COVID-19 and the implementation of social protection in Southern Africa: introduction to the special issue

Africa has lagged behind most other parts of the world in terms of the expansion of social protection. Within Africa, Southern Africa has the most extensive coverage and most adequate benefits. When COVID-19 hit the world in 2020, many observers expected that it would accelerate the expansion of social protection across Africa, including Southern Africa. Whilst South Africa introduced a new grant that proved difficult to terminate, most countries in the region provided once-off emergency measures (Namibia, Botswana) or left emergency measures to donors (Zambia, Malawi). Even in South Africa, public opinion about social grants does not seem to have been shifted fundamentally. The urgency of the emergency and the circumstances under lockdowns prompted governments to innovate with respect to digital application and payment systems for their emergency interventions, but even these new systems were not extended to other – and more enduring – social protection programmes.