Case study N: Capacity development for social protection in Zambia

Abstract

The Government of the Republic of Zambia formulated the National Social Protection Policy in 2014, to guide the provision of effective social protection services to reduce poverty, inequality, and vulnerability in Zambia. However, the design and implementation of effective services require availability of adequate national technical capacity developed through systematic training. This paper reports on the processes of designing pre-service social protection training curricula at undergraduate and graduate levels coordinated by the University of Zambia. The curricula design was a collaborative effort of state and non-state actors in Zambia with technical support of reputable international social protection training institutions and experts. Sustaining collaboration and reaching consensus on curricula structures and contents were major challenges. For countries like Zambia capacity development for social protection through pre-service training needs to be supplemented by external peer-to-peer learning exchange to enhance local curricula design capacity and ensure curricula structures and contents reflect best practices.