Non-state Actors and Social Protection Measures During Emergencies Across Selected Southwest Nigerian States: Toward an Integrated Approach to Social Protection

Effective social protection for the poor and vulnerable has been a major problem in Nigeria. Most studies have focused on government initiatives to provide social protection during emergencies with little attention to non-state actors. Employing the social protection theory, this study explores the non-state alternatives for effective social protection measures in Nigeria, with particular attention to religious groups, nonprofit organizations, old students’ associations (OSAs), and indigenes in diaspora, among others. A mixed-methods approach was employed in the study. Quantitative data were obtained from an 892-sample of the population through simple random sampling, while qualitative data were obtained from various non-state actors. Quantitative data were analyzed using percentages, frequency counts, tabulation, and charts. The study discovers that social protection measures by the federal government, though they impacted the poor to an extent, were crippled by party politics, favoritism, greed, and corruption, among others. The study, therefore, recommends more coordinated interventions of the non-state actors to complement government policy measures to ameliorate the plight of vulnerable social groups.