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Ghana has also taken some steps in applying a rights-based approach to its social protection design and delivery of programmes. Although the Ghana government had initiated diverse social protection programmes,  there remains a challenge in enshrining legislations to strengthen the delivery of these programmes. The Livelihoods Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), the Labour-Intensive Public Works (LIPW), the Basic Education Capitation Grants, the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), Planting for Food and Jobs and the Free Senior High School are all yet to be enshrined in National Law. This has implications for the permanence of these programmes in the context of changes in political power, limited fiscal space, and how these programmes are perceived by the public and policymakers.

Ghana is in the process of developing a social protection law as well as reviewing the social protection policy.  Through the support of the Rights-based Social protection Programme that is supported by FES Zambia the Civil Society Platform for Social Protection, Ghana is currently promoting CSO engagement with this process. Key activities under this include the review of the draft social protection Bill 2020, awareness-raising among CSOs on the gaps identified in the Bill, and advocacy forums with relevant government agencies. The project objectives include strengthening pubic participation in the legal and policy process as well as promote rights-based principles in the draft policy and draft Bill.

APSP and its local platform in Kenya, the Social Protection Actors Forum (SPAF) have continued to engage with the legal and policy processes on social protection in Kenya. In 2018, through the support of FES Zambia ( Rights-Based Social Protection Project), APSP held a high-level policy engagement with Members of Parliament from the Departmental Committee on Labour and Social Welfare. This forum was key in enhancing the understanding of lawmakers and other stakeholders on the then proposed Social Protection Bill 2018. With support from legal experts, the workshop involved a clause by clause analysis of the Bill, and then gaps that were identified were packaged into a policy brief for further advocacy.

In 2019, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection in Kenya developed a draft social protection policy, to guide the implementation of social protection programmes in Kenya. Through the Rights-based Social protection project, APSP supported the engagement of Civil Society Organizations in the policy discourse. Apart from holding a stakeholder meeting, APSP also had a meeting with the Social protection Secretariat, under the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection to share the outcomes of the stakeholder forum.

At the end of 2019, the National Treasury began a process of establishing a Social Assistance Fund, under the Public Finance Management Act 2012. APSP ad its partners submitted a memorandum to the National Treasury on the proposed regulations establishing the fund under the National treasury.

In 2020, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection June 2020  tabled a bill in Parliament, repealing the Social Assistance Act 2013, and establish a Social Assistance Fund under the Public Finance Management Act 2012.  The Parliament of Kenya requested submissions on this process in July 2020. APSP and the local stakeholders held webinars to develop a common position on the draft (Repeal) Bill. The stakeholders drafted a memorandum which was also shared with the Clerk of the National Assembly as well as other stakeholders.

APSP is working closely with a team of legal experts in strengthening the participation of civil society actors in this process. Since the legal and policy process is continuous, there is a need for continuous technical support by the legal experts.

The informal sector represents a large and growing share of the economy and the labor force in Uganda. The Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS) Report of 2009/10 indicates that there were a total of 1.8 million informal businesses. Extending social security to informal sector workers remains a challenge due to a variety of reasons. In the informal economy jobs and businesses are largely not registered or protected by the State. Workers in this sector do not enjoy any social benefits and are inherently vulnerable and insecure. They are excluded from any social safety nets and lack the legal protection accorded by formal labor contracts.

The APSP and the Uganda Platform for Social protection reviewed available literature on the informal economy sector in Uganda for purposes of identifying policy gaps in the extension of social protection to the informal economy.

In 2019, through the Rights-based social protection project, APSP held a stakeholder forum for informal economy workers. The forum was held to identify gaps in social protection for informal workers, particularly in health insurance. A policy brief was developed and the Uganda Platform for Social Protection continues to hold advocacy forums to enhance legal provisions for informal sector workers.

The Kenyan government has recently introduced a Bill to repeal the Social Assistance Act 2013. The Social Assistance (Repeal) Bill 2020 seeks to repeal the Social Assistance Act 2013, which was assented to in 2013 but has never been operationalized 7 years later. The reason or object of the repeal is to enable the operationalization of the Social Assistance Fund, under draft regulations through the Public Finance Management Act 2012.

