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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The UN Commission for Social Development Resolution on the 20th Anniversary of the International Year of the Family

UN Commission for Social Development, 18 Feb 2014

The UN Commission for Social Development (CSocD) held its 52nd session in New York on the 11-21 February 2014. As part of its mandate, it held discussions in observance of the 20th Anniversary of the International Year of the Family and drafted a resolution to be adopted by the UN Economic and Social Council.

Drumming Together for Change: A Child’s Right to Quality Care in Sub-Saharan Africa

SOS Children’s Villages, Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland, University of Malawi, 2014

This report is based on a synthesis of eight assessments of the implementation of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (“the Guidelines”) in Benin, Gambia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

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NATIONAL CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEMS IN THE EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC REGION: A REVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF MAPPINGS AND ASSESSMENTS

ECPAT International, 2014

This report presents the findings of a mappings and assessments review of child protection systems in 14 countries including Cambodia.

Participation of Vulnerable Populations in Their Own Programmes: The Cash Transfers in Kenya

National Gender and Equality Commission, 2014

This report presents the findings of an audit of the cash transfer programs for the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC), Persons with Severe Disability (PWSD), and the Elderly in 21 sub-counties of Kenya, to provide the national and county governments with a snap shot account of the implementation of the cash transfer program and the level of participation of the vulnerable populations in programs designed for them.

South Africa's Progress in Realising Children's Rights: A Law Review

Children's Institute, University of Cape Town, and Save the Children, 2014

This book focuses on, and reviews, a selection of laws related to the rights of children in South Africa.

Kids Count Data Book 2014

Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2014

The KidsCount Data Book for 2014 is produced by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. It is the 25th edition of this data book, which measures state trends and demographics in child wellbeing in the United States.

Report of the 2nd Pan-African Conference on Parenting 2013

YONECO & Parenting in Africa Network, 31 Dec 2013

This report summarises the presentations and conclusions from the 2nd Pan-African annual conference on parenting held on the 16-17th October 2013 in Malawi on the theme of "Understanding realities of teenage parenting: a special focus on adolescents (boys and girls) with parenting responsibilities."

United Nations General Assembly 2013 Resolution on the 20th Anniversary of the International Year of the Family

United Nations, 18 Dec 2013

The United Nations General Assembly adopted on the 18th December 2013 a resolution on Preparations for and observance of the twentieth anniversary of the International Year of the Family.

Caring for orphaned children in China

Xiaoyuan Shang and Karen R. Fisher, 14 Dec 2013

This book by Dr. Xiaoyuan Shang and Karen Fisher provides a comprehensive and clear picture of the situation of children who are orphaned or abandoned in China. It introduces the context and framework for the alternative care system and China’s welfare system as it applies to children, and provides a profile of orphans and of care arrangements, describing both the formal child welfare system and the informal care system, particularly kinship care.

Northern Ireland Cooperation Overseas: Early Intervention from Policy to Practice A Social Care Perspective

Paul Martin, 21 Nov 2013

This presentation to the 2012 Sofia Conference by Paul Martin introduces family support mechanisms and services to better equip parents to care for their children.