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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Bridging the gap: The impact of home visiting programs for orphans and vulnerable children on social grant uptake in South Africa

Tonya R. Thurman, Rachel Kidman, Tory M.Taylor -Children and Youth Services Review, 12 Dec 2014

This article presents results from a quasi-experimental study in South Africa examining differences in grant uptake over a two year period among 1487 children enrolled in one of two types of supportive home visiting programming: volunteer-based or paraprofessional.

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Ending the Institutionalisation of Children: A Summary of Progress in Changing Systems of Care and Protection for Children in Moldova, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria

Lumos, 11 Nov 2014

This report presents a summary of progress in Lumos’ first three country demonstration programmes – the Republic of Moldova, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.

Discussion Paper: Cash Transfers and HIV Prevention

Brian Lutz and Roy Small - United Nations Development Programme, 01 Oct 2014

This paper from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) offers some recommendations on optimizing cash transfers in order to have the greatest impact on those affected by HIV/AIDS.

Hague Note on the Financial Aspects of Intercountry Adoption

Permanent Bureau, Hague Conference on International Private Law, 01 Jun 2014

To address the issues related to the financial aspects of intercountry adoptions, the Hague Convention initiated an Experts’ Group, which met in October 2012 and produced nine Conclusions and Recommendations, which they brought to the Permanent Bureau to publish as a “Note”.

Family support and social protection

Elana Gaia & Denise Stuckenbruck - Innocenti’s Expert Consultation on Family and Parenting Support, 27 May 2014

This presentation from Innocenti’s Expert Consultation on Family and Parenting Support includes an overview of family trends in the CEE/CIS region, some promising practices in social protection, and thoughts for going forward.

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Why Care Matters: The importance of adequate care for children and society

Family For Every Child, Corinna Csaky, 01 May 2014

This report highlights the needs of children without adequate family care, the impact inadequate care on children and society, and why family care is important. In this report, Family for Every Child also issues several recommendations for those in all sectors of society and an example of care reform from Brazil.

World Family Map 2014: Mapping Family Change and Child Well-being Outcomes

Child Trends, Doha International Family Institute, Institute for Family Studies, Focus Global, and the Social Trends Institute, 01 May 2014

The second annual edition of the World Family Map investigates how family characteristics affect children’s healthy development around the globe and includes a new essay focusing on union stability and early childhood health in developing countries.

Out of home care in Norway and Sweden - similar and different

Elisabeth Backe-Hansen, Ingrid Højer, Yvonne Sjöblom, Jan Storø, 15 Apr 2014

This article provides an overview of the current situation in the out-of-home care in Norway and Sweden. Development in later years is described and discussed, including the trends towards privatization of the welfare system in both countries and the role of private, commercial actors within the care sector including out-of-home care for children and young people.

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Researching the Linkages Between Social Protection and Children’s Care in Rwanda: The VUP and Its Effects on Child Wellbeing, Care, and Family Reunification

Keetie Roelen & Helen Shelmerdine from the Centre for Social Protection (CSP) with support from Emily Delap from Family for Every Child and Stephen Devereux from the CSP at IDS. , 01 Apr 2014

This report features the results of, and recommendations based on, a study conducted in Rwanda which investigates the links between the cash transfer program “Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme (VUP),” child well-being, and children’s care and family reunification.

Helping Parents, Helping Children: Two-Generation Mechanisms

Future of Children Volume 24 Number 1 Spring 2014 - Princeton-Brookings, 01 Apr 2014

This issue of the US-based journal Future of Children, entitled ‘Helping Parents, Helping Children: Two-Generation Mechanisms,’ reviews intervention programs for children and families of low socioeconomic status and on the mechanisms of child development that those intervention programs are trying to influence.

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