Southern African Perspectives for Inclusive Welfare: Redefining the Social Policy Discourse for a Sustainable Future

Southern African Perspectives for Inclusive Welfare provides a comprehensive examination of social policy in the Southern African context. Harnessing interdisciplinary insights from various sociological fields, it challenges the conventional welfare approaches that have proven inadequate for the complex realities of the region.

This volume outlines critical aspects that must be understood and addressed to build welfare systems capable of responding to Southern Africa's intensifying polycrisis, which encompasses climate breakdown, poverty, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and deepening governance challenges. Organised across six thematic parts, the book moves from theoretical and political foundations through empirical analyses of specific policy domains towards a synthetic conclusion, highlighting how social policy challenges and innovations manifest across diverse political, ecological, and socio-economic contexts. Each part demonstrates the systemic character of transformative social policy, an outcome that cannot be achieved without confronting the political economy of donor dependency and the epistemological conditions under which social policy knowledge is produced.

With empirical case studies and analyses drawn primarily from contributions within the region, this book will be of great interest to students and academics of social policy and social welfare, as well as development practitioners, civil society organisations, humanitarian agencies, and policymakers.

Emmanuel Ndhlovu is a senior research fellow at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He holds a PhD from the University of South Africa. His research interests include agrarian political economy, food systems, food security, land reform, agriculture and agribusiness, and social policy. His recently authored books include Agriculture, Autonomous Development and Prospects for Industrialisation in Africa and Social Policy in Southern Africa: Prospects and Possibilities. Ndhlovu has edited more than 12 books.

Clement Chipenda is a senior research fellow at the University of South Africa's College of Graduate Studies, where he contributes his expertise to the SARChI Chair in Social Policy. He is also a co-investigator in the research project "The Social Policy Dimensions of Land and Agrarian Reform in International Perspective." His research interests include agrarian political economy, agro-food systems, transformative social policy, children’s rights and child protection, social security, as well as youth and gender studies.