(Re)Framing Coherence: A Relational Analysis of Social Protection Systems in South Africa and Uganda

Coherence is increasingly promoted in international social protection discourse as a remedy for fragmented systems, yet its meaning and application remain unresolved. In many Global South contexts, social protection systems evolve within multi-actor, donor-influenced environments, raising questions about how coherence is framed, negotiated, and applied. This article examines how international–domestic actor relations shape coherence in social protection systems. It reconceptualises coherence as a relational governance practice rather than a binary system attribute. The article develops a legal, policy, and administrative actor-driven analytical framework to trace how coherence is conceived, invoked, and applied in South Africa’s and Uganda’s social protection systems. Drawing on elite interviews and document analysis, the analysis shows that international actors mobilise coherence in mandate-specific ways. Multilaterals frame coherence as a technocratic response to fragmentation; UN agencies invoke it as a normative, rights-based ideal; and bilateral donors deploy it as a pragmatic tool for system-building. These framings do not converge as they enter national discourse; instead, they are translated in line with the domestic political economy and legal constraints. Domestic actors deploy coherence across various operational rationales, producing distinct patterns of (in)coherence. In South Africa, social protection subsystems are legally embedded yet functionally siloed, whereas in Uganda, coherence is mobilised through donor-driven projects that produce parallel, fragmented systems. Overall coherence emerges as a negotiated, context-dependent process, which helps explain why fragmentation persists despite repeated reform efforts.