Benefits and Costs of Social Pensions in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper explores the role of universal social pensions in 12 Sub-Saharan African countries, showing that they may be part of the answer to the coverage gap in pensions and may be important from a human rights lens. However, they have limited impact on poverty because a significant share of the elderly population is found not to fall into the poorest and most vulnerable segments of society. Universal social pensions can also be quite costly, difficult to sustain in low-income settings, and less cost-effective at fighting poverty compared to poverty-targeted cash transfer programs. Implementation errors are quite prevalent in universal social pension schemes, contradicting the apparent simplicity of identifying program beneficiaries. The report’s main findings are that a discussion of poverty targeted programs vis-à-vis universal programs is less relevant for policymakers than how to design and implement a policy or a mix of coordinated and harmonized policies under a robust system that allows governments to reach their main objectives of meeting the basic needs of their most vulnerable citizens.