6039 ODI PB Child & Social Protection in MENA Oct 2011

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Project Briefng

T his Project Brieng synthesises nd-ings rom a study mapping social pro-

tection in the Middle East and NorthArica (MENA) region,1 with a particular

ocus on policies and programmes that impactchildren and how these might be strengthened.The study was conducted by the OverseasDevelopment Institute and commissioned byUNICEF’s Regional Oce or the Middle Eastand North Arica (MENARO).

The conceptual ramework or the mappingexercise draws on two strands o thinking:• Devereux and Sabates-Wheeler’s (2004)

transormative ramework, which classiesapproaches to social protection as protective,

preventative, promotive and transormative.• The Joint Statement on Advancing Child-

sensitive Social Protection (DFID et al.,2009), which denes child-sensitive socialprotection policies as those which address‘the inherent social disadvantages, risks andvulnerabilities children may be born into, aswell as those acquired later in childhood’.

The mapping was based on a desk review o secondary data and literature across 19 coun-tries in the region, complemented by regional-and country-level stakeholder telephone

interviews in a selection o seven countries:Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco,the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and

Yemen. The choice o countries refects avail-ability o inormation and a desire to cover arange o contexts.

Poverty and vulnerability in MENA

There are a number o interrelated actorsinvolved in poverty and vulnerability in theMENA region. Approximately 20% o thepopulation is living below the $2-a-day poverty

line, with the average extreme poverty rate inlower-income countries 32.5% in 2005. In manycountries (Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia), signicantnumbers live just above the poverty line andthus are vulnerable to alling into poverty. Other

aspects include ood insecurity and vulner-ability to rising ood prices – the region is the

world’s most ood import-dependent, import-ing 50% o regional ood consumption (IFPRI,2010); has the worst water scarcity in the world(UNDP, 2009); and is vulnerable to humanitar-ian crises stemming rom confict (Lebanon,Iraq, OPT, Sudan, Yemen). Meanwhile, demo-graphic pressures and the resulting youth bulgeare limiting young people’s work opportunities:at 25%, the region has the highest youth unem-ployment rate in the world. Finally, the integra-tion o numerous reugees, asylum seekers andmigrant workers varies substantially rom coun-try to country and oten by particular reugee

group. Many live in marginalised conditionsand lack sucient access to social services andsupport.

Vulnerabilities acing children

Some countries have seen improvementsin child wellbeing in the past ew years, par-ticularly with regard to schooling and health,but signicant problems remain. In Djibouti,Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Syria and Yemen,at least 20% o children suer rom moderateor severe underweight or stunting.2 The under-

ve mortality rate remains signicantly highin the poorest countries, while primary schoolenrolment rates in these countries remains low.There are also signicant spatial and socioeco-nomic inequalities in educational access andachievement, with poor rural children particu-larly disadvantaged. There are notable gender disparities in some countries in the region,particularly at secondary schools.

Child labour aected 10% o children aged5-14 in 2008.3 Early marriage still occurs insome countries: or example, 19% o womenin Yemen and 23% in Iraq are married beore

the age o 18. Some girls still experience emalegenital cutting. The socio-cultural acceptanceo these gendered practices in some countriescontributes to urthering social vulnerabilities.Children displaced during emergencies and

Children and social protection in theMiddle East and North Arica

Paola Pereznieto, Rachel Marcus and Erin Cullen

No 64 • October 2011

advancing knowledge, shaping policy, inspiring practice

Key points

• Social protection is an

important policy area in

the Middle East and North

Africa Region, although

most related resources are

currently spent on regressive

subsidies

• Despite important progress

in child well-being indicators

across the region, income,

gender and spatial inequities

remain that keep children

in a situation of poverty and

vulnerability

• Well designed and evidence-

based child-sensitive

social protection can be

instrumental in improving the

equitable development of

children in the region



Project Briefng

confict are exposed to violence, exploitation andabuse, although data are not suciently availableto document this.

Social protection

As in most middle-income countries, across theregion most social protection is domesticallynanced and state-provided. Donors play a sig-nicant role in lower-middle-income countries andthose aected by confict. In some countries, thereis signicant provision by civil society organisations– or example, in Lebanon, this sometimes com-plements and even substitutes or state provision.While most social protection interventions are notspecically child-ocused, many children benet

indirectly rom them through their households. Thisoverview ocuses on non-contributory social protec-tion, which is targeted primarily at the poor andother vulnerable groups.

In lower-middle-income countries, targetedsocial assistance, ood assistance, ood and energysubsidies, and public works programmes are themost common. In middle-income countries, thoseoutside the ormal sector (approximately 60%)have access to dierent saety nets o varyingeectiveness, ranging rom generalised ood andenergy subsidies and asset transer programmes totargeted cash transer (CT) programmes. The richest

Gul Cooperation Council (GCC) countries gener-ally provide ree universal medical care, educationand work training programmes and some CTs todisadvantaged groups. Social protection benetsare available to citizens, but rarely to migrants or reugees, who are assisted mainly by charitableorganisations.

