RHVP recently participated in a meeting, from which the following communiqué was an outcome, held in Carmona, Spain, at which social welfare and cash transfer experts gathered to examine evidence emerging from three systematic reviews exploring linkages between social welfare services and cash transfers. The meeting was a follow-up to the London consultation held in 2007 on Advancing Policy Relevant Research Around Social Welfare Services and meeting delegates specifically focused on findings from the reviews relating to integration of social welfare services and cash transfers in Ghana, Chile, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Kenya. Evaluation initiatives from existing programmes and future initiatives were also examined in terms of social welfare elements, measurement and future potential in integrating such concepts into provision and evaluation.

This policy dialogue, organised by RHVP and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Forum, was held in Gauteng, South Africa from the 30th to 31st March 2009, with the primary aim of raising greater awareness among parliamentarians within SADC on the benefits of social transfers in the fight against poverty, thereby making them proponents of this policy option. It also provided a forum for parliamentarians from across the region to share their views and experiences on this issue. After two days rich in discussion, a communiqué was then drafted to capture the proceedings and summarise what the dialogue session was all about, as well as record the salient points to which the Members of Parliament have committed.

At the close of yesterday's G20 London Summit, an official communiqué was issued outlining some key decisions made by the leaders of the world's largest economies to address the global financial crisis, one of which is to provide $50 billion to support social protection, boost trade and safeguard development in low income countries.

Later this year, a new - and independent - wahenga.net will be launched. The new site will keep much of the character of the current wahenga.net, which has established a strong reputation for broadening mindsets and raising awareness, but will widen its scope from just focusing on social protection to becoming a regional gateway for hunger and vulnerability issues.

The Social Protection In Africa book, by Frank Ellis, Stephen Devereux and Philip White, is now available and can be purchased at a discounted rate online through Edward Elgar Publishers at http://www.e-elgar-publicpolicy.com/Bookentry_Main.lasso?id=13393.

Lesotho's Budget Speech to Parliament for the 2009/2010 Fiscal Year has heralded good news for the elderly and Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) of Lesotho, with promises of increases in both the Old Age Pension and the Child Support Grant.

RHVP has put together a database outlining various potential training partners - from universities and other tertiary institutions to development agencies, NGOs and research institutes - in the field of social protection and related areas.

As part of its remit to build evidence on innovative approaches to develop better, more dynamic ways of tackling both acute hunger and chronic, predictable vulnerability, the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme undertook a pilot project to see how vulnerable people benefit from cell phones.

Table indicating purpose of support, impact to date and key partners.

Table indicating purpose of support, impact to date and key partners.

Table indicating purpose of support, impact to date and key partners.

Table indicating purpose of support, impact to date and key partners.

Table indicating purpose of support, impact to date and key partners.

Table indicating purpose of support, impact to date and key partners.

Around the world developing countries are increasingly recognising the value of social transfer programmes in reducing extreme poverty - with success stories in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI), together with the Maastricht University and the University of Cape Town (UCT), is offering a two-week course aimed at providing participants with an in-depth understanding of the conceptual and practical issues involved in the development of social transfer programmes. Participants will acquire tools required for the appropriate identification and successful design and implementation of these programmes. This course will be held in Cape Town, South Africa from 26 July to 8 August 2009.

As climate change, food and fuel price volatility and growing global financial crisis all threaten progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, there are increasing calls for new and expanded social protection programmes in low income countries. It is in this context that Social Protection in Africa, by Frank Ellis, Stephen Devereux and Philip White, provides a timely and comprehensive account of the ideas, principles and practicalities of establishing effective social protection in Africa.

In response to a need for sustainable and predictable ways of addressing hunger and vulnerability, RHVP is providing support to strengthening Vulnerability Analysis and Assessment (VAA) systems throughout the SADC region. In the last six months, some of the ways RHVP has done this are by providing technical support to improve VAA, supporting inter-country learning for technical practitioners and developing methodologies and systems for improved VAA.

