Rethinking Development in Africa: Social Protection as a Challenge to Neo-Liberal Policies

Ideas about tackling persistent extreme poverty in Africa have grown rapidly over the last decade, largely under the umbrella term social protection” (Ellis and Maliro, 2013:576). Ferguson (2015) and Ellis (2006) have gone a long way towards describing the phenomenon that could be perceived as a new development model. Ellis (2006) has argued that the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region inhabits a highly vulnerable population of peasants and accredits their predicament to neo-liberal policies that cater to the interests of the Global North rather than to the South. Ndhlovu (2017), Ferguson (2015) and Ellis (2006) accordingly advocated for the need to shift the approach of development in Africa by abandoning the European and Eastern model of development to an African centred model of development where African development challenges are contextualized. To do this, they advocate for an approach to development that directly addresses the issue at hand in the SSA region: poverty.