Public Policies to Empower Economically Vulnerable Populations: The Case of Gabon
Abstract:
Public social protection policies have long been considered an inappropriate instrument for countries in transition. The mixed results of structural adjustment programs, the Asian crisis of 1997, the subprime crisis of 2008, the Covid-19 health crisis and the geopolitical crisis in Russia and Ukraine, as well as the negative effects of poverty, have led to a redefinition of social protection, integrating the concept of poverty into the economic development model. Social protection has become an all-inclusive instrument for poverty reduction, aimed at mitigating the social risks and inequalities faced by the most vulnerable populations. To this end, the aim of this paper is to show, on the basis of a situational analysis, that it is possible to define and implement social protection policies for Gabon, geared towards the empowerment of economically vulnerable populations. This necessarily involves the selection of empowerment actions and the creation of target areas of activity, on the one hand, and the implementation of compensatory financing mechanisms for social protection from development partners, primarily via social safety nets that would provide a safety cushion for the latter, on the other.
