sectoral policies
Addressing all the sources of marginalization require policies and actions that are multi-sec-toral including education, agriculture, labour, housing, water, sanitation, health, judiciary, home affairs, environment, finance and other sectors. These sectors need to ensure that provision of their services is inclusive or equitable in order to achieve social integration.
The national development plan (NDP) or poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP) sets out the development strategy for achieving socio-economic development in a country and the priorities for public expenditure by the government. PRSPs and NDPs are therefore important instruments for mainstreaming social integration in the development agenda
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because they can help capture the importance of social integration to poverty reduction and the achievement of the MDGs; can show how social integration can be mainstreamed in all the relevant sectors; and can thus strengthen the case for increased resources to social integration and social development.
For many decades, social policies were considered in their reduced form as provision of services and "residual" compared to economic policies. This was particularly evident dur
ing the period of structural adjustment in the 1980s and 1990s (Ortiz 2007). Slowly, gov
ernments and development partners have recognized that social policies are a cornerstone of their development strategies and play not only an instrumental role in promoting an inclusive economic development process but also have an intrinsic value in terms of the rights of citizens to live a life they value. The second generation of PRSs is MDG-based and underscores the need for targeted policy interventions critical to address inequality and minimize the possible negative distributional consequences of economic growth. Fur
ther, in stark contrast with the first generation of PRSs, the second generation provides a platform for the empowerment of excluded groups through their participation in the design, formulation and implementation of the PRSs. The objective of mainstreaming social integration goes beyond achieving the delivery of social services but undertaking specific actions that improve equity and equality to all in accessing the services. In this re
spect, governments have and need to continue improving access to social services through specific actions that improve social, economic and political inclusion such as elimination of user fees and other costs and the construction or expansion of new facilities.
Box 3.2 provides an example of how NDP of Zambia 2006-2010 addresses social inte
gration. Although the NDP does not categorically mention social integration, the plan recognizes that redistributive policies do matter for reducing poverty and has embedded strategies to improve inclusive development in all the areas of social service provision -education, health, social protection, employment, water and sanitation. In addition the country has developed specific policies that aim at integrating the socially excluded groups such as OVC, youth, persons with disability and women into mainstream development.
Uganda's Poverty Eradication and Action Plan (PE AP) the country's main policy document on poverty reduction gives special priority to the needs and rights of women and children, and vulnerable and disadvantaged groups and persons. In this context the Uganda Gov
ernment has built four regional schools and plans eighteen subregional schools for special needs educational facilities. Within the Ministry of Education there is a full department that coordinates these activities. A similar scheme is followed at the Ministry of health. A more detailed and comprehensive study is important in reviewing how countries' NDPs or PRSPs have treated social integration issues.
A positive aspect is that at the institutional level the global and regional commitments reveal that social development is increasingly moving from a secondary role within the development agenda towards a more central and intrinsic function in policymaking. More specifically, the notions of what social policy and development represent have progressed from the provision of basic social services, such as education and health, to a more inte
grated, multi-dimensional and rights-based approach.
Placing Social Integration at the Centre of Africa's Development Agenda
African governments, including ministers of finance, have begun to acknowledge that social development has not only an intrinsic value with respect to the rights of its citizens, but also an instrumental role in contributing to achieving sustainable, inclusive economic development and the MDGs. Consequently, the development debate has shifted its focus towards a people-centred notion, in which the human beings should be considered as the main participant and beneficiary of development.
Box 3.5
Summary of inclusion of social integration issues in the Zambia Fifth National Development Plan (NDP) 2006-2010
The Fifth National Development Plan addresses social integration in several areas:
• In education the Plan aims to develop flexible and inclusive education programmes that provide mechanisms for increasing equitable access to quality basic education for children with special educational needs and OVC; improves gender parity in all levels of education; scale up school health and nutrition; provide bursaries, grants, scholarships and fellowships targeted to vulnerable groups; and provide appropriate infrastructure and facilities to enhance increased enrolment that is inclusive of vulnerable and disadvantaged learners in the basic skills and technical education, vocational and entrepreneurship training institutions.
• Under disability, the government plans to put in place deliberate and effective interventions that will accelerate progress towards the attainment of the rights and needs of persons with disabilities. In particular, a deliberate effort shall be made by the Government to: communicate more effectively with those with impaired vision and hearing through the provision of sign language and braille facilities; developing inclusive mainstream policies; review of existing pieces of legislation; the establishment and/or strengthening of institutions and systems that aim to effectively address the challenges facing people with disabilities; and improve the access of persons with disabilities to education, health care, and social security.
• In health - the NDP addresses the issue of health equity. The health vision of the National Development Plan is stated as: Equitable access to cost-effective and quality health care by 2030. The plan identifies priority programmes and priority areas that will be used during the NDP to improve equity in health such as expansion of community level health services, free health services and targeted fee exemptions at public facilities.
• In agriculture, the NDP plans to ensure gender equity in the provision of effective services such as animal drought power; agricultural inputs; agricultural training; land and technologies that will ensure sustainable agricultural growth.
• Under social protection, the government plans to contribute to the security of all vulnerable Zambians by ensuring that incapacitated and low capacity households have sufficient livelihood security to meet basic needs, and are protected from the worst impacts of risks and shocks.
• Under housing, the government aims to promote gender equality in access to housing.
• Under child and youth development, the government aims to improve gender equity in all activities, include OVCs and other vulnerable groups in development interventions, and strengthen youth participation in development processes.
• Under water and sanitation, the government aims to promote sustainable water resources development and sanitation with a view to facilitate an equitable provision of adequate quantity and quality for all users at acceptable costs and ensuring security of supply under varying conditions.
• The country has a specific plan to promote gender equality; developed a national policy on disability but no implementation plan has been put in place to realize its objectives; a national youth policy to promote inclusion of youth in development.
Source: Government of Zambia, 2006.
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