

Roy Karadag, Sarah Kassim de Camargo Penteado, Klaus Schlichte, Kressen Thyen, Anna Wolkenhauer

Projektrelevante Publikationen

Wolkenhauer, Anna, 2022. The colonial legacies of copper dependence: Inequality and bifurcated social protection in Zambia. In: Nullmeier, Frank, Delia González de Reufels, and Herbert Obinger (eds.): International Impacts on Social Policy: Short Histories in a Global Perspective. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 119-130.

Ayeko-Kümmeth, Jane; Schlichte, Klaus, 2021: The state on the countryside: Food security as social policy in Uganda, SOCIUM SFB 1342 Working Papers/18/2021, Bremen: SOCIUM; SFB 1342, Download PDF.

Devereux, Stephen, and Anna Wolkenhauer, 2021. Agents, Coercive Learning, and Social Protection Policy Diffusion in Africa. IDS Working Paper 559, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies, DOI: 10.19088/IDS.2021.068.

Ouedraogo, Alex Nadège; Schlichte, Klaus, 2021: Food Policy and State Formation in Senegal and Uganda, in: Global Society, doi:10.1080/13600826.2021.1924632.

Thyen, Kressen; Karadag, Roy, 2021: Between Affordable Welfare and Affordable Food: Internationalized Food Subsidy Reforms in Egypt and Tunisia, in: Social Policy & Administration, online first, doi:10.1111/spol.12710.

Wolkenhauer, Anna, 2021. International Organizations and Food: Nearing the End of the Lean Season? In: Martens, Kerstin/Niemann, Dennis/Kaasch, Alexandra (eds.): International Organizations in Global Social Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 297-321.