Introducing social protection in the Middle East and North Africa: Prospects for a new social contract?

The introductory article of this special issue looks at the genesis, characteristics and challenges of social protection schemes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It argues that social protection policies in the MENA should be seen as a key ingredient of the social contract that governments offered to their citizens after independence. To compensate for the lack of political participation and accountability, free public health and education systems, generous food, energy and water subsidies, social insurance and assistance schemes and mass public‐sector employment were established. This was possible because MENA countries benefitted from substantial windfall profits (from the export of oil, gas and minerals; Suez Canal user fees), as well as from income from remittances from migrant workers and income from politically motivated aid. The decline of income from some of these sources and population growth has led MENA governments to focus more closely their social protection spending on strategically important social groups: typically, the urban upper middle class. As a result, social protection systems in MENA countries currently suffer from severe weaknesses in terms of social fairness, efficiency and sustainability. Although MENA countries still spend a very considerable share of gross domestic product on their social protection schemes, these have only very limited effects on the reduction of poverty, vulnerability and inequality – and some even exhibit perverse “bottom‐up” redistributive outcomes. The articles that comprise this special issue selectively spotlight a number of opportunities and challenges for the development of sustainable social protection in the MENA countries. L’article introductif de ce numéro spécial porte sur la genèse, les caractéristiques et les difficultés des régimes de protection sociale dans la région Moyen‐Orient et Afrique du Nord (MENA). Il défend l’idée que les politiques de protection sociale mises en œuvre dans la région MENA doivent être vues comme un élément fondamental du contrat social que les pouvoirs publics ont proposé à leurs citoyens après l’indépendance. La mise en place de systèmes de santé et d’enseignement gratuits, de subventions généreuses à l’alimentation, à l’énergie et à l’eau, de régimes d’assurance et d’aide sociale et de vastes programmes d’emplois publics a été un moyen de contrebalancer l’absence de participation et de responsabilité politique. Cette stratégie a été possible grâce à des r