Food and commodity (mainly energy) subsidiesgenerally absorb the greatest share o social pro-tection budgets. These programmes are politicallypopular because they are seen to relieve householdpressures and are easier to implement than tar-geted programmes. However, recent research into

these programmes4 has shown them to be regres-sive and not pro-poor. For example, Egypt’s oodsubsidy experienced 83% leakage to the non-poor in 2008/09 (World Bank, 2010).

Child-sensitive social protection

Targeted CTs are ound in most countries in theregion and are implemented in a variety o ways:regular, sporadic, standalone or complementaryto other programmes. Some CTs target low-incomehouseholds or individuals, but most use categoricaltargeting o country-dened vulnerable populations,

which means they are generally not means-tested.Many ocus directly or indirectly on children.

Examples o CT programmes include Algeria’sAllowance or School Children, which targets primary-aged children in poor households and reaches 3 mil-lion children, and Jordan’s National Aid Fund, which

targets orphans, the elderly, persons with disabili-ties and amilies headed by divorced or abandonedwomen and which covers approximately 206,000

beneciaries (although children are the most under-represented among these categories). Most CTs arecurrently unconditional, although some conditionalCTs have recently been introduced, or example theTayssir Programme in Morocco, which is conditionalon children’s primary school attendance.

Supporting children’s access to education is themost common child-specic area o social protec-tion, contributing to improvements in access andretention. For example, in Gul countries, universalabolition o school ees has led to almost univer-sal enrolment and completion. In other countries,measures include CTs; subsidised transport and

residential housing or students rom remote areasto enable access to schools (Morocco); ee waiv-ers or children with disabilities (Algeria, Yemen);and ree schooling or some reugee children,implemented primarily by the UN Relie and WorksAgency (UNRWA) and the UN High Commissioner or Reugees (UNHCR). The latter highlights the actthat, in some contexts, humanitarian assistancemakes an important contribution to social protec-tion. There are also school eeding programmesand ood rations in school, which provide incen-tives to access education while supporting nutrition(Algeria, Djibouti, OPT, Yemen).

Nevertheless, in the poorer countries o theregion, and among particular disadvantaged groups(e.g. some reugees, nomadic children), there arestill problems o school access. In addition, gender inequalities in education access persist in somecountries (Yemen). There is a need or better tar-geted social protection to reach vulnerable groupsstill acing inequalities in education.

Programmes promoting the nutritional well-beingo children under ve and pregnant and lactatingwomen are also common. These use a combinationo ood assistance, supplementation and orticationprogrammes, and nutritional education (Djibouti,

Egypt, OPT, Yemen). Child malnutrition rates in somecountries refect a range o actors (related to poverty,unemployment, climate and ood insecurity): bet-ter targeted social protection that reaches the mostdisadvantaged children could make an importantcontribution to improving their nutritional status.

Although many countries in the region haveemployment-based health insurance, this rarelycovers poorer children, whose parents are typicallyoutside the ormal labour orce. Most countries alsoprovide health care that is ocially ree at the pointo access, or where consultation charges are low,but services are oten o low quality. While some

countries are piloting schemes to increase accessor the poor (Morocco), others (Egypt) have plans toincrease cost recovery at the primary level, poten-tially undermining the poorest children’s access.

There are many social protection programmestargeting groups o particularly vulnerable children:



Project Briefng

• In Algeria, households with disabled childrenreceive a cash grant to promote their care andaccess to school

•In Djibouti, a CT is part o a programme supportingorphans and vulnerable children (OVC)

• Egypt has programmes to reintegrate ex-childlabourers into school

• In Egypt and Lebanon, there are shelters or abandoned children or street children

• In Yemen and Jordan, CT programmes targetorphans as one o their vulnerable categories.

Evidence o the impact o these programmes islimited given the dearth o monitoring and evalua-tion (M&E) mechanisms, and there is relatively littleintegration between child protection and social pro-

tection systems. Child rights legislation, considereda orm o transormative social protection, has con-tinued to develop in the region, although children insome countries remain under-protected in areas suchas age o marriage, citizenship rights and violence.

Despite widespread youth unemployment, thereare not enough large-scale and eective initiativesto enhance adolescents’ and young people’s skillsto equip them or the job market or to oer themopportunities adapted to their varying skills. Youngpeople’s participation in more general productivesocial protection programmes such as cash or workand asset transers, or example, is limited.

Key challenges to social protectionand child-sensitive social protectionSome o the main challenges to expanding andstrengthening child-sensitive social protection inthe region include the ollowing.

Political contextThe recent wave o popular protests in the regionhas substantially changed the political context or

social protection programmes. Political transitionshave created new vulnerabilities, particularly or households whose livelihoods have been disrupted.

Where confict or large-scale repression has brokenout, important humanitarian needs have emerged,especially where supply lines have been damaged.Social protection can contribute to addressing someo these vulnerabilities, but design and implemen-tation are critical here.

