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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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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Improving child wellbeing and care in Sub-Saharan Africa: the role of social protection

Emily Delap, Camilla Jones, Helen Karki Chettri -- Children and Youth Services Review, 21 Dec 2016

This article discusses the results of a cross-country research project in Sub-Saharan Africa regarding the impact of social protection on loss of parental care, support to foster or kinship care and quality of care and wellbeing in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Tia Palermo on Evaluation of Social Cash Transfers in Sub-Saharan Africa

UNICEF, 01 Dec 2016

In this Innocenti Podcast, Tia Palermo discusses The Transfer Project, a government run large-scale social cash transfer program in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Africa's Agenda for Children 2040: Fostering an Africa Fit for Children

African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, 09 Nov 2016

The Africa’s Agenda for Children, to be adopted by the Committee, presents measurable goals and priority areas to which the African Union and its Member States commit themselves for the coming 25 years.

Alternative Child Care and Deinstitutionalisation in Sub Saharan Africa

Dr Ian Milligan, Mr Richard Withington, Dr Graham Connelly, Dr Chrissie Gale - European Union, CELCIS, SOS Children's Villages, 01 Nov 2016

This desk review provides a brief mapping and summary of existing knowledge on alternative care and deinstitutionalisation in Africa.

Protecting visible minority children: Family–caseworker dynamics and protective authority intervention strategies

Dufour, Sarah; Lavergne, Chantal; Gaudet, Judith; Couture, Dominique -- Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 01 Nov 2016

This study underscores the fact that visible minority families receiving child protective services are a far from homogeneous group and that there are a number of effective methods that can be used with them.

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Urban Congolese Refugees in Kenya The Contingencies of Coping and Resilience in a Context Marked by Structural Vulnerability

Julie A. Tippens - Qualitative Health Research, 25 Aug 2016

This article examines how urban Congolese refugees in Kenya promote psychosocial well-being in the context of structural vulnerability.

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Applying the Science of Child Development in Child Welfare Systems

Steven D. Cohen - Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 22 Aug 2016

This paper explores the ways that developmental science can inform and strengthen the child welfare system to better support the children, families, and communities it serves.

From Evidence to Action: The Story of Cash Transfers and Impact Evaluation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Edited by Benjamin Davis, Sudhanshu Handa, Nicola Hypher, Natalia Winder Rossi, Paul Winters, and Jennifer Yablonski – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, The United Nations Children’s Fund, and Oxford University Press, 12 Jul 2016

This book published jointly by FAO, UNICEF, and Oxford University Press presents the findings from evaluations of the Transfer Project, a cash transfer project undertaken in the following sub-Saharan African countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It concludes that cash transfers are becoming a key means for social protection in developing countries.