The purpose of this paper is to show that investing in Malawi’s emerging national child protection system will support national social protection goals. This analysis is timely, as the child protection and social protection programmes in Malawi are both in a state of transition, with the development of a national child protection system and the national social support policy being finalized.
The business case shows how a strong child protection system can add value to social protection goals. It is hoped that the paper will help Government and civil society to strengthen the links between social protection and child protection interventions, and to mobilize resources for child protection within the broader social protection policy environment.
The Government of Malawi has developed a National Social Support Policy, which deals primarily with social transfers, to guide its social protection work. Malawi’s social cash transfer programme is proving successful on many levels. It was found to assist households to ‘transfer financial, material, environmental, human, social, cultural and political capital to children and youth’. It also helped reduce children’s vulnerability across a number of domains. Accelerating social protection programmes is a Government priority. The Government is bringing together its various responses to child protection and orphans and vulnerable children as the foundation on which to build the national child protection system. This will deliver a coordinated, harmonised and systematic approach to protecting children from violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect. In countries like Malawi, with a high HIV disease burden, a child protection system must also help mitigate the impact of HIV on children. A strong child protection system is guided by legislation and policy, and has the capacity (human resources, financing and infrastructure) to prevent and respond to children suffering harm. The starting point for a child protection system is community child-rearing practices, and the processes of care required to support children who are less valued by their communities. The child protection system should be accountable, rights-based, and child and family friendly. Such a system is the foundation of social welfare and transformative social protection. It can facilitate improved outcomes from social cash transfers such as legislation, services, case management and the skills of the social welfare workforce.
