Social Protection in Developing Countries : Reforming Systems

Ensuring universal access to health systems and providing support to the poor and near-poor as well as establishing systems of old age protection are among the core areas of political interest in international development debates. This is the first book to explore from an interdisciplinary and global perspective the reforms of social protection systems which in recent years many governments of low- and middle-income countries have started to introduce. Through case studies of African, Asian, and Latin American countries, the book covers this 'global phenomenon' which unsurprisingly, differs across countries both in terms of scope and speed of institutional change. It addresses on the one hand the major elements impacting on the political feasibility of social protection reforms in order to analyse reform successes and reform failures, and on the other hand the successful strategies in building political and public support for these reforms. Some of the topics considered are: the role different political institutions in explaining institutional change; the impact of external factors or agents (e.g. international donors of development aid) on domestic institutional change; the impact of socio-economic factors on institutional change; the relation between specific contextual features relevant in a developmental context and the political feasibility of social protection reforms; international and constitutional legal requirements ; lessons to be learnt from reform processes in high-income countries. This invaluable book gives students, researchers and practitioners an in-depth understanding of these political reform processes and combines contributions from both academics and practitioner experts in the field of social security.