Informal employment, social capital and household-to-household transfers have played a major role in maintaining the living standards and providing the livelihood to those members of extended families who are in need in sub-Saharan African societies. The deepening of the globalisation process with the extension of individualisation as its correlate, the start of long delayed demographic transitions with the hope to benefit from the demographic dividend but also the entry into ageing societies characterise the recent period; in addition, successive crises occurred during the past two decades: all are factors explaining why the embeddedness of traditional societies in sound social inter-relations – in social capital – is vanishing. The challenges of poverty, gender equality and more generally most of those borne by the MDGs raise the question of the possibility and opportunity of a social protection floor for all in Africa. Examples from other regions of the developing world are convincing, but can it work in sub-Saharan Africa where informal employment predominates?