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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Children and AIDS: Fourth Stocktaking Report

Unite for Children; Unite Against AIDS, 20 Dec 2009

Offers updates, authoritative data, evidence and recommendations on key areas including prevention of mother-to-child transmission, paediatric care and treatment, preventing infection among adolescents and young people, protection, care and support for children affected by HIV and AIDS, programme monitoring and evaluation.

The Practical Guide of the Professional Supervision Mechanism in Social Assistance (Moldova)

Ministry of Social Protection, Family and Child (Moldova) and OPM/EveryChild Moldova, 01 Dec 2009

The Practical Guide of the Professional Supervision Mechanism in Social Assistance was developed in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Protection, Family and Child (Moldova), with the technical support of the "Support in the Deliver

U.S. Government and Partners: Working Together on a Comprehensive, Coordinated and Effective Response to Highly Vulnerable Children

USG Secretariat for Orphans and Vulnerable Children , 01 Dec 2009

Provides global estimates of the number of highly vulnerable children; a summary of United States Government (USG) assistance programs for highly vulnerable children; a summary of progress coordinating the response among USG agencies; key strategic issues and opportunities; priorities for 2009–2010 and beyond; and a summary of the results and achievements of USG assistance

Missing: Children without Parental Care in International Development Policy

EveryChild, 19 Nov 2009

Explores the negative impacts of loss of parental care on children. Advocates for reform for children based on assertion that failure to keep children in families, out of residential institutions and off the streets, will be another barrier to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

Reforming Social Welfare: A New Development Approach in Malawi's Ministry of Gender, Children and Community Development

USAID, UNICEF Malawi, 01 Nov 2009

Despite its importance to the poorest in society, the social welfare sector in Malawi has not been performing well. Recognising this, the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Gender, Children and Community Development (MoGCCD) requested support from United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), who have taken a new approach: supporting the Government of Malawi (GoM) to build a better social welfare system starting at the top, within the Ministry.

Preparation for Independent Living: Briefing Paper

SOS Children's Villages, 01 Oct 2009

First briefing paper of series, aims to share good practices and information exchange on preparation for leaving care and after care support

UNITE for Children UNITE Against AIDS

UNITE for Children UNITE Against AIDS, 01 Sep 2009

Short video illustrating the ways social protection safeguards children and their families – including those affected by AIDS – at every level from communities to entire countries and beyond.

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Advancing Child Sensitive Social Protection

DFID, Help Age, Hope and Homes for Children, IDS, ILO, ODI, Save the Children UK, UNDP, UNICEF and World Bank., 01 Sep 2009

Joint statement among UN agencies and NGO partners to build greater consensus on the importance of child-sensitive social protection.

Policy and Analysis Tools for the Manual for the Measurement of Indicators for Children in Formal Care

Better Care Network and UNICEF Headquarters, 01 Sep 2009

Policy/analysis tools for manual to assist countries in strengthening their information system around children in formal care through data collection around 15 global indicators

HIV/AIDS, declining family resources and the community safety net

Jody Heymann and Rachel Kidman - AIDS Care, 01 Aug 2009

This study uses recent data from published studies in sub-Saharan Africa to illustrate deficits and document community responses for children who have lost parents to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

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