Social Protection Policies and Programmes

Poverty affects both the quality and length of children’s lives, reduces the ability of families to adequately provide for their children, and is a significant cause of family breakdown and child separation. Social assistance programmes aim to reduce child poverty and act as a safety net for families with minimal resources.

Such programmes include in-kind and in-cash transfers, and food for work initiatives. Social assistance programmes are a part of social welfare and must include clear child care policies that protect children and strengthen family and community capacities to access services and provide care.

Cash transfers are a means of financially supporting the most vulnerable households to improve the child’s access to essential goods and services, such as health and education. They include the use of child support grants, child and family allowances and targeted and conditional cash transfers. They may be combined with investment in child education and health services, and redistributive tax policies.

In-kind transfers provide access to essential goods and services instead of cash payments. Conditional cash transfers provide money to poor families on achieving certain actions, such as sending children to school.

Social assistance programmes may struggle to target those most in need, and provide sustainable support. Economic policies, including social assistance, and household economic strengthening, require substantial research, monitoring, and gatekeeping to ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable are reached and that long term benefits can be achieved for families, including child headed households.

The literature in this section provides country examples and analyses of social assistance programs, focusing primarily on cash transfer schemes.

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Service providers as champions for non-violent childhoods: Service provision for children and parents to achieve an end to corporal punishment

Turid Heiberg, Annabel Egan, and Maria Corbett - Council of Baltic Sea States, 09 Nov 2018

This guidance report reviews the experience of and lessons learned from service provision in social welfare, child protection and childcare, health care, education and law enforcement. It presents methods, tools and service models that have proven effective in preventing and responding to corporal punishment.

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How can group-based savings programs provide support for vulnerable families and their children?

E. Namey, S. Zissette, W. Okello, D. Onena, L. Laumann - FHI 360, ASPIRES, USAID, AVSI, and ChildFund International, 01 Nov 2018

This poster presents the findings of an assessment of two Family Care projects in Uganda that implemented savings groups as part of integrated family and economic strengthening interventions with families at-risk of a child separating.

Effects of Cash Transfers on Protection and Wellbeing Outcomes for Women and Children: New Evidence from UNICEF Office of Research

UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, CPC Learning Network, The World Bank, The Transfer Project and The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, 24 Oct 2018

This webinar reviews some of the new and ongoing work conducted under the Transfer Project, a multi-organizational research and learning initiative. The first presentation will summarize findings from recent reviews published on understanding linkages and impacts of cash transfers and social safety nets on intimate partner violence and violence against children in low- and middle income settings.

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Supporting the implementation of Council Tax exemption for Scotland’s care leavers: Good practice note

Kenny McGhee - CELCIS, 01 Oct 2018

This practice note is drawn from the discussion and outlines key considerations and a range of measures for local authorities to take as Corporate Parents to ensure consistent and effective implementation of the regulations, now established in law.

Social Protection and Disability in Kenya

Krystle Kabare - Development Pathways, 01 Oct 2018

This report provides insights into the current situation in Kenya regarding the inclusivity of social protection for people with disabilities.

Can limited-term cash transfers confer (lasting) child protection benefits?

L. Laumann, E. Namey, D. Onena, C. Akech, M. Ndagire, W. Okello, E. Atwiine, W. Wamatsembe, S. Zissette - ASPIRES, 03 Sep 2018

This presentation highlights the preliminary findings from the ASPIRES Family Care Projects as regards the impacts of cash transfers on child protection benefits.

Harsh Parenting and Violence Against Children: A Trial with Ultrapoor Families in Francophone West Africa

Leyla Ismayilova & Leyla Karimli - Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology , 15 Aug 2018

This study tests the effects of economic intervention—alone and in combination with a family-focused component—on parenting outcomes and children’s reports of violence in rural Burkina Faso.

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Myth-Busting? Confronting Six Common Perceptions about Unconditional Cash Transfers as a Poverty Reduction Strategy in Africa

Sudhanshu Handa, Silvio Daidone, Amber Peterman, Benjamin Davis, Audrey Pereira, Tia Palermo, and Jennifer Yablonski - The World Bank Research Observer, 01 Aug 2018

This paper summarizes evidence on six perceptions associated with cash transfer programming, using eight rigorous evaluations conducted on large-scale government unconditional cash transfers in sub-Saharan Africa under the Transfer Project.

ASPIRES Family Care Process Assessment: Savings Groups for Family-Child Reintegration and Prevention of Separation

Whitney Moret and Mike Ferguson - USAID, FHI 360, and ASPIRES, 01 Jul 2018

This evaluation examined the designs and implementation processes of the saving group components of ChildFund’s Economic Strengthening to Keep and Reintegrate Children in Family Care (ESFAM) and AVSI Foundation’s Family Resilience (FARE) projects in Uganda and identified practical lessons for implementers.

ASPIRES Family Care Process Assessment: Cash Transfers for Family-Child Reintegration and Prevention of Separation

Whitney Moret and Mike Ferguson - USAID, FHI 360, and ASPIRES, 01 Jul 2018

This evaluation examined the designs and implementation processes of the cash transfer components of ChildFund’s Economic Strengthening to Keep and Reintegrate Children in Family Care (ESFAM) and AVSI Foundation’s Family Resilience (FARE) projects in Uganda and identified practical lessons for implementers.