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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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.

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.

Integrating Case Management for Vulnerable Children A process guide for assessing and developing an integrated case management system in Eastern and Southern Africa

Maestral International, UNICEF, 01 Feb 2017

This guide is aimed at informing policy makers and programme managers working across Eastern and Southern Africa to implement an integrated case management approach to practice with vulnerable children and their families.

Para Professionals in the Social Services Workforce: Guiding Principles, Functions and Competencies

Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, 01 Feb 2017

This document details the guiding principles for para professionals in the social service workforce.

Child Abuse and Neglect in Uganda

David Kaawa-Mafigiri & Eddy Walakira - Makerere University Dept. of Social Work and Social Administration; Child Maltreatment: Contemporary Issues in Research and Policy, 20 Jan 2017

Bringing together cross-disciplinary expertise, this volume addresses a vast range of topics related to child abuse and neglect in Uganda.

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Formative evaluation of UNICEF's strategy and approach to child protection systems building: Final review (Vol. 1)

Carolyn Hamilton, Elizabeth Yarrow and Kara Apland - Coram International , 10 Jan 2017

This report evaluates UNICEF's child protection systems building approach in Myanmar, including the review methodology, findings, conclusions and lessons learned, as well as recommendations for the future.

Out-of-home placement and regional variations in poverty and health and social services spending: A multilevel analysis

Tonito Espisito, Martin Chabot, David W. Rothwell, Nico Tocme, Ashleigh Delaye - Children and Youth Services Review, 2017

In examining to what extent poverty reduction policies and family support services mitigate the risk factors associated with out-of-home placement, this study found that absolute poverty influences a child’s risk factors for out of home placement.

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Could cash and good parenting affect child cognitive development? A cross-sectional study in South Africa and Malawi

Lorraine Sherr, Ana Macedo, Mark Tomlinson, Sarah Skeen, and Lucie Dale Cluver - BMC Pediatrics, 2017

This study explored the impact of cash grants on children’s cognitive development. Additionally, the authors examined whether combined cash and care (operationalised as good parenting) was associated with improved cognitive outcomes.

Can cash break the cycle of educational risks for young children in high HIV–affected communities? A cross–sectional study in South Africa and Malawi

Lorraine Sherr, Mark Tomlinson, Ana Macedo, Sarah Skeen, Imca Sifra Hensels, and Lucie Dale Cluver - Journal of Global Health, 2017

This study describes the impact of cash grants and parenting quality on 854 children aged 5–15 (South African and Malawi) on educational outcomes including enrolment, regular attendance, correct class for age and school progress (controlling for cognitive performance).

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