INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Social Protection: Building Effective and Sustainable
Systems for Equitable Growth Perspectives, Policies and
Best Practices
SOCIAL PROTECTION AGENDA IN ZANZIBAR
Mr. Salum Rashid Mohamed
Head of the Social Protection Unit
Department of Social Welfare, Zanzibar
Arusha, Tanzania
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Background
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

In April 2011, the MSWYWCD with support of ILO
engaged consultant to develop social protection
policy for Zanzibar. However, the process did not
deliver the desired output and so abandoned.
1n October 2012, the Ministry with support of
UNICEF started a new process of developing the
SP policy that will safeguard the interest of poor
people and all vulnerable groups in Zanzibar.
Poverty in Zanzibar
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
The population of Z’bar was at 1.303,56 in 2012;
Two official measures of poverty are used in
Zanzibar:
 Food


poverty line: 13%
 Basic needs poverty line: 44.4%
Poverty is much higher in rural Zanzibar (BNP=51%,
FP=17%) than in urban (BNP=36%, FP=8%).
Poverty is also geographically concentrated, being higher
in Pemba than Unguja and higher in north than in south.
Population living in poverty in Zanzibar by District, 2010
Basic needs poverty
Food poverty
Drivers of poverty and vulnerability in
Zanzibar
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
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Income insecurity – which is caused by several factors,
including low cash income, low food production,
unemployment and high levels of informal employment
and self-employment.
Vulnerability to shocks – which is caused by low
coverage of social security, no universal pension, high
prices for imported food, and other risk factors.
Low utilization of basic services – including lack of
nutrition education, low use of ante– and post–natal
care services, and poor child protection services.
Government Plan on social protection
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To put in place a system which facilitates a legal and
institutional establishment of a comprehensive social
protection system integrating both social insurance
(contributory) and a rights based social assistance (noncontributory) framework, and that observes the
principles of subsidiary and participatory management,
and thus protects and prevents citizens’ exposure to
social risks, and hence creating a more equitable
society.
Government Plan on SP…
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The Zanzibar Vision 2020 and MKUZA II recognise
social protection and social security as critical policy
responses to poverty and vulnerability.
“Policy framework for supporting Social Protection
developed and endorsed by 2015” MKUZA
Operational Target 2.6.1
Development process
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
—
—
—
The
process
participatory;
was
Social
Protection
established;
Unit
A
multisectoral
Technical
committee was established
take
part
in
policy
development process;
Steering Committee of PS was
also established to supervise
the process;
Development process…
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


Conduct
situation
analysis on poverty,
vulnerability and social
protection in Zanzibar;
Capacity building;
Development of the
Communication strategy
Zanzibar definition of SP
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
Social protection is a set of actions by government
and non-government actors, that aim to improve the
quality of life in Zanzibar by reducing poverty,
vulnerability and deprivation, providing protection
against shocks, improving access to essential
services, enhancing social inclusion, and promoting
equal rights and opportunities for all.
The policy
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
The policy issues have been divided in to two main
parts:
 Cross-cutting
social protection policy interventions: 4
main issues – financing, coordination, food insecurity
and Unequal distribution of economic growth benefits.
 Social
protection policy interventions by life-cycle
stage: 7 groups – pre-school age children, School-age
children, Adolescents, Working-age adults, pregnant
and lactating women, older persons and PWDs.
Financing social protection in Zanzibar
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
ZSPP identifies four ways of financing SP in
Zanzibar:
 General
taxation;
 Employee contributions;
 Zakat (alms) and Sadaka (charity) - finance social
assistance programmes and delivered by faith-based
organisations;
 Donor fund, notably in provision of social services such
as education and health care.
What were the challenges?
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

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Poor knowledge and understanding of stakeholders
on SP;
Inadequate financial resources to accomplish the
process;
Absence of appropriate organisation arrangement;
Awareness of people on SP was also very low;
How they were overcame
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
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Outsource resource persons to develop the policy;
Formulate local team to work with resource persons
and take part in the policy development process;
Build capacities of stakeholders on SP;
Engage development partners to support the
process;
Sensitize stakeholders and the community.
Implementation arrangements
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


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Develop an implementation roadmap;
Disseminate and building capacity of stakeholders
at all levels;
Develop a legal framework to support social
protection policy implementation;
Create coordination mechanism and strengthen
cross-ministerial coordination;
Design
and
implement
social
assistance
programmes;
Areas of further development
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


Improving coordination of social protection
interventions;
Building knowledge of stakeholders on SP, pension
and other interventions is still low in both national
and local level;
Developing a legal framework to enforce policy
implementation;
Universal pension idea
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

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Zanzibar is determined to introduce universal pension
for all older people of 65+;
The government through the MESWYWC is currently
assessing the feasibility;
Initial assessment has indicated that the government can
provide the pension;
The agenda is still under discussion on how to go
through the process;
The OP identification is previewed for Jan 2015,
together with issuing ID cards to access health care and
transport;
Designing is expected before the end of this fiscal year.
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Thank you for your attention