Africa is now in a much-improved position to support its poor and vulnerable people. It has more money, more policy commitment and abundant intervention programmes. Yet the number of citizens living lives of desperation, or at risk of destitution, is at an all-time high, and still rising. What is turning such positive prospects into such a disappointing result? This book reveals key answers, drawing on empirical studies of cash transfer programmes in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda. The studies uncover the motives of donors, politicians and the poor themselves and why governments are not expanding the donor-driven pilot programmes as expected.

1. Politics, Public Policy and Social Protection in Africa: An Introduction and Overview

2. Political Patronage And The Expansion Of Cash Transfer Programmes In Kenya

3. The Scope and Limits of Ghana's "Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty" Programme

4. Public Policy, intergovernmental Politics and the Piloting of Cash Transfers in Nigeria

5. Social Assistance As Election Bait: The Expansion Of Senior Citizens' Cash Transfer Programme in Uganda

6. Social Contract In The Absence Of A Written Policy: Provision Of Social Assistance In Botswana

7. Conclusion: Reluctant Domestic and Enthusiastic International Actors of Cash Transfer Programmes in Africa

Nicholas Awortwi holds PhD (cum laude) from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University and is currently the Director of Research for Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR), Nairobi, Kenya.

E. Remi Aiyede is Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.