Social protection from non-state actors provides different forms of solidarity in Algeria including social, religious, community-based or traditional configurations, and the diversity of these networks is expanding.
Social solidarity
While the Algerian state has traditionally been responsible for the provision of social protection, non-state actors have a long-established and important role in supporting people in need. The nature and number of non-state social protection actors has grown exponentially. These range from extended family members and friends – including transfers and remittances from overseas – to non-governmental organizations and local and national civil society initiatives. The most important non-state actors are religious organizations such as the Kafil el-Yatim (Orphans’ Sponsor) Association, Al-Baraka Association for Charitable and Humanitarian Work, el-Irchad wal-Islah (Guidance and Reform) Association and the Association of Algerian Muslim Scholars. In addition, there are national organizations such as the Algerian Muslim Scouts, the Association of Old Scouts, the Algerian Red Crescent, the Ness El Khir (Good People) Association, as well as local associations based in different cities. It is difficult to capture the nature and extent of all these non-state actors as quantitative data on aid delivery are largely unavailable. According to an interview with a former legal technical adviser at the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security and an assistant adviser to the director general of the National Social Security Fund for Non-Employees (CASNOS):
While there are different, targeted social protection programmes, not all poor households and intended beneficiaries receive state support. Instead, many rely on transfers from non-state sources known as ‘non-state social protection actors’, such as family and kin members, friends, neighbours and traditional community-based organizations such as the djemaa (tadjmaat in the Berber language) in Kabylia. These organizations can be religious or non-religious and are based on traditional forms of solidarity. They are frequently linked to mosques or civil society groups. Non-state social protection is generally based on relationships and varies in terms of organization, sources of funding, activity and duration. This makes it challenging to quantify the contributions of non-state and informal social protection actors such as family, friends and neighbours, who do not typically quantify nor keep track of the amounts of transfers donated.
However, formal non-state social protection actors such as community-based, religious and civil society organizations do tend to keep records of their activities, mainly because of moral obligations towards their donors or legal accountability. This activity must comply with the agreement permitting this work issued from the government – usually the Ministry of the Interior and Local Authorities.
In addition to non-governmental social service agents, many households depend on remittances from economic migrants that are part of the diaspora. There is a long-established connection between non-state social protection and remittances from emigrants. Certain regions such as Kabylia and Aurès have a strong tradition of emigration and a resilient and well-structured civil society. This obligates emigrants to pay a kind of quasi-mandatory contribution imposed by a traditional village or a social or local association like djemaa, which contributes to utility works and protection and social redistribution activities.
According to World Bank statistics on remittances, the Algerian diaspora transferred $1.8 billion in 2019 – around $300 million less than the amount that was transferred in 2018, when remittances were estimated at more than $2.16 billion. In 2019, inflows totalled $6.7 billion for Morocco, $2 billion for Tunisia and $1.8 billion for Algeria – equivalent to 6 per cent, 5 per cent and 1 per cent of national GDP for the three countries, respectively. It is worth noting that these remittances are sent and received through ‘formal’ transfer channels, while those that are sent and received through ‘informal channels’ tend not to be recorded or quantified. In 2021, remittances to the MENA region grew by 9.7 per cent to $62 billion, with an average rise of 15.2 per cent in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
The economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has affected remittances from abroad, which is likely to exacerbate poverty levels in Algeria. These statistics are based on transferred funds that are traced via bank accounts. They do not include transfers made directly via travellers, which are exchanged in the informal market. The informal market operates in parallel to the official banking system used to exchange foreign currency into local dinars and vice versa, with a significant difference between the official exchange rate and informal black-market rates. The outsized role of the informal exchange (a de facto exchange for many) and its preferential rates prompt flows to enter the non-official realm at the expense of liquidity circulating through official channels.
Religious solidarity
The wakf or habous, under the rules of Islamic Shariah, are pious endowments that allow individuals to offer their assets such as property, jewellery and goods to charitable causes. By transferring ownership or bequest, these endowments serve the intention of doing good and helping the needy, thereby promoting community well-being. In Islamic societies, wakf or habous have traditionally been viewed as a powerful tool for social welfare. The institution of the wakf or the habous has existed in Algeria since the Ottoman Empire and survived throughout the French colonial period until the present day. These endowments are often used to provide social services such as schools, water fountains and wells, orphanages, hospitals and charitable organizations. In terms of property, as of 2022, the Algerian Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments identified 12,274 contributions that included housing, commercial and professional premises, and agricultural and urban lands.
However, the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments also invests in these properties through the endowment account or with national funding. Hence, the support endowments provide can be characterized as state social protection. According to a former director general of the National Social Security Fund for Salaried Workers (CNAS), ‘the wakf also includes the inalienable property kept within a family which becomes a public habous after lineage extinction’.
Zakat is the third of five pillars of Islam – the religious obligations of Muslims. It is a means of social financing and is a type of solidarity based on the concept of equity. It is a form of spiritual purification as well as an economical mechanism allowing for a redistribution of wealth in order to reduce poverty. There are two types of zakat. The first is the zakat ul-fitr, which signifies a sum paid before the end of Ramadan to purify the fast. This amount is equal to the cost of an average meal paid for each member of the household. The second type is the zakat al-mal, which is a tax payable on savings, business revenues and assets, as well as gold and silver at the basic rate of 2.5 per cent. When zakat is collected and managed by individuals or non-state actors, this is considered non-state social protection. However, once the Zakat Fund was set up in Algeria in 2013 by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments, and people started to donate zakat to this fund, it became part of the state’s social protection system; the performance of zakat funds managed by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments increased sharply during the period from 2003 to 2013. In fact, the proceeds of the Zakat Fund continued to increase, reaching DZD 1.54 billion ($11.4 million) in 2019. In 2020, the funds decreased to below DZD 730 million ($5.4 million) because of the closing of mosques during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Community-based or traditional solidarity
Community-based or traditional solidarity has existed in Algeria for centuries. Village associations are traditional or religious organizations with forms of participatory governance, such as the djemaa, or tajmaat in the Berber language, in the region of Kabylia. The djemaa is a type of a village assembly or association, which operates within a traditional ‘arsh association that covers many villages in a specific ancestral area. These local ‘arsh associations are informal non-state social protection actors rooted in the community. This localization enables them to understand and respond to the needs of the targeted population, and address economic, social, cultural, political and environmental grievances. In recent years, many of these ‘arsh associations have sought official status through the Ministry of the Interior and Local Authorities and began to work in close collaboration with local authorities to address needs that are frequently overlooked by the state. A lack of data on these community-based associations is due to the fact that they are counted with other types of organizations within the category of neighbourhood committees. According to the Ministry of the Interior and Local Authorities, out of the existing 108,940 associations, 21.45 per cent are neighbourhood committees, including community-based associations. According to an interview with a former director of CNAS, community-based solidarity is:
National and local civil society organizations
According to the Ministry of the Interior and Local Authorities, members of associations pool their expertise, knowledge and resources on a voluntary and non-profit basis in order to promote and encourage activities in the fields of science, religion, education, the environment, charity and sport, among others. These activities aim to serve the general interest and must align with national values, while not disrupting public order, good morals, or any provisions of the laws and regulations currently in place. Of the 108,940 associations operating nationwide in Algeria, 48,957 (45 per cent) are registered with the Ministry of the Interior and Local Authorities and compliant with respect to the law, while 59,983 (55 per cent) are non-compliant (see Table 3).