The Social Assistance Act of 2013 was passed to enhance the provision of social assistance and related services to vulnerable populations in Kenya. The Social Assistance Act 2013 provides parameters of those who qualify to receive social assistance. It also sets different situations where social assistance may be provided. These include in emergencies, short term or long term basis, and in special circumstances.

The Act also provides for the establishment of a Social Assistance Authority as an institutional mechanism for the provision of social assistance and other key services to vulnerable people.

The government's intention to set up a Social Assistance Fund under the Ministry of Finance and National Treasury is misguided. One wonders why the government is keen to repeal the Social Assistance Act 2013, using regulations under the Public Finance Management Act 2012. In 2019, when the government asked for memoranda on the proposed regulations, civil society stakeholders were categorical that the move to develop regulations on social assistance under the PFMA 2012 should be totally rejected.

Social Assistance is not just limited to providing grants to those in need, but it includes different aspects of social protection and social services. The provision of grants is just one facet of social assistance. Social assistance takes different forms it can be cash grants, food donations of food stamps, food for work, and it could also be cash for work programs among other instruments. The Social Assistance Act 2013 had also anticipated other needs that the beneficiaries have beyond cash, including psychosocial support, rehabilitation, and community development. Moreover, social protection approaches are diverse including a provision (which includes the provision of grants or food items), preventive (cushioning people against risks and shocks for example through insurance), promotive (includes interventions that strengthen livelihoods and productivity), and transformation (which includes policies and programs that promote equity and empowerment including promoting social and economic rights).

It is therefore unlikely that the Ministry of Finance and National Treasury would integrate all these services in the design of the social assistance fund. Social protection goes beyond cash transfers, and this is one reason why its implemented under the Ministry in charge of social services because it requires a holistic approach.

It is also notable that social protection has three pillars which include social assistance (cash transfers, currently consolidated into the Inua jamii program), social security (the National Social Security Fund), and Health Insurance (The National Health Insurance Fund). The other two pillars of social protection, namely the social security and health insurance both operate through substantive laws ;- The National Social Security Act and the National Health Insurance Act respectively. It is highly unlikely that these two pillars will be recreated under the Public Finance Management Act. It has always been our contention that the social assistance pillar remains the weakest link in social protection since the substantive law has not been operationalized. Additional social security and health insurance have through their respective Acts solid institutional mechanisms ( the NSSF and the NHIF Boards).

Previous reviews on the Social Assistance Act 2013 indicate that the proposed National Social Assistance Authority is not tenable; however there is a need for the government to have clarity on the institutional arrangement and governance of social assistance programs, but certainly not an implementation structure under the Ministry of Finance and National Treasury. The Ministry of Finance and National Treasury can form part of the governance structures that enhances the monitoring of funds, but not the direct implementation of such funds. The funds that have been established under the Government Financial Management regulations including the Women Enterprise Fund and the youth funds seem to be limited to the disbursement and repayments of loans.

Since 2004, some of the social assistance programs that have been initiated by the government include the cash transfer programs that have been implemented include the cash transfer for the elderly (OP-CT), cash transfer for Persons with Severe Disability ( PWSD-CT), and cash transfer for Orphans and Vulnerable Children ( CT-OVC), which are now consolidated into one program the inua jamii program.

Cumulatively, the exchequer makes available about 26 billion shillings annually for the cash transfer programs, with each beneficiary entitled to 2000 shillings per month, payable every second month. 1.2 households or 6 million people benefit from the cash transfer programs. The establishment of the Social Assistance Fund under the PFMA amounts to duplicity and will cause confusion with the ongoing social assistance programs.

There have been different legal processes undertaken by the government in a bid to come up with a new law on social assistance and social protection. These processes include Social Protection Council Bill 2014, The Social Protection Bill 2016, The Public Finance Management (Social Assistance Fund )Regulations 2019, and more recently the Social Assistance Fund Bill 2019( under the PFMA 2012) .

The undertaking of various processes in a bid to come up with a social assistance or social protection law in the last five years points to the lack of clarity by the government on how the social assistance pillar of social protection should be undertaken.

Repealing of the Social Assistance Act 2013 to do away with it as provided in the objects of the Social Assistance Fund (Repeal) Bill 2020 will not cure any gaps in that law. Instead of repealing the Social Assistance Act 2013 in order to do away with it, it will be prudent to repeal to enhance it.