Addressing Inequality: Framing Social Protection in National Development Strategies

Abstract

It is important to address different inequalities and one way to achieve this is through social protection as a mechanism for redistribution. Achieving social justice and a reduction in inequalities through social protection will also require other policies to be in place. This article suggests that social protection will be most effective at reducing inequalities if it is integrated in a coherent national development strategy (NDS), which provides a framework for policy formulation and linkages, and if policies are rooted in solid analysis to enable them to target specific inequalities. It also argues that NDSs need to be formulated so that they are based on alternative visions of development that give voice to various groups, notably the excluded. ActionAid's NDS project is provided as an example of how to reduce inequalities and advance redistributive and transformative social protection.