GETSPA at the Social Policy in Africa 2021 Conference

GETSPA was represented at the recently concluded 2021 Social Policy in Africa Conference (SPiA), a biennial scholarly gathering focusing on issues relating to social policy in the African context. Over a four-day period (22-24th November 2021), GETSPA hosted two special plenary sessions devoted to showcasing its research, while its researchers attended the various plenaries and parallel sessions as well as the keynote sessions.

The first plenary, which was chaired by Prof Dzodzi Tsikata, GETSPA Principal Investigator (PI), was on the theme Gender Equitable and Transformative Social Policy for Post-Covid-19 Africa: An Introduction. It featured presentations by Mr Charles Abugre (Ghana), Dr Newman Tekwa (South Africa), and Prof Nana Akua Anyidoho (Ghana).

The second plenary was hosted by Dr Michael Kpessa-Whyte, co-PI, on the theme The Trajectories of Social Policy in Africa. Presenters at this panel were Prof Ramola Ramtohul (Mauritius), Dr Clementina Furtado (Cabo Verde), Dr Adama Sadio (Senegal), and Prof Julius Omona (Uganda).

Prof Tsikata said: “We’re pleased for the opportunity to participate in the 2021 Social Policy in Africa Conference and to showcase the research and capabilities of GETSPA to an international audience, while extending and deepening connections with the broader community of social policy scholars in Africa.”

Apart from the GETSPA plenaries, GETSPA researchers hosted a panel to discuss Social Policy in Francophone Africa. It was chaired by Ramola Ramtohul, with speakers comprising Prof Marie Fall (Senegal), Adama Sadio, Dr Ndeye Faty Sarr (Senegal), and Dr Almamy Sylla (Mali). This important panel brought to the fore the specificities of social policy in Francophone Africa.

GETSPA researchers also participated in other plenaries and panels. These included the opening plenary on Rethinking the Developmental State with Thandika Mkandawire, and the plenary on Rethinking Social Policy in Africa, as well as the panels on Health, Water and Care Economy, and Land, Agriculture and Social Policy, which were chaired respectively by Nana Akua Anyidoho and Newman Tekwa.

The third in the series (following from the 2017 and 2019 conferences), the 2021 SPiA conference was a virtual event hosted at the University of South Africa. It was under the theme Development, Democracy, and Social Policy: Remembering Thandika Mkandawire, to honour the memory and intellectual legacy of the respected, trailblazing scholar of social policy, Thandika Mkandawire.

The Social Policy in Africa Conference is a flagship activity of the South African Research (SARChI) Chair in Social Policy (based in the College of Graduate Studies, University of South Africa), organised with the support of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), and the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD).

GETSPA hopes to deepen its relationship with the SARChI Chair in the coming years.

More information on the conference can be accessed here.