Hunger and famine are not due to food shortages alone. It is people's ability to gain access to enough food which determines if they suffer. This manual, co-financed by RHVP, sets out the Household Economy Approach (HEA) - Save the Children's widely-used methodology for analysing the impact of crop failure on household income and access to food.

As well as anticipating food shortages and other emergencies, HEA is a useful tool in designing development programmes and shaping policy.

RHVP was invited to make a presentation on social transfers at the 24th Plenary Assembly of the SADC Plenary Forum, held recently at the Arusha International Conference Centre in Tanzania. The Plenary Assembly was attended by 100 Members of Parliament, including Speakers, for the 14 SADC counties. As reported by the Daily News of Tanzania, a communiqué released at the end of the week-long meeting, "called on the governments to scale up social transfers to the poor, including cash to the elderly, the poor and vulnerable groups in efforts to achieve millennium development goals, given the fact that southern Africa was the poorest and was unlikely to achieve the set global and regional goals. Moreover, cash transfers to the poor has proved to be a viable and practical poverty alleviation strategy. Earlier during presentations, the meeting was told that cash transfer to the needy has managed to scale down poverty in Lesotho and Zambia."

RHVP is pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of Social Protection in Africa by Edward Elgar Publishing, which is due to appear in paperback and hardback in early 2009.

Based on the REBA studies and examination of large social protection programmes elsewhere in Africa, Social Protection in Africa explores the shift in thinking about how best to tackle chronic hunger and vulnerability, from a reliance on emergency responses - mainly in the form of food aid - towards predictable, guaranteed provision for those most affected.

The African Civil Society Platform for Social Protection will be presenting a statement at the African Union Ministerial Meeting on Social Protection, taking place in Windhoek on the 30^th and 31^st of October, to emphasise the potential role of social protection in combating hunger and poverty in Africa and the need for joint public, private and civil society collaboration. To read the statement click one of the following languages:

• ENGLISH
• FRENCH
• PORTUGUESE

The Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme (RHVP) in southern Africa is pleased to announce the commencement of a two-year extension, from 1 October 2008. During this time we will continue our commitment to addressing hunger and vulnerability responses and extend our focus countries to the whole SADC region. RHVP's website, www.wahenga.net, will also continue to serve as a gateway to social protection. The full set of materials produced during Phase 1 of the Programme is available for downloading from www.wahenga.net, including policy briefs on social transfers and the Regional Evidence Building Agenda's (REBA) case study and thematic briefs and films.

Nicholas Freeland, Programme Director of RHVP, was invited to be part of the panel to launch The Chronic Poverty Report 2008-09: Escaping Poverty Traps in Bruxelles on 17 July 2008. The event was hosted by the European Working Group on Social Protection and Decent Work and was held at the International Press Centre. The First Chronic Poverty Report, published in 2004, highlighted the key processes by which many millions of people are trapped in chronic poverty. This second report, which draws on research carried out over three years, provides a policy response to the first. And for the 320 to 443 million people trapped in chronic poverty, it presents a set of policy solutions, with an emphasis on tackling exclusion, extending social protection and building assets.

The RHVP National Social Protection Awareness Day in Malawi, which took place on 2 July 2008, kicked off with a day event, open to all, led by civil society (particularly the Institute for Policy Research and Social Empowerment) at the Mitundu High School in Lilongwe district. An evening event was then held for invited guests at the Capital Hotel. The events were used as a platform to bring together various stakeholders involved in social protection, hear about beneficiary experiences of cash transfers, and look to the future of social protection in Malawi.

On the 15^th of May 2008, the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme, together with the launch of its series of short films profiling social transfer programmes across southern Africa, hosted an expert panel discussion on Food price inflation: the role of social protection in combating food insecurity.

Panellists included Professor Coleen Vogel (University of the Witwatersrand), Dr Sheshi Kaniki (Economic Policy Research Institute), John Rook (Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme), and Duncan Samikwa (a representative of the Southern African Development Community).

For a summary of the debate, click here

The RHVP National Social Protection Awareness Day, which took place in Maseru, Lesotho on the 22^nd of May 2008, was used as a platform to focus on the roles various stakeholders play in making a meaningful contribution to social protection, including civil society, the private sector, Chieftainship and government.

