The role of social protection benefits during crisis: evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

The effectiveness of social protection during economic shocks depends on two types of benefit: non-shock-responsive benefits, fixed prior to crisis, and automatic stabilisers, which adjust with income or employment losses. We analyse effectiveness in seven Sub-Saharan African countries using tax-benefit microsimulation models and household survey data. Simulating employment losses, we apply a decomposition framework to isolate the role of each benefit type. We find that high pre-crisis coverage of non-shock-responsive benefits in Ghana and Zambia and income related automatic stabilisers in South Africa provide an income floor for poor households. South Africa’s unemployment insurance further mitigates losses among better-off households. In con trast, limited protection is available in Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, where benefits are modest, coverage gaps substantial, and automatic stabilisers ineffective due to ab sent unemployment insurance, reliance on proxy means-tests, and narrow eligibility.