Social protection spending dwindles
LETTICIA MAGOMBO
Government spending on social protection services is set to decline to 1.12% next year from 2.1% in 2022 despite an increase in demand for services.
Despite being a signatory to various international commitments, which set specific thresholds for spending, Zimbabwe has continuously fallen short of its requirements leading to poor service delivery and limited protection for vulnerable parts of the population.
In terms of the Social Policy for Africa, 4.5% of the national budget is to be allocated towards social protection. However, in 2021 only 2.3% of the budget was set aside while in 2022 only 2.1% was utilised.
The Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) in its budget analysis report published last week said that the shortchanging of social protection programmes had been a continuous trend since 2017.
“A trend analysis of Zimbabwe’s social expenditure since 2017 shows that the government has not made sufficient efforts to meet the 4.5% social expenditure benchmark. Of the 6 budget years reviewed, the highest allocation towards expenditure was in 2020 when the government channelled 3.88% to social protection.”
Of the 15 million people living in Zimbabwe, 7.9m are in extreme poverty, 3.8m of people living in rural areas and 1.6m of people living in urban areas are food insecure, 4.6m children have acute malnutrition and 4.8m children are in need of BEAM assistance. Thus, a large number of the population is in need of social protection services.
ZIMCODD said the disproportionate impact of “these challenges” on vulnerable populations, particularly women, children, displaced people and people with disabilities is of great concern and measures should be taken to redress the situation.
“To this end, social protection becomes critical in cushioning the vulnerable and marginalized sectors of the population,” it said.
The coalition also made it clear that the impacts of this lack of funding would not only fall on the people but the government as well.
“If not given the urgent and deserving attention the increasing food insecurity, rising extreme poverty and rising vulnerabilities post Covid-19 will continue to be the prime setbacks for the government’s effort towards protection.
If the situation is not rectified Zimbabwe’s ambitious 2030 vision which aims to foster inclusive economic growth and address poverty resolutely with an initial poverty rate target of 62% by 2030 from 62.5% in 2012 remains a pipedream.”
ZIMCODD thus urged for more to be done to ensure that social protection was available.
However, the organisation commended the efforts of the government to alleviate poverty and ensure the protection of citizens thus far, but emphasised on the need to do more.
“While ZIMCODD commends the efforts undertaken by the government to fight poverty, poverty in Zimbabwe and Africa at large is on an upward trend. This has been exacerbated by the adverse impacts of Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and soaring debt levels. Resultantly, the country has not made significant progress in poverty reduction, reducing the widening inequalities and attainment of SDGs.”
