ABSTRACT
During the second half of the twentieth century, development paradigm has undergone several shifts in focus. The journey that started with a trickle down approach and passed through redistribution with growth, structural adjustment, and pro-poor growth is now docked at inclusive growth. Although the term inclusion may be conceptualized in different ways, it is important to focus on both the process and outcome. High rate of economic growth is an objective that countries at all levels of development aim to attain. Till about the end of the twentieth century, social protection was not very high on the agenda either in developed or in developing countries. There was even a tendency to invoke the debate between the “growth first model” versus the “European social model” and the perceived superiority of the former as a justification for relegating the importance of social protection.