At the Awareness Day, Her Majesty Queen Masenate Mohato Seeiso of Lesotho, who has been a champion of social protection with the support of the spouses of Principal Chiefs, said that RHVP has brought to prominence a new dimension on the way in which Chieftainesses, as mothers of the nation, could discharge their responsibility to reduce vulnerability in communities. She also expressed gratitude to RHVP for successfully positioning social protection as an agenda to be owned and driven jointly by government, chiefs and civil society.

This series of briefs was prepared by Stephen Devereux, Frank Ellis and Philip White, and provides a regional synthesis of findings of both the 12 thematic studies and the 20 individual case studies of social transfer schemes undertaken under the Regional Evidence Building Agenda (REBA). The themes explored in these briefs are the six addressed in the original REBA design: vulnerability, targeting, coordination and coverage, cost-effectiveness, markets, and asset protection and building. Each of these themes was covered by respective thematic studies in two of RHVP’s six priority countries, and was illustrated in each of the 20 case studies. Also included in the series are briefs on two additional themes that have emerged during the implementation of the REBA work as being of particular interest and policy relevance: delivery mechanisms and social pensions.

On the 15^th of May RHVP launched its series of short films Social transfers in practice: evidence from southern Africa to the media and public in Johannesburg, South Africa. Each film outlines the history and functioning of a major social transfer programme and combines expert opinions from the implementing ministries and organisations with beneficiary experiences. The programmes include Lesotho's Old Age Pension, Malawi's Input Subsidy Programme, Mozambique's Food Subsidy Programme, Swaziland's Initiatives to assist Orphans and Vulnerable Children, and Zambia's Social Cash Transfer. Each film can be viewed online, in both high and low resolution, at http://www.wahenga.net/index.php/video_amp_audio_clips/. For a copy of the DVD please send your contact details to .

The impact of providing the poor and vulnerable with regular pensions or grants – as opposed to food aid, a voucher, or agricultural subsidies – may not be dramatic immediately, but is far-reaching in the long-term. This paper provides evidence for the impacts of income grants at different levels (from the individual beneficiary, through the household and community, to national level), drawing on findings from the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme’s (RHVP) regional evidence-building agenda (REBA) in southern Africa, as well as from elsewhere in Africa.

RHVP is currently sponsoring a series of radio programmes focusing on social protection on Zodiak FM in Malawi. They take the form of a panel discussion in which various stakeholders are able to share their views including policy experts, Parliamentarians, members of civil society and ordinary Malawian citizens. The aim of the programmes is to stimulate wider public debate on social protection and to create awareness of the national process that is underway to draft a social protection policy for Malawi.

Against the background that the process of developing the Social Protection policy and programmes in Malawi can only be participatory if the process allows for an open and inclusive national dialogue, RHVP, together with IPRSE, organised a media training workshop in Blantyre on the 8^th and 9^th of December, 2007. The rationale behind the workshop was that a possible way of achieving national dialogue on Social Protection is through the media as a forum for dialogue on poverty-related issues by all relevant stakeholders.

The training workshop had the participation of 15 journalists from different media houses including prominent news papers, the daily times, the nation, Montfort Media, Guardian News Paper and also radio stations like Malawi Broad Casting cooperation, Capital Radio 102.5, MIJ, and Joy FM and Malawi Television.

IPRSE, with support from RHVP, held an awareness event with chairpersons of parliamentary committees on the 14^th of December 2007. The event was also attended by DFID, Government, Concern Worldwide and other Social Protection Policy Technical Committee members. The event was held to build awareness and understanding of social transfers and their role in addressing chronic hunger and vulnerability.

The African Civil Society Platform for Expanded Social Protection aims to develop effective national social protection policies and programmes. Recognising that this can be best achieved if both citizens and civil society organisations are engaged, a national consultation process was put in place, lead by Grow Up Free From Poverty (GUFFP) across Africa and by RHVP at national level.

