1. Child Sensitive Social Protection
Gaspar Fajth
Chief, Social Policy and Economic Analysis,
UNICEF Policy and Practice, New York
Strategies for the extension of Social Protection
Turin 5 October, 2009

2. The themes of this presentation
Introduction: the SPF-I and children
Why Social Protection needs to be child sensitive?
What is so special about children?
The relevance of social protection programmes for children
Challenges, issues

3. 1. Introduction: the Social Protection Floor and children
UN Crisis response (April 2009)
Comprehensive Framework for Action (Food Taskforce)
Joint Crisis Initiatives (#6: Social Protection Floor)
The Social Protection Floor
Basic social services
Income security
Focus on poor and vulnerable populations
Initiative and/or approach? The issue of national ownership
Joint Statement on Child Sensitive Social Protection
(August 2009)
The aim of this session

4. Poverty and absolute child deprivation: global evidence
Chance of a woman dying from complications during pregnancy or delivery:
Ireland: 1 : 48,000
Niger: : 7
Chance of a child dying during her/his first 5 years of life
Hungary: 1 : 143
Cameroon: 1 : 7
Risk that a child will never attend school
Developing countries: 1 : 7
Risk that a young child will be malnourished
Developing countries: 1 : 3
Risk that a child will live in absolute poverty (severe human deprivation)
Developing countries: 1 : 2
Risk that the child will live in household with no access to social protection
World: 4 : 5

5. 2. Why Social Protection needs to be ‘child-sensitive’?
Many societies want to prioritize children/make progress on the MDGs
Social protection can reduce future poverty
through preventing risks, protecting from impact, promoting proactive responses and transforming the legal environment and/or societal values
Children’s experiences of poverty and vulnerability are different from those of adults
loss of family care is a significant risk for children in the contexts of malaria, HIV/AIDS, conflict, humanitarian crises, and juvenile justice and child protection practices
children’s complex physical, psychological , emotional and intellectual development create particular opportunities as well as vulnerabilities
they can not and should not respond alone

6. Child poverty has been defined as
“deprivation of the material, spiritual and emotional resources needed to survive, develop and thrive, leaving [children] unable to enjoy their rights, achieve their full potential or participate as full and equal members of society” (SOWC 2005)
“Child sensitive social protection” therefore needs
to have a multidimensional focus
look at the options of child-centered as well as adult-centered programmes
to be developed as an evidence-based approach
consider the fiscal and political realities, but aim at maximizing opportunities and developmental outcomes for children within given constraints
challenge those constraints taking advantage of evidence on progress elsewhere
develop indicators and analyses, assessments
raise awareness and build a coalition for making social protection child sensitive
Questions?

7. 3. What is so special about children?
Moral and legal commitments
High returns to investment
Short window opportunity
Strong gains from combination of interventions
High risks that investment will not happen

8. Moral and legal commitments
Private and public support
Households
intra- and inter-household distribution and use of resources
coping strategies are not always sustainable/may have negative child impact
Corporate sector responsibility
business strategy
workforce (HR) policy
Public authorities
laws, policies, programmes
transparency, accountability, effectiveness and efficiency
Questions
What factors influence these?
How can we measure and/or influence them?

9. Moral and legal commitments (cont’)
1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child
The rights of the individual child
citizenship
family
health
education
protection from abuse
access to social security
maximum available resources
international collaboration
Legislative reform and implementation
Questions:
What are the implications?
How to operationalize/prioritize/make progress?

10. Evidence on the high returns from investing in children
Micronutrients for children
the most productive global investment (Copenhagen Consensus, 2008)
providing essential vitamins and minerals would cost $60 million per year and hold annual benefits above $1 billion: a 1500 per cent rate of return (Horton at al 2008)
Early childhood development
analysis of four early childhood and pre-school programmes indicates benefit-cost ratios range between to one in the US (Schweinhart, L 2004)
Indonesia Early Childhood Development Project suggests a ratio of 6 to 1 (World Bank 2009)
Infant and maternal nutrition – intergenerational effects
evidence in rural Guatemala suggests that that for every 100 gram increase in maternal birth weight, her infant’s birth weight increased by 29 grams (Ramakrisnan at al 1999)
Basic education
the estimated rate of return to one additional year of schooling is 10 per cent on average globally even without counting the social benefits of better education (Psacharopoulos at al. (2004)
Child protection
Children from socio-economically deprived families had a chance 700 times the average for placement in substitute care in the UK (Bebbington and Miles, 1989)
Question:
How evidence like these could be used in the policy process?

11. Short window opportunity
Permanently damaging effects of even temporarily lack of support

12. Strong extra gains from combined interventions
For example:
Nutrition
calorie, protein, micronutrients intake as well as water and sanitation, disease control
Stimulation
cognitive learning and emotional support
Best results come from a combination of nutrition support and stimulation for young children

13. Good nutrition and psychosocial development help each other
In a Jamaican study, stunted children aged 9-24 months were randomly assigned to nutrition only, stimulation only, nutrition and stimulation, and control group and IQ was monitored …
 The benefits from a combination of nutrition supplements and stimulation were additive: after 2 years of intervention the children receiving both treatments caught up to the nonstunted control group (top line)

14. But remember! Stimulation works also the other (negative) way…
Stigma and “low expectations” influence child behaviour
The case of competition at a maze in India: children's performance differed when their caste was made public! (WDR 2006 p76)
Stress can permanently lower memory capacity in children
new research finds causality between chronic stress associated with poverty and impaired brain development in children (Economist )
These findings are particularly important
in the context of gender, adolescent, HIV/AIDS-related, poverty alleviation and special needs (child disability) programmmes
when making decisions on targeting of social programmes

