Promoting gender equitable social policy in Africa post Covid-19: new multi-country project takes off

An inception workshop has been held to mark the start of Gender Equitable and Transformative Social Policy for Post-COVID-19 Africa (GETSPA), a new multi-country project led by the Institute of African Studies (IAS), University of Ghana, with the mission to transform -- through research and constituency building activities -- the approaches to social policymaking and implementation in Africa.

An inception workshop has been held to mark the start of Gender Equitable and Transformative Social Policy for Post-COVID-19 Africa (GETSPA), a new multi-country project led by the Institute of African Studies (IAS), University of Ghana, with the mission to transform -- through research and constituency building activities -- the approaches to social policymaking and implementation in Africa.

The two-day workshop brought together the project team to network and discuss a range of issues pertinent to the successful implementation of the project. These included fundamental project goals and key activities, conceptual and methodological issues, project deliverables and timelines, and governance and management. It was held 1 and 2 April 2021 via zoom, hosted by the IAS-based GETSPA secretariat. 

The project, which is a Pan-African initiative, involves research teams from over 25 countries on the continent, and currently examines the historical role and value proposition attached to social policy in development discourse and practice in African countries. It is aimed at generating evidence-based insights to guide social policy formulation and implementation especially in the post-COVID era.

“This project is about community; it’s about co-creating a community of committed scholars and practitioners of social policy to change the landscape of social policy in Africa,” said Prof. Dzodzi Tsikata, Principal Investigator of GETSPA, as she welcomed participants to the workshop.

Members of the project team took turns to express their excitement about the project. Not only does it provide an avenue for them to experience the unique learning opportunities that a comparative multi-country project affords, it also makes it possible for them to contribute towards the realization of an agenda for transformative and gender equitable social policy for Africa’s development.

Started in January 2021 with initial funding support from Open Society Initiatives for Africa, GETSPA is focused on understanding the framing and value propositions underpinning social policy; the assumptions about the role of the state, markets and society; the interface between social and economic policies; and the socio-economic development outcomes of social policy, particularly in terms of gender, class and spatial inequalities. It is designed to learn from the experiences of as many African countries as possible to allow for effective comparative analysis and creative lesson-drawing. To this effect, the project is focused on ten country clusters spanning West, East, Central, North and Southern Africa.

For more information on GETSPA, please contact getspa.ias@ug.edu.gh