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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Finding a Way Forward: Principles and Strategies to Reduce the Impacts of AIDS on Children and Families

John Williamson, 2000

Provides a multi-level approach for the analysis and development of context-specific interventions in communities affected by HIV/AIDS epidemic. Includes discussion of microfinance services, and highlights several community-based programs.

Cash-Based Responses in Emergency

Humanitarian Policy Group, Overseas Development Institute , 2000

Argues that cash-based responses should play a growing role in humanitarian response to crises

Malawi: The Role of Cash Transfers in a National Safety Nets Program

Paul Harnett, 1999

A technical report on the use of cash and in-kind transfers as a means of alleviating poverty in developing countries. A discussion of both advantages and disadvantages of cash transfers with recommendations for a pilot program for Malawi.

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Three Things to Know About Integrated Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) and Child Protection (CP) during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This resource from Save the Children answers the questions: (1) Why should we consider integrating Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) and Child Protection (CP) during COVID-19?; (2) What type of CVA & CP programming can be done during COVID-19?; and (3) How can we integrate CVA & CP?