Wise Words On Paper, Nothing On The Table

The state has once again blessed us with a masterpiece of bureaucratic poetry designed to dazzle the eye while leaving the stomach entirely empty.

Meeting under the African Union’s Specialised Technical Committee on Social Development, Labour and Employment last week in Windhoek, ministers agreed to accelerate the roll-out of comprehensive social protection systems that reach workers in the informal economy, rural communities, migrant workers and other vulnerable groups.

Our leaders have now defined social protection as an inviolable “fundamental human right for all”.

It is, they assure us with straight faces, a grand mechanism to enable citizens to cope with risks across their life cycle, a central engine for pro-poor economic growth, and a profound investment in human capital.

How comforting to know that while one starves, one does so under the warm, protective umbrella of a world-class definition.