Reflections and New Perspectives on Public Social Protection and Household Resilience to Food Insecurity among Elderly Women-Headed Households in Rural Zimbabwe

The Zimbabwe Government's financed social protection policy for the vulnerable populations is an important social security instrument that could ensure sustainable and resilient livelihoods for beneficiaries, particularly the elderly women-headed households. Since Old age is a gradual change in human capabilities, it calls for a public social protection to avert old age destitution and indignity. This paper, a PhD study, investigates the impact of government social protection policy on the elderly women-headed households in rural Zimbabwe, with household resilience to food insecurity as its focus. The researchers employed mixed methods approach. The study found that, in Zimbabwe, there is in place a government's social protection policy for elderly women-headed households, however, its implementation does not consider the multiple vulnerabilities in these households and has limited coverage. Secondly, little attention is paid towards strengthening household resilience to food insecurity. It thus remains ineffective in increasing the asset base/accumulation and income levels of beneficiary households. The paper provides a new alternative framework, "Prioritised and Targeted Social Protection framework (PTSP)" to effectively prioritise and target the special needs of elderly people in the context of resilient livelihoods.