Speaking at a recent national consultation with the African Union (AU), Mozambique's Minister for Women and Social Affairs defended social protection not only as a civil right, but also as an investment. She also focused on the importance of the gradual scaling-up of the present efforts, particularly for the Food Subsidy Programme. Both RHVP’s Country Coordinator and Policy Dialogue Facilitator also presented at the consultation.

According to a report in The Times of Swaziland, a fund dealing specifically with the distribution of money for the elderly will soon be established in Swaziland. The fund, called the Social Welfare Assistance Fund, will ensure that the elderly are paid fairly and in time and should begin operating in April or May this year. The fund is also in the process of forming criteria that will be set and written for purposes of standardisation. The budget, which was previously E50 million, has increased to E94 million in the hope of benefiting the elderly.

Source: The Times of Swaziland, 22 February 2008

The Household Economy Approach (HEA) is a livelihoods-based framework for analysing the way people obtain food, non-food goods and services, and how they might respond to changes in their external environment - a negative shock, such as a drought or crop failure, or a positive policy change, such as a cash transfer scheme.

Several recent events and workshops stand testimony to the fact that Zambia is putting the issue of social protection firmly on its agenda. RHVP sponsored a series of radio discussion programmes around social protection and several stakeholders, including officers from the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services, featured on the programmes.

Decorreu de 16 a 29 de Setembro do ano em curso, na Cidade Sul Africana do Cabo, um curso de formação em matéria de desenho e Implementação de Programas de Transferências Sociais. A formação organizada pela Economic Policy Research Institute(EPRI) da Universidade de Cape Town, contou com participantes de diferentes países de África e Ásia, incluindo Moçambique que esteve representado por dois funcionários do MMAS, nomeadamente Sra Lucia Bernardete Mairosse(DINAS) e Félix Matusse(Chefe Dep. Idoso). A participação destes técnicos foi possível graças ao apoio financeiro do UNICEF e RHVP respectivamente.

With the objective of consolidating cooperation in the context of social protection in Mozambique, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on the 16^th of November 2007 between the Ministry for Women and Social Affairs (MMAS) and the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme (RHVP). The MMAS was represented by the Minister, Virgília dos Santos Matabele, accompanied by the members of consultative counselling of the ministry. Programme Manager, John Rook, accompanied by the Mozambique Country Coordinator, Anabela Mabota, represented RHVP.

Obtaining input for the national policy for the elderly in Malawi was the subject of a recent RHVP-sponsored workshop held in Lilongwe on 28^th-30^th October 2007. The workshop was well attended by a range of people, including representatives of civil society and high level government officials, out of which four were Members of Parliament.

A workshop on "Social protection as a mechanism for social inclusion", co-sponsored by RHVP and the ILO with the Ministry for Women and Social Affairs (MMAS) was held in Maputo, Mozambique on 23-24th August 2007 and attended by over 70 representatives of government departments and NGOs.

One of the key lessons to have emerged from RHVP's Regional Evidence Building Agenda (REBA) is that social protection initiatives have a much better chance of success and sustainability if they are nationally designed, developed and owned - and respond to the felt needs of the actual beneficiaries - than they do if they are donor-driven or externally-imposed.

A fundamental reappraisal is currently taking place about how best to tackle the chronic poverty and hunger which are prevalent, and increasing, throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa. Typically, governments and donors have reacted to these problems only after they have become acute. Moreover, responses tend to be reactive and short-lived, focusing on humanitarian assistance; and, once the crisis has been alleviated, attention drifts away and the problem is forgotten until another "emergency" once more pushes it into the headlines.

This brief reviews the Integrated Food Security and Humanitarian Phase Classification (IPC). This is a system for defining the severity of a situation (from 'generally food secure' to 'humanitarian catastrophe'), based on a wide range of indicators of the impact of hazard events on human health and welfare. The IPC is being seen as a major step forward in improving food security information systems and response mechanisms to addressing hunger and vulnerability. However, it also has a number of significant weaknesses which need to be addressed before it can be rolled out.

RHVP has begun a radio project in Lesotho, aimed at stimulating widespread discussion of issues related to Social Protection. The Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme (RHVP) has begun a radio project in Lesotho, aimed at stimulating widespread discussion of issues related to Social Protection.