UNICEF Social Protection Work
Presentation Outline
an overview
Show and Tell on Social Protection
Child Protection
in Bonn,
UNICEF’s
Social Protection
2011
• UNICEF andStrategic
social protection
Framework
– Rationale:
• Equity approach
• Social protection and children Seminar on Social Transfers
– Child-Sensitive Social Protection and Child Protection
18-20 March 2013
– Guiding Principles
– On-going work
Jenn Yablonski
– Agenda for action
– Work with Partners: Social Protection Floor
Presentation Overview
 Child Protection and Social Protection – UNICEF
context
 Strategic Framework on Social Protection –
quick overview
 Child Protection and Social Protection:
complementarities and challenges
CP and SP - context
 Child Protection staff in field & HQ strongly helped to
lead early work on SP in UNICEF
 Link to OVC issues and impact of HIV/AIDS
 But also broader in concerns re: child-sensitivity of SP
programmes, and links to social welfare services/ministries
 Continues to be substantial
collaboration in a number of
countries/regions
 Child protection perspective has
helped to shape part of UNICEF’s
value added in SP
 Areas of confusion remain, and
unrealized potential for maximizing
outcomes for children
Integrated Social Protection
Systems: Enhancing Equity for
Children
Key Messages
• Social protection strengthens resilience
and helps achieve greater equity
• UNICEF supports the Progressive
Realization of Universal Coverage
• Social protection can be affordable and
sustainably financed
• UNICEF promotes integrated social
protection systems
• Social, as well as economic, vulnerabilities
need to be addressed by social protection
• The Framework is a starting point for a
collaborative agenda on joint learning and
action
Definition
UNICEF understands social protection as:
“a set of public and private policies and
programmes aimed at preventing, reducing
and eliminating economic and social
vulnerabilities to poverty and deprivation”
Key elements of definition:
 Poverty and deprivation are a multi-dimensional and dynamic reality.
 Vulnerability entails both exposure to risk and the capacity to respond
and cope.
 Both economic and social vulnerabilities are important and often
intertwined.
 Vulnerabilities are shaped by underlying structural social, political and
economic factors.
Social protection components & examples
Cash transfers (including pensions, child benefits, poverty-targeted, seasonal)
Social
Transfers
Food transfers
Nutritional supplementation; Provision of ARVs
Public works
Birth registration
Programmes
to access
services
User fee abolition
Health insurance
Exemptions, vouchers, subsidies
Specialized services to ensure equitable access for all
Social
Support
and care
Family support services
Home-based care
Accessible Childcare services
Minimum and equal pay legislation
Legislation
& Policies
Employment guarantee schemes
Maternity and paternity leave
Removal of discriminatory legislation or policies affecting service provision/access or employment
Inheritance rights
Overall approach:
Integrated social protection systems
Highly effective for addressing multiple and compounding
vulnerabilities faced by children and families
• Address both social and economic vulnerabilities
• Provide a comprehensive set of interventions
• Go beyond risk management interventions and safety nets: address
structural as well as shock-related vulnerabilities
• Facilitate a multi-sector approach and coordination
• Coordinate with appropriate supply-side investments
• Frame social protection strategies within a broader set of social and
economic policies that promote human development and growth
Integrated social protection systems
‘Systems’
approach
‘Multisector’
approach
Integrated
Social
protection
Systems
Key Principles
• Progressive realization of universal coverage
• National systems and leadership
• Inclusive social protection
UNICEF Social Protection Work
Social Protection
an overview
and Child
Protection
Show and Tell on Social Protection
Bonn, 2011
Child Protection and social protection
• Social protection can contribute to enhance
child protection outcomes: serve as a
preventive as well as protective function
• Linking social protection and child protection
systems/services enhance holistic well-being
of children addressing both social and
economic vulnerabilities to poverty, and
abuse, neglect and exploitation
Complementarities: Goals
• Both approaches address social vulnerability,
but different outcomes and underlying factors
• Social protection address economic and social
vulnerabilities to poverty & deprivation ensures rights to adequate standard of living
and access to services.
• Child protection addresses causes of violence,
abuse and neglect, many rooted in economic
and social vulnerability.
Complementarities: Goals (cont.)
Goal: address vulnerability to reduce
Violence, abuse, neglect
and exploitation:
CHILD PROTECTION
Poverty and deprivation
SOCIAL PROTECTION
Causes/Underlying factors
Economic: limited asset base; shocks; low
wage/lack of paid employment
Cultural: intra-household inequality;
discrimination and social exclusion based
on gender, ethnicity, disability, etc; lack of
extended family support; lack of social
status
Social: age specific health vulnerabilities;
limited education and/or skills; inability to
access social services
Political: conflict; institutionalized
discrimination; political marginalization
Economic: inequality and unemployment;
poverty
Cultural: gender dynamics and
discrimination; power relations
Social: Social status; Age (children and
youth); lack of family care/protection;
harmful social practices, members of
minority groups
Disability: child or parents with disabilities
Political: Conflict
Programmatic linkages between SP and Child
Protection
•
Some mechanisms and interventions can serve both child protection and social
protection functions – enhancing outcomes in both areas. For example:
–
–
Birth registration
Family support services
•
Explicit integration and linking of child protection services with social transfers or
other social protection activities may enhance the long-term impact of these
interventions.
•
SP contact points can help identify and refer vulnerable households to
social welfare services
–
–
•
Case workers
Pay points (from cash transfers)
Child protection services can help remove barriers to access of social protection
programmes: e.g., referral services by social workers may address stigma, isolation,
lack of information problems
Instruments: Family support services example
• What do we mean by family support services? Activities to
strengthen and preserve families, prevent family
separation/breakdown and ensure early intervention in
families deemed at risk.
As a Child protection instrument,
family support services enhance
capacity of families to care for
children. Some activities may
include:
- Parenting education
- Family mediation
- Family legal advice
- Family /individual therapeutic
support
- Referral to other services (part of
PEF)
As a Social protection instrument, family support
and care services help strengthen families’
resilience and capacity to cope with risks, while
linking families to basic social and other
(protection, legal) services:
- Home base care (for HIV patients): to provide
health care for those marginalized due to
poverty or stigma; promote treatment
adherence; ensure access to basic services and
linkages with legal support and livelihood
opportunities
- Referral to services and benefits (e.g:
nutrition, education) due to information
barriers and invisibility
Protective Environment Framework (PEF):
Child protection
To prevent and respond to violence, abuse and exploitation
Children’s life
skills, knowledge
and participation
Government
commitment to
protection rights
Monitoring and
oversight
Legislation and
enforcement
Capacity of
those in contact
with child
Open discussion
Social protection can
enhance the capacity
of care givers in terms
of financial access,
work flexibility, and
protective legislation
Basic and targeted services
Social protection contributes to ensuring
access to social basic services: health,
education, and other
Social
protection
legislation and
policy reform to
transform
discriminatory
attitudes
towards
vulnerable
groups
CP Impacts
Intermediate
Impacts
SP
outcomes
Health, Nutrition, Family Stress/
Education
Resilience
outcomes
Access to services
- Health, Ed.
Implementation Design features – e.g.
synergies
training/ information,
childcare with PWs
Systems
strengthening
Income/
resources
HH labour/time
decisions
Reduced
discrimination/
exclusion
Programmatic linkages – e.g.
referrals, birth registration
Strengthening SW
Coordination
workforce &
human resources
Systems for
identifying HHs/
children
Access to
information
Family support