Addis Ababa, October 24, 2018: After a prolonged period of economic stagnation and decline, African economies have experienced rapid growth over the last two decades. Poverty and malnutrition have fallen steadily during that period. Because of broad deterioration of livelihoods, it will take a longer period of continued growth to pull large segments of the population out of vulnerability. In fact, despite falling poverty rates, the absolute number of poor and vulnerable is still rising.

The 2017-2018 Annual Trends and Outlook Report (ATOR) takes an in-depth look at social protection in rural Africa to address these three questions, which are particularly relevant as Africa embarks on the implementation of the Malabo Declaration commitments and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. First, the contributed chapters summarize and synthesize the available evidence on successful implementation of social protection programs in rural Africa.

Chapter 13 provides an overarching account of findings on social protection as development policy and draws out lessons for policy makers when adopting a systems approach to social protection.

In line with the role of the ATOR as the official monitoring and evaluation report for CAADP, Chapter 12 monitors progress on CAADP indicators outlined in the CAADP Results Framework 2015–2025. The chapter also reviews progress in the CAADP implementation process across the continent, including a look at trends in government social protection expenditures.

The purpose of this chapter is to give policy makers insights into how to design cost-effective social protection programs. Focusing on social assistance (noncontributory transfers to the poor), we review the literature with respect to three key features of the decision to put such a program in place: targeting, choice of payment modality, and graduation.

Chapter 10 uses Egypt as a case study to examine the effectiveness of proxy means test (PMT) targeting. Targeting effectiveness is defined in terms of the ability of the program to enroll beneficiaries from the lowest two quintiles of the expenditure distribution. The authors also consider the social costs of implementing PMT in a context where administrative capacity to explain the targeting mechanism to the public is imperfect.

The author of Chapter 9 draws on in-depth knowledge of a set of recent and active social protection programs implemented in eastern Africa to discuss three challenges inherent to poverty-targeting that constrain the achievement of program objectives. These challenges are the difficulty of identifying the poorest among the poor, heterogeneity in household characteristics within a target population that is assumed to be relatively homogeneous, and provision of “individual/household” transfers in diverse social and cultural contexts.

Chapter 8 provides a comparative analysis of 48 graduation, livelihood, and cash transfer programs. Using income and consumption as the primary metrics of impact and focusing on long-term outcomes, the author assesses the sustainability of impact of these programs and compares both costs and impacts across the three types of approaches.

This chapter aims to provide an overview of the role of social protection in improving child well-being and care in Africa by considering progress made and gaps to be addressed. First, it reflects on coverage, highlighting the rapid expansion of social protection and reflecting on undercoverage among particular groups of children. Second, it provides an overview of the impact of social protection on children, considering direct and indirect income effects, psychosocial and behavioral effects, and structural constraints.

The chapter is centered on assessing the impact of WFP’s food assistance on the food security and nutrition outcomes of rural households in the Mopti region of Mali. In our assessment, we relied on data from a unique precrisis baseline to design a longitudinal, quasi-experimental study based on two survey rounds executed five years apart. Data were collected from 66 communities randomly selected from within food-insecure districts.