Advancing child-sensitive social protection

There is a growing body of evidence from a range of developing countries that social protection programmes can effectively increase the nutritional, health and educational status of children and reduce their risk of abuse and exploitation.

This joint statement from major develoment organisations argues that regular, predictable social transfers (cash or in kind)  from governments and community can reduce child poverty and vulnerability, by helping to ensure children?s access to basic social services. Social insurance offers access to health care for children, as well as services to support communities to reach all households and individuals, including children.

How can child-sensitive social protection be achieved? Governments and international development partners can take the following steps to further social protection in the interests of children:

• ensure existing social protection policies and programmes are child-sensitive - taking into consideration the viewpoints of children, youth and their caregivers
• set priorities and sequence policy development and implementation to progressively realise a basic social protection package that is accessible to all those in need
• governments and donors alike should seek to improve fiscal space and increase available resources for child-sensitive social protection programmes
• broad efforts are needed to build awareness, political will, capacity and intersectoral coordination
• ensure adequate investment in and linkages between transfers and social services is needed to ensure the reach, effectiveness and impact of social protection
• ongoing research, monitoring and evaluation are needed to better understand effective programme design and implementation, as well as how child-sensitive approaches can benefit the wider community and national development

Joint statement by: DFID, HelpAge International, Hope & Homes for Children, Institute of Development Studies, International Labour Organization, Overseas Development Institute, Save the Children UK, UNDP, UNICEF and the World Bank.