Reducing Exclusion through Social Intervention Programme: Lessons from Implementation of MDGs in Ghana and South Africa

Abstract

Reducing exclusion within and among countries in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa would require basic understanding of the effectiveness of the various policies and programmes currently being implemented to improve welfare. The paper contributes to this discussion through a comparative analysis of the social protection paradigms applied during the era of the Millennium Development Goals in Ghana and South Africa. The authors investigated whether transformative measures such as changing regulatory framework to protect vulnerable groups, operationalizing economic, social and cultural rights of citizens, and public sensitisation campaigns have inbuilt mechanisms for tackling exclusion. The main approach of the study was a review of empirical literature that has examined the paradigms of social protection in the two countries. The study revealed that investment in education and enforcement of laws on social rights could reduce inequality within and between the two countries. It was therefore recommended that much effort should be made to improve investment in education and enforce laws on social rights in order to achieve better results from the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa.