‘Social Policy By Other Means’: Contemporary Perspectives on Land Reform as an Alternative Social Policy Instrument

Social policy in post-colonial African states has of late come under criticism for being ‘residual and reductionist.’ The ascendency of neo-liberalism with its market-based principles and the increased participation of external actors, who have advocated for the adoption of conservative ideologies and doctrines on welfare have seen the adoption of policies that wrongly assume that the welfare needs of citizens are met through the market. Vulnerability and poverty are seen as being dealt ex-post and not ex-ante hence the structural risks, underlying causes and implications of poverty are never addressed. The current hegemony of the social protection paradigm which has privileged social assistance in developing countries is accused of narrowing the vision and tasking of social policy. Consequently, social policy is seen as having lost its developmental orientation, failing to transform economies, social institutions and social relations in some countries in the global south. This has been in a context where mainstream literature on social policy has focused on state provisioning on social spending with a core focus on formal ‘social policy.’ Lately the social policy regime in the global south has been dominated by the social protection paradigm with an externally driven agenda that has leading roles being played by bilateral and multilateral institutions. What has been missing in social policy research and practice in some Africa countries, has been the ‘functional equivalents’ of social policy or ‘social policy by other means’, which is not only pervasive in OECD countries but also in non-OECD countries. Our research under the ‘Social Policy Dimensions of Land and Agrarian Reform Project’ at the SARChI Chair in Social Policy at University of South Africa has pioneered a research agenda which focuses on social policy instruments not usually privileged in European social policy scholarship. The research is premised on the idea that in a development context like Africa, a ‘wider vision’ of social policy and its broader instruments is required in order to attain the secure wellbeing of citizens while enhancing human capability. This paper is an outcome of this research project. In this paper, we use the transformative social policy framework as a conceptual and hereustic tool, to argue that land reform, an overlooked instrument of social policy has the potential to provide for the welfare and wellbeing of citizens. Evidence from rural Zimbabwe, shows that it has the potential to stabilise economies, to abate socio-economic inequalities and ensure social cohesion. In former settler colonies, it has the potential of addressing social inequalities, while guaranteeing household income and creating conditions for sustainable livelihoods and economic growth. We argue that accumulating evidence is suggesting that land redistribution is a more effective welfare policy than cash or in-kind redistribution with a potential to transform socio-economic and power relations while enhancing the productive and social reproductive capacities of citizens. We also argue for the need to redefine the boundaries of social policy and include development issues from the global south which are excluded in mainstream comparative welfare research and social policy literature.