ABSTRACT
Within the burgeoning literature on pension reform, with its emphasis upon perceived global problems and its assumption of the need for global solutions, evaluation of the potential relevance of the National Provident Fund (NPF) remains a significantly under-researched element. This chapter seeks to establish why organisations for retirement provision defined initially as temporary stop-gaps have remained the preferred choice of a number of the most economically dynamic states in the contemporary world. As the World Bank rightly emphasises, what the burgeoning global pensions funding ‘crisis’ underlines is the simple fact that all pensions systems, advanced and complex or crude and simple, are ultimately dependent on the health and growth of the wider economy to sustain them. The crucial short and medium term issue becomes the decision as to precisely what form pillared or multipillar pension provision should take for particular countries or groups of countries.
