SERAP Wants Lagos Government To Pass Social Protection Law

GOVERNOR BABAJIDE SANWO-OLU 

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu led Lagos State Government, LASG, has been tasked to establish a framework that is gender-sensitive and age-appropriate, inclusive of people with disability to ensure a minimum social floor for all Lagos residents for a life of dignity.

The call is apparently in a bid to bridge the gap in social protection intervention. Lagos-based rights advocate, Socio-Economic Rights & Accountability Project, SERAP, made the call at a two-day CSOs review meeting on the Effective Mechanism for Promoting Accountability for Social Protection in the state which was held last Wednesday.

The group further charged the state government to ensure that social protection law is passed for an agency to be given the autonomy to implement initiatives beyond the lifespan of any particular administration.

At the presentation of the research findings by a Senior Program Officer, SPO, at SERAP, Temidayo Omoju, the group noted that social assistance and social insurance schemes are two critical social protection concepts and objectives that must be achieved to reach the goal of caring for the poor and vulnerable and ensure that citizens are lifted out of poverty and attain a life of dignity.

Omoju added that the research work is the first-ever analysis of social protection intervention in Lagos State, and it is one of the early efforts to identify the critical implementation gaps and make visible the barriers that have hindered a robust implementation. 

While adding that the research work is equally intended at providing the information needed to initiate and drive a citizens-led accountability mechanism for holding the government to account for social protection, Omoju stated that: “Lagos State, in order to address the challenges of poverty, introduced the Social Protection Programmes as a component in the ‘Lagos State Development Plan, LASP, between 2012-2015.

"The research, however, noted that programmes which run essentially as social assistance projects are limited in scope, implemented on an ad-hoc basis and lack coordination and continuity due mainly to the absence of a policy framework to guide the implementation of social protection in Lagos State.”

Furthermore, the research noted the importance of data collation, whereby the data of beneficiaries will be disaggregated to ensure that the most vulnerable are the beneficiaries of the initiatives. 

Omoju added: “This is needed to ensure that the right clients are serviced in the state. This includes increasing accessibility to the Lagos State Office Of Disability Affairs, LASODA, for registration, digitalizing the registration process, and reviewing the process of distribution of the various disability intervention funds, where that is necessary.

“The Civil Society Organizations, CSOs, also need to closely monitor spending from the Lagos State Office Of Disability Affairs to promote inclusion of People With Disability, PWDs, in social protection intervention. 

"There is an opportunity for the SPCD to add value to LASODA's annual spending and check the deliverables against the Social Protection Monitoring Evaluation Accountability and Learning Plan.

“Also, Policy Objective four on Market Intervention is an opportunity to have LASG mature in social protection intervention that should reach the grassroots communities. CSOs and other stakeholders should turn attention to these opportunities to trigger investment in these policy measures.”

The research also revealed that the key campaignable issues raised during the field consultations include how the MDAs are driving the message of social protection to the rural communities in Lagos State? What future projects should influence campaigns in the local communities?

Part of the recommendations made includes that success can only be achieved in the implementation of Social Protection in the state if some of the issues raised in the research work are adequately addressed.

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