Monitoring social investment in Africa: do spending targets help?

Abstract

Social investment refers to the economic effort made on the social development of individuals, households and communities. The use of the term “investment” is applied because the resources allocated to social issues (i.e., education, health and social protection) yield economic and social returns. Social investment consists of public or private resources that are used mainly to ensure a supply of adequate food, health care, education, housing, water and sewerage systems, or to finance demand for these, and provide monetary insurance against loss of income or assets that would risk living standards falling below an acceptable level. The present policy brief contains an assessment of social investments in Africa, with an emphasis on Kenya and Nigeria, given that they pertain to the functional classification of education, health and social protection spending. The policy brief also provides the rationale behind the idea of spending targets, which can be grouped into three areas: attest the link between political commitment and its translation into resource target allocation; monitor the progress of spending with quantifiable targets, which lends itself to more transparency and accountability of public spending policies; and provide an indication of spending efficiency that maps resources as one of the inputs in improved social outcomes and that provides useful lessons on the role of spending targets.