Social Protection II

Description What is done in the programme or project and why, what results are pursued, who benefits from the activities and who are involved in the implementation.

Social protection II project will assist the Government of Zambia to achieve the overall objective of the National Social Protection Policy to contribute to the wellbeing of all Zambians by ensuring that the most vulnerable people have sufficient income security to meet the basic needs and protection from the worst impacts of risks and shocks. The programme is implemented by Government of Zambia, UN organizations, Finland and other cooperating donors. The specific outcome of the program are the following: 1) to expand the social protection coverage providing financial assistance to Social Cash Transfers 2) to Strengthen integrated delivery systems for social protection through policy-wide technical assistance 3) to improve communication about social protection as a human right and to improve the political commitment. The program benefits the poorest and the most vulnerable members of the society. The aim is to cover 20% of the poorest households with impaired capacity for the work nation wide through social cash transfer. The women and girls are taken into account, most of the beneficiaries are women. Support of the previous projects has resulted in reduced poverty gap with 11 percentage points and increased school enrolment of Children with 19 percentage points in the targeted areas. The current project outlines arrangements for financial assistance to Social Cash Transfers Programme (6 MEUR, 2 MEUR/year) and technical assistance (3,573 500 EUR), for the period 2016-2018. The funds are coordinated through existing mechanisms. Technical assistance will be delivered through UN Agencies in Zambia coordinated by UNICEF (ONE UN system). Evaluations of the previous projects show continued evidence of poverty gap reductions as well as that 95 percentage of the householdsreceiving the support are living in the extreme poverty. The Program is HRBA progressive corresponding the Development Policy goals of Finland. According to OECD reports social protection provides essential support to vulnerable members of society and directly reduces poverty. It also helps to reduce gender disparities in human development outcomes, thus the improvement of the Social Protection Programme in Zambia is important. The Programme contributes directly to SDG-1, SDG-5 and SDG-10.