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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Strengthening the Social Welfare Workforce to address Violence against Children in care

Jonna Karlsson - UNICEF, 23 Jun 2017

This UNICEF presentation describes the need for social service workforce strengthening in East and Southern Africa and presents recommendations based on a case example from Rwanda.

Ending VAC in All Care Settings: Global developments, persisting challenges and how the African region can advance progress

Kathryn Leslie - Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children, 22 Jun 2017

This presentation provides an overview of recent efforts and developments to end violence against children in all care settings around the world. Persisting global challenges and opportunities at the national, regional and global levels to end violence against children are also identified.

Minimum Standards on Comprehensive Services for Children and Young People in the East African Community

Rebecca Theuri & Isabel de Bruin Cardoso - Save the Children & Maestral International/East African Community, 22 Jun 2017

This presentation provides a background on the East African Community (EAC) Child Policy (2016) and describes the minimum standards and corresponding framework and strategies for providing services to children and young people within the East African Community.

Social Protection as a Means of Preventing Family Separation

Akua Boatemaa Duah - Challenging Heights, 21 Jun 2017

This presentation describes the social protection interventions being implemented to support children in Ghana, as well as the benefits and challenges experienced in administering these programs.

Strengthening the care workforce in how to prevent and respond to VAC and care

Beatrice Ongalo – SOS Children’s Villages, 21 Jun 2017

This presentation describes the issue of violence against children in alternative care settings in East and Southern Africa and offers recommendations on how to strengthen the care workforce to ensure it is equipped to prevent and respond to violence against children in alternative care.

Child Marriage and Violence against Children

Ruth Koshal - Girls Not Brides, 21 Jun 2017

This Girls Not Brides presentation provides an overview of child marriage, its impact and relationship to violence against children and alternative care, offering recommendations for research, policy, and practice at global, regional, and national levels when it comes to preventing child marriage and responding to those impacted.

2017 KIDS COUNT Data Book

The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 13 Jun 2017

The 2017 KIDS COUNT Data Book urges policymakers not to back away from targeted investments that help U.S. children become healthier, more likely to complete high school and better positioned to contribute to the nation’s economy as adults.

Assessing Health and Other Conditions among Orphans Living with Extended Families

T.J. Mudau, O.S. Obadire, and C. Mananga - Journal of Human Ecology, 05 Jun 2017

The study explored the health challenges faced by orphans living with extended families in South Africa.

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Working Paper: 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 on behalf of the Transfer Project - UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti, 01 Jun 2017

This report 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.

Immigration Enforcement and Foster Care Placements

Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Esther Arenas-Arroyo - IZA Institute for Labor Economics, 01 Jun 2017

This study investigates how the intensification of immigration enforcement in the United States contributes to higher rates of undocumented immigrant children entering the foster care system.