15. High risk that child-related commitments will not be realized/investment will not happen
Structural poverty and/or social exclusion
poor maternal nutrition, health
loss of parental upbringing
low parental education and/or parenting skills
low awareness on children’s needs and/or opportunities
discrimination (e.g. gender, disability, ethnicity)
poor access to assets and income
Current poverty impacts
Idiosyncratic shocks (catastrophic health expenses, loss of a family member, loss of jobs etc)
Aggregate /covariate shocks (economic, social or environmental crises)
Agency and governance issues
Voicelessness
Principal agent issue/relational nature of child well being (dependency on adults)

16. Summary: children should get priority in public policy
Moral and legal commitments
Private and public support
1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child
High returns to investment
Childhood is the best opportunity to invest in human resources
Broader social and economic gains; returns tend to be particularly high among girls
Short window opportunity
Permanently damaging effects of even temporarily lack of support
Strong positive feedback from combination of interventions
Progress needed at all major dimensions of child well being
High risks that investment will not happen, due to
Structural poverty and/or social exclusion
Current poverty impacts due to economic, social or environmental crises
Governance and agency issues
Strong evidence on the impact of poverty on children

17. 4. The relevance of social protection programmes for children
Social protection is part of broader development policy
Social protection cuts across many sectors
The principles of Child Sensitive Social Protection
Social protection programmes relevant for children
Are Conditional Cash Transfers magic bullets?
How programmes could address the continuity of risk and vulnerability

18. Social protection is part of broader development policy
Source: World Bank 2008

19. Social protection cuts across many sectors
Nutrition
Social Policy
Health
Water and sanitation
Education
Child protection
Social Protection 
Social welfare
Source: UNICEF

20. Transfers could help removing barriers on the demand side
However, action on the supply side of services is often also necessary
Income/consumption poverty is a major barrier
But poverty is multidimensional and factors other than income matter too!
The structure of social expenditures shows different patterns by regions:
Source: World Bank 2008

21. Social protection programmes relevant for children
Social assistance (safety net) programmes
Targeted child grants (unconditional)
Conditional cash transfers (CCTs)
School feeding and other nutrition programmes
Fee waivers (health, education) and other in-kind transfers
Emergency programmes (cash handouts, social funds, nutrition, education kits etc.)
Workfare programmes, active labour market policies (including youth programmes)
Means-tested unemployment benefit or other social assistance
Social pensions
Social insurance programmes (contributory)
Cash family allowances (often hidden as tax benefits)
Maternal and parental benefits
Sick leaves
Public health insurance
Unemployment benefit
Public pension schemes

22. Universal social protection programmes
Birth grants (conditional to birth registration)
Pre-school programmes (subsidized)
Social care services (visiting nurses, counseling, shelter, respite care services etc.)
Free health services (e.g. on maternal and child health)
(Public health measures and free education is not considered as social protection, but these are very important for children)
Universal child grants/allowances
Price subsidies (staple and other food, fuel and energy, housing, water etc.)
Social protection is also private…

23. Conditional Cash Transfers – a magic bullet?
What is a CCT?
Social assistance programmes that provide cash transfers on evidence that households use health, education or other services (e.g. social work services in Chile’s Solidario)
Focus on addressing structural poverty through investment in children’s human capital
Conditionalities - e.g. compliance with immunization plans, checkups for pregnant women, regular school attendance, participation in parents-teachers meetings etc.
Key examples
The Bolsa Familia in Brazil and the Oportunidades in Mexico, which cover respectively about 12 and 5 million families with a budget less than 0.5 % of GDP
Key features
The practice of evaluation – demonstrating results, helping political acceptance and improving design
High concentration on the poor – the share of beneficiaries in poorest income quintile fall between 32% (Education Support Project in Cambodia) and 74% (Bolsa Familia)
Programme non-compliance could reach up a third or more of targeted beneficiaries
Administrative costs hover between 4 and 20%
Gender considerations

24. How programmes could be integrated to address the continuity of risk and vulnerability
Examples:
“A” type interventions: countercyclical macroeconomic policy, free basic education, immunization
“B” type interventions: child/family allowances, preventative social work services
“C” type interventions: intensive/emergency social work services
“A - B” types together: Bolsa Familia CCT (Brazil)
“B - C” types together: Solidario CCT(Chile)

25. Principles of child sensitive social protection
Avoid adverse impacts on children, and reduce or mitigate social and economic risks that directly affect children’s lives
Intervene as early as possible where children are at risk, in order to prevent irreversible impairment or harm to children
Consider the age and gender specific risks and vulnerabilities of children throughout the life-cycle
Mitigate the effects of shocks, exclusion and poverty on families, recognizing that families raising children need support to ensure equal opportunity
Make special provision to reach children who are particularly vulnerable and excluded, including children without parental care, and who are marginalized within their families or communities due to their gender, disability, ethnicity, HIV/AIDS or other factors
Consider the mechanisms and intra-household dynamics that may affect how children are reached, with particular attention paid to the balance of power between men and women within the household and broader community
Include the voices and opinions of children, their caregivers and youth in the understanding and design of social protection systems and programmes.

26. 5. Challenges, issues Low and unequal access to SP
Focus on structural versus transient poverty
Affordability (% of GDP, % of public spending)
Political support and public attitudes
The issue of targeting (means-tested, categorical)
The issue of conditionality
Trade-offs (within SP and over education or other public programmes)
Negligible positive or negative effects (work and fertility effects, crowding out, stigma, worse child outcome etc.)
Gaps in attention to social are services and women in the labour force
The culture of evaluation (missing, narrow)
Administrative feasibility (corruption, capacity, costs, transparency)
Local ownership and exportability of key SP tools (local context)
Low awareness and/or low priority

27. Thank you!