Whose (Transformative) Reality Counts? A Critical Review of the Transformative Social Protection Framework

The Relationship between the Child Support Grant and Teenage Fertility in Post-Apartheid South Africa

“…One alternative approach, the Transformative Social Protection framework, is based on the notion that social protection is a basic human right and addresses concerns about social justice and exclusion (such as exploitation of workers) to enable poor people to achieve sustainable livelihoods (Holzmann et al ., 2003; Devereaux and Sebates-Wheeler, 2004, 2007a). Criticisms of this approach include: setting a sweeping transformative agenda for the poor could be patronising and arguably an assertion of outside power; and parts of the agenda may be contested by the people who are meant to benefit from it, as in the case of child labour where livelihoods might be harmed by a ban on child labour (Aoo et al ., 2007). Yet, despite the different approaches to social protection, there are common grounds, including safety nets (which may include cash transfers), insurance and labour market interventions and social services (Gentiline and Omamo, 2011).…”