Social Security and Development Planning: Some Issues

ECONOMIC and social development policies both aim at improving the welfare of the population, though they often appear to compete with rather than complement each other. This is especially true for emerging nations, whose limited resources impose a degree of austerity upon the satisfaction of the collective economic demands of their citizens. In such circumstances, social security provisions may easily be orerlookecl by the development planner, who naturally is far more concerned with the growth of the economy than with economic security for individuals and who is prone to pay more attention to resources using government funds than to transfer l)ayments. To the extent that social development projects make demands on scarce resources, they affect the rate at which accelerated economic growth can be obtained, somewhat in the same way as do activities directed to achieve other national goals, such as national defense. ~Uthough social security transfer payments may affect aggregate savings in some degree, they do not establish independent claims on scarce resources. Consequently, a degree of individual income protect ion in the present is compatible with laying the groundwork for a more productive economy in the future. This fact strengthens the case for taking adequate account of social security measures in the development plan. Such an action fits well into a concept of planning that must be concerned also with the present and that finds itself confronted with social security as a firmly established method of income maintenance. Incorporation of social security measures in the development, plan has been recommended at many international meetings but has seldom been followed by those who draw up economic plans. (1) One reason for this failure is the difficulty of reconciling social security programs with traditional planning objectives and teclmiques. Plan-