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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Shaping Cash Transfer Impacts Through ‘Soft-Conditions’: Evidence from Lesotho

Noemi Pace, Silvio Daidone, Benjamin Davis, Luca Pellerano - Journal of African Economies, 28 Jun 2018

This paper focuses on the role of ‘soft conditionality’ implemented through both ‘labelling’ and ‘messaging’ in evaluating the impact of the Child Grants Program in Lesotho, an unconditional cash transfer programme targeting poor households with orphans and vulnerable children.

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Do Orphans And Vulnerable Children Have A Future? A Critical Analysis of Community-Based Social Protection Systems in Kenya

Selina Cheptonui Kogo - Africa International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (AIJMR), 25 May 2018

This paper analyses the role of community-based child protection structures for the survival and development of orphans and vulnerable children.

ChildFund Deinstitutionalization of Vulnerable Children in Uganda (DOVCU) Final Report

ChildFund, 01 Mar 2018

This final report on the “Deinstitutionalization of Vulnerable Children in Uganda” (DOVCU) project identifies its successes as well as some shortcomings and key learning that is directly relevant to other projects working to support family care for children.

Assisting the least among us: Social work's historical response to unaccompanied immigrant and refugee youth

Jayshree S. Jani & Michael Reisch - Children and Youth Services Review, 14 Feb 2018

Based on primary and secondary source materials, this article traces the evolution of the US social work field's response to the needs of unaccompanied immigrant and refugee youth during the past two centuries.

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Sixth Circuit Case Opens Door to Equal Pay and Support for Relative Caregivers

Heidi Redlich Epstein & Elizabeth Christy - Child Law Practice Today, 09 Jan 2018

Providing relative caregivers the same financial benefits and supports as nonrelative foster caregivers is the focus of ongoing US federal litigation described in this article from the Child Law Practice Today July/August 2017 Issue on Kinship Care. The litigation addresses the equitable treatment of relatives who care for children in the child welfare system.

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A Case for Investing in HIV-Sensitive Social Services for Vulnerable Children in Nigeria

Shar Kurtishi, David Akpan, Tapfuma Murove, Kelley Bunkers, & Doreen Magaji - Journal of Poverty, Investment and Development , 2018

A desk review was conducted to examine the current gaps in investment related to care and treatment for children living with or affected by HIV.

Decent Work and Social Protection For Young People Leaving Care: Gaps and Responses in 12 Countries Worldwide

SOS Children's Villages International, 2018

The aim of this report from SOS Children's Villages is to increase the knowledge and understanding of the needs and rights of young people ageing out of alternative care around the world, in order to inform strategies, policies and services to improve their life chances and outcomes through appropriate preparation for leaving care as well as after-care support.

Challenges Affecting Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) in Embu County

Dorcas Nthenya Mutiso & Dr. Pius Mutuku Mutie - International Journal of Sociology, 2018

The purpose of this study was to assess the challenges affecting orphans and vulnerable children (OVCS) in Embu County.

Promoting Early Childhood Development Through Combining Cash Transfer and Parenting Programs

Ana-Maria Arriagada, Jonathan Perry, Laura Rawlings, Julieta Trias, and Melissa Zumaeta - World Bank Group, 2018

This note and the accompanying full technical paper examine the existing evidence and the potential for bringing together cash transfer programs and parenting interventions to improve child development outcomes, notably cognitive performance.