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 African Report on Child Wellbeing 2008: How child-friendly are African governments?

African Child Policy Forum, 01 Nov 2008

Assessment of individual African government's performance in regards to child welfare.

African Social Services in Peril: A Study of the Department of Social Welfare in Ghana under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative

Siobhan E. Laird - Journal of Social Work, 01 Oct 2008

Using Ghana as an illustrative case study, this article examines the ideology and intentions which underpin the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper required for approval by the IMF and World Bank to qualify for debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries initiative. This article critically examines the functions assigned to governmental and non-governmental agencies within the social sector generally and the Department of Social Welfare specifically.

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Perspectives for Social Protection in West and Central Africa

Anthony Hodges, UNICEF, 01 Oct 2008

Assesses constraints and opportunities for social protection programming regionally with particular consideration for child sensitive social protection.

Mapping of Residential Care Institutions in Sierra Leone

UNICEF, 01 Aug 2008

Mapping of existing facilities caring for children in residential capacity for use in developing child protection standards

Assessment of Procedural and Physical Standards in Children's Residential Care Institutions in Guyana: Summary and Recommendations

01 Aug 2008

Examines the capacity of childcare institutions and the monitoring and reintegration meausures necessary to ensure child safety in such.

Adopting the Rights of a Child: A Study on Intercountry Adoption and its Influence on Child Protection in Nepal

Terre des Hommes Foundation and UNICEF, 01 Aug 2008

Evaluates the need for reform within Nepal's intercountry adoption programming and the broader needs within the child protection and alternative care arenas nationally.

Executive Summary of Enhanced Protection for Children Affected by AIDS - SPANISH

UNICEF, 31 Jul 2008

Outlines how to strengthen social protection, legal protection, and alternative care for children at country level. Contains specific actions that governments and NGO's can take to decrease the vulnerability of children affected by AIDS and respond to instances of abuse, exploitation and neglect.

Executive Summary of Enhanced Protection of Children Affected by AIDS

UNICEF, 31 Jul 2008

Executive Summary of Enhanced Protection for Children Affected by AIDS - FRENCH

UNICEF, 31 Jul 2008

Strategic Approach to Categorizing Progress on Child Welfare Reform in CEE/CIS Countries

University of Pittsburgh, Office of Child Development, 01 Jul 2008

The purpose of this report is to create a strategy for assessing the status and progress of child welfare reform in CEE/CIS countries using the best available quantitative and qualitative information.