The Novissi Programme in Togo: An Innovative Social Protection Approach

In this short writing, I would like to explore an innovative* social protection approach that has been focused on mitigating the impact of Covid-19 on the informal sector workers in the African region. My decision to focus on the African region in terms of the informal sector is due to the fact that “eight out of ten workers in Africa are in informal employment, the highest share among all regions” (Kiaga & Leung, 2020, p. 3). My focus on the informal workers, on the other hand, is because informal sector workers are often excluded from social protection, but they usually are the ones who are the most affected by sudden shocks and risks (Bodewig et al. 2020; Guven et al. 2021; UNDP 2021).

Although Covid-19 has greatly affected livelihoods, it has also presented opportunities to strengthen social protection systems to become more resilient to crises. The digitalisation of the social protection platforms for registration and transfers has, for example, presented an opportunity to register previously unregistered vulnerable populations to the social protection schemes. As Guven et al. (2021) note “The pandemic underlined the increasing importance of digital social protection platforms. While some governments expanded coverage to existing safety net beneficiaries, many looked for ways to provide emergency relief to the informal economy, particularly the urban residents who had been affected the most” (p.15). Nevertheless, people in the informal sector were not involved in the existing government databases. Therefore, reaching previously unreached informal workers required social protection providers to develop novel ways to extend beneficiary registries (Bodewig et al., 2020; Guven et al., 2021). During the Covid-19 pandemic, these novel ways included registry by mobile phones via SMS and Whatsapp (Bodewig et al., 2020). 

Togolese Government, for instance, launched a cash transfer programme (the Novissi programme) to mitigate the negative financial effects of Covid-19 and poverty on Togolese citizens (Guven et al., 2021). To be eligible for the programme, the applicants had to be Togolese citizens, be informal workers and be 18 years or older. Also, their work had to be affected by the government measures against Covid-19 (Novissi, 2020a). Interested and eligible citizens were invited to apply for the scheme by using their mobile phones. They only needed to dial *855# and follow the prompts (this was to make sure that people who did not have smart phones could also register). The transfer value was at least 30 % of the national minimum wage, and beneficiaries received half of the monthly transfer amount every two weeks (Novissi, 2020b). The programme was revised after the measures against Covid-19 were lifted in Togo.

As Cina Lawson, Minister of Postal Affairs and Digital Economy in the Togo Government noted in a podcast (see The Innovation Dividend Podcast, 2020), one of the challenges in the Novissi programme was that people who received the transfer wanted to cash out rather than do mobile transactions. However, the government had to make sure that they were not creating a situation where large groups of people were on the streets while they were trying to promote social distancing due to Covid-19. The beneficiaries had to follow social distancing measures within the stores where they could cash out mobile money, such as telecom operators, post offices, and other distributors. 

I believe the Covid-19 crisis has presented a great opportunity to put innovative projects (potentially waiting in the pipeline for a long time) into action. With these innovative projects, social protection programmes can now include traditionally excluded groups and make sure that no one is left behind.

I would love to hear what you think about innovative social protection approaches! Please comment below if your would like to share your views!

Note: *Throughout this writing, the word ‘innovative’ refers to Covid-19 related changes to the social protection programmes in terms of the planning and implementation stages to reach the most vulnerable populations in a context (see UNDP 2021).

 

List of References

 

Bodewig, C., Gentilini, U., Usman, Z., & Williams, P. (2020). COVID-19 in Africa: How can social safety nets help mitigate the social and economic impacts? Https://Blogs.Worldbank.Org/Africacan/Covid-19-Africa-How-Can-Social-Safety-Nets-Help-Mitigate-Social-and-Economic-Impacts.

Guven, M., Jain, H., & Joubert, C. (2021). Social Protection for the Informal Economy.

Kiaga, A., & Leung, V. (2020). The Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy in Africa.

Novissi. (2020a). The Novissi Programme. Https://Novissi.Gouv.Tg/En/Home-New-En/.

Novissi. (2020b). Togolese Government gives support to informal workers affected by its measures against Covid-19. Https://Novissi.Gouv.Tg/En/2020/04/08/Togoleze-Government-Gives-Support-to-Informal-Worker-Affected-Byt-Its-Measues-against-Covid-19/.

The Innovation Dividend Podcast. (2020). A Covid cash transfer programme in Togo that gives more money to women. Https://Undp-Ric.Medium.Com/Cina-Lawson-a-Covid-Cash-Transfer-Programme-That-Gives-More-Money-to-Women-in-Togo-2386c5dff49.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). (2021). Next practices: Innovations in the Covid-19 social protection responses and beyond.