Social protection and governance
Social protection and governance
Besides its important social, economic and poverty-reducing functions and goals, social protection also has intrinsically political ones.
“The political function of social protection systems is to ensure social equilibrium. Social protection systems strengthen social cohesion, enhance the legitimacy of the political system and can prevent social conflict. To be successful in this, social protection systems must be designed and implemented so that they particularly benefit poor and disadvantaged population groups.”
Social protection in this sense can be seen as part of a broad security concept, particularly in terms of what is generally described as internal security: social protection programmes can contribute towards strengthening governance systems and enhancing state legitimacy, which in turn can positively affect democratisation and nation building processes. Democratisation and development are therefore no longer seen in terms of one being a prerequisite for or means of obtaining the other but as necessary and parallel processes which must be simultaneously pursued so that they can reinforce each other. This is particularly applicable for so-called fragile states, such as Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo or Somalia.
Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is particularly important in this. In his report “In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All”, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan describes human security and human development as two sides of the same coin which positively influence each other and are needed to secure life for future generations.