Towards redistributive social protection? Insights from Senegal and Morocco

Social protection has come to feature more and more prominently on international and national development agendas. This quest for social protection in developing countries raises an important question: how can social protection act and be supported as an instrument for redistribution of wealth at the national level? Assessing and enhancing the redistributive potential of social protection mechanisms requires a multidimensional analysis and approach, encompassing political, technical, institutional and financial considerations. This study reports on a two-phased research combining conceptual work (Fonteneau & Van Ongevalle, 2015) with case studies in Senegal and Morocco in order to build and test a theoretical framework that can guide the assessment of the redistributive potential of social protection mechanisms in a developing context. The study offers in-depth insight into two ongoing social protection reforms: the adoption of Law 65.00 in 2002 on Basic Medical Coverage which initiated the introduction of a mandatory health insurance (AMO) for the formal sector and the establishment of a medical assistance scheme for the economically destitute (RAMED) in Morocco; and the ‘Extension of the health coverage through mutual health organisations in the context of decentralisation’ (DECAM) in Senegal. Based on insights from these two case studies, the study calls for development actors to support a maximalist interpretation of redistributive social protection, to make sure their support to social protection reforms is politically-smart, and to promote a more inclusive and meaningful stakeholder participation in policy making processes. The study demonstrates the need for a multidimensional analysis as well as the usefulness of the proposed theoretical framework to guide a comprehensive assessment of the redistributive potential of social protection mechanisms.