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 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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Kenya Social Protection Sector Review

Republic of Kenya, 01 Jun 2017

In 2011/12 a comprehensive Review was undertaken of Kenya’s Social Protection Sector. This Review follows up on progress made since the previous one.

Realising the right to family reunification of refugees in Europe

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, 01 Jun 2017

This issue paper examines family reunification for refugees as a pressing human rights issue, advising states to re-examine their laws, policies and practices relating to family reunification for refugees.

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.

Building a User-Friendly and Government-Owned Case Management System for Highly Vulnerable Children: The Yekokeb Berhan Program Experience in Ethiopia

Kelley Bunkers & Suzanne Andrews - 4Children/CRS, 01 Jun 2017

This case study describes the coordinated care and case management system for highly vulnerable children and their caregivers implemented by the Yekokeb Berhan program in Ethiopia.

Maternal substance use and child protection: a rapid evidence assessment of factors associated with loss of child care

Martha Canfield, Polly Radcliffe, Sally Marlow, Marggie Boreham, Gail Gilchrist - Child Abuse & Neglect, 25 May 2017

This article reviews the literature on the factors associated with mothers who use substances losing care of their children.