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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Identifying Households Needing Services for Orphans and Vulnerable Children – Guidelines for Adapting a Beneficiary Identification and Prioritization Tool from Uganda

MEASURE Evaluation, 01 May 2017

This document describes and provides guidelines for countries to implement the Household Vulnerability Prioritization Tool (HVPT), a tool developed in Uganda to identify and prioritize vulnerable households for enrollment in OVC programming.

A Kinship Navigator Program: A Comprehensive Approach to Support Private and Voluntary Kinship Caregivers

Rushovich, Berenice R.; Murray, Kantahyanee W.; Woodruff, Kristen; Freeman, Pamela Clarkson - Child Welfare Journal, 01 May 2017

This article from the Special Issue on Kinship Care of the Child Welfare Journal explores the Family Connections Discretionary Grant Program in the US.

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Where Past and Future Meet: The 84th International Session of the European Youth Parliament Resolution Booklet

European Youth Parliament, 29 Apr 2017

This Resolution Booklet includes the motions and resolution adopted by the European Youth Parliament at its 2017 meeting.

Understanding the linkages between social safety nets and childhood violence: a review of the evidence from low- and middle-income countries

Amber Peterman, Anastasia (Naomi) Neijhoft, Sarah Cook, Tia M Palermo - Health Policy and Planning, 22 Apr 2017

This paper reviews evidence and develops a framework to understand linkages between non-contributory social safety nets (SSNs) and the experience of childhood emotional, physical and sexual violence in low- and middle-income countries.

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Together. Creating change for children: Strategy 2017 – 2020

Family for Every Child , 30 Mar 2017

This document describes the 2017-2020 strategy of Family For Every Child. The Strategy paper highlights the mission and vision of Family For Every Child, provides examples of past work and key lessons, and describes its approach and goals to create change toward better care for children.

Know Violence in Childhood: A Global Learning Initiative - Special Issue of the Journal of Psychology, Health and Medicine

Know Violence in Childhood: A Global Learning Initiative - Psychology, Health and Medicine, 01 Mar 2017

This Special Issue of the Journal of Psychology, Health and Medicine contains fifteen of several papers commissioned by the Know Violence Initiative. Together, these papers illustrate the complexity of violence experienced by children and present evidence-based strategies for addressing and preventing childhood violence.

Case study on child protection within OVC programs: Integrated programming for improved child outcomes in Namutumba, Uganda

Suzanne Andrews - Catholic Relief Services , 01 Mar 2017

This case study describes the process, methods and results of the approach promoted by World Education’s Bantwana Initiative under two USAID/PEPFAR-funded consortium projects in Uganda: SUNRISE-OVC and STAR-EC.

Ending violence in childhood: A global imperative

A. K. Shiva Kumar et al. - Psychology, Health and Medicine, 01 Mar 2017

This editorial explores the experience and impact of childhood violence around the world and calls for a coordinated and multi-sectoral response to prevent violence, recognizing the need to identify and address the root causes of family separation and institutionalization.

Promising intervention strategies to reduce parents’ use of physical punishment

Elizabeth T. Gershoff, Shawna J. Lee & Joan E. Durrant - Child Abuse & Neglect, 02 Feb 2017

This paper describes promising programs and strategies designed to prevent physical punishment by parents for each of three levels of intervention − indicated, selective, and universal − and summarizes the existing evidence base of each.

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“They Need to Give Us a Voice”: Lessons from Listening to Unaccompanied Central American and Mexican Children on Helping Children Like Themselves

Susan Schmidt - Journal on Migration and Human Security, 01 Feb 2017

This article analyzes the responses of Central American and Mexican migrant children to one interview question regarding how to help youth like themselves, and identifies several implied “no-win” situations as potential reasons for the migration decisions of unaccompanied children.