Increasing social protection provision has beena common response o governments attemptingto head o popular pressures or reorm or regimechange. Table 1 outlines new social protection com-mitments announced in 2011, although there is stillinsucient inormation available to ascertain towhat extent these have been implemented – and

the extent o these commitments raises questionsabout their aordability.

While some o these responses aim to tackle eco-nomic vulnerabilities, they have been announcedas a orm o political compromise to calm socialunrest rather than based on evidence as to their eectiveness. This is particularly clear in the caseo subsidies, which have been one o the most com-mon responses so ar. This may limit the potentialto address the challenges currently acing the mostvulnerable, including children.

Financial barriers

Average expenditure on social protection in MENA isestimated at 12.5% o total expenditure, or 4.6% o gross domestic product (GDP) (Prasad and Gerecke,2010). Although this is more than in other middle-income regions, there are signicant leakages.There are also system ineciencies resulting rominadequate human resources and limited structuralcapacity in some contexts.

While most spending is currently consumedby regressive ood and energy subsidies, somecountries are moving towards more targeted inter-

Table 1: New social protection commitments in the MENA region in 2011

Social protection responses to protests Examples

Increased spending on cash transer programmes Algeria, Jordan, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen

One-o cash payments, oten linked to stopping participation in protests Promised in Bahrain

Subsidies and taris Increase in ood and/or energy subsidiesReduction o import taris on oodCancellation o plans or subsidy cuts/new ood subsidiesIncrease in housing subsidies

Algeria, Jordan, Syria, TunisiaAlgeria, SyriaEgyptBahrain, KuwaitSaudi Arabia

Measures to reduce youth unemployment Three-year interest-ree loans and tax breaks or young entrepreneursFund to increase job opportunities or recent graduates

Algeria Yemen

Fee waivers or university students due to graduate this year Yemen

General poverty reduction/employment promotion measuresWage increases or (some) public sector employees; social security tax concessions or businesses to encourage job creationPlans or minimum wage, unemployment insurance and labour-intensive growth strategyPersonal income tax cutsIncreased minimum wage

Algeria, Jordan, Oman, Syria

AlgeriaEgyptOman, Yemen

Source: Marcus et al. (2011).



Project Briefng

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ISSN 1756-7602

ventions, including conditional CTs. This shit,i politically easible and adequately targeted,could increase the proportion o social protection

resources that contribute to improving the lives o vulnerable children. It will be important to preservethe scal space governments currently allocateto existing programmes, as well as securing newsources o unding, which in oil-rich countries mightinclude oil revenues.

Monitoring and evaluationAn important problem in the region is the dearth o rigorous inormation on the impact o social protec-tion programmes: M&E is not a common practiceand evaluations are seldom available. There hasbeen a recent push to evaluate social protection

interventions, mostly promoted by donors (e.g. theWorld Bank). This is starting to generate some use-ul data, although these are still not used systemati-cally to inorm design.

Fragmentation in provisionSocial protection suers rom a prolieration o programmes and actors, with some targetingoverlapping population groups. An important stepin improving eciency and coordination is thedevelopment o single national registers, to avoidduplication o benets and to monitor progress o beneciaries. Other steps include streamlining pro-

gramme implementation and enabling scale-up or graduation rom programmes according to regularlyupdated inormation about beneciaries.

Targeting Improving targeting could increase programmes’eectiveness, particularly in terms o reaching dis-advantaged children. The move towards improvedpoverty targeting could reduce the leaking o cashand ood transers, but reorms that restrict eligibil-

ity or provisions currently considered entitlementsare controversial – and may be politically ineasiblein the current climate. Additionally, the shit will

require substantial capacity-building in povertyanalysis and identiying beneciaries.

Recommendations or strengthening child-sensitive social protection in MENA There are a number o possible entry points or strengthening linkages to social protection to addresschildren’s vulnerabilities in a more integrated way.First, it is important to think about child-sensitivesocial protection beyond programmes that targetchildren, so as to be better able to take advantageo existing opportunities. Such opportunities might

include linking CT beneciaries to complementarysupportive programmes and basic social services,and including preventative and responsive socialwelare services where necessary.

Second, multilateral agencies can support govern-ments to strengthen their capacity to design more tai-lored and eective programmes that reach the mostvulnerable children. Further, given the persistence o gender and age disparities, more disaggregated dataare needed to enable dierentiated analysis o theimpact o social protection and to contribute to moreeective policy and programming.

Given the number o positive experiences in

the region, greater inormation and knowledge-sharing across countries is essential, to build onexisting promising practices. This would be greatlyenhanced by more systematic M&E o social protec-tion programmes to generate inormation about theadequacy o their design and their impact, particu-larly on children.

Endnotes, reerences and project inormation

Endnotes:1 Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Iraq,

Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory(OPT), Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia,United Arab Emirates (UAE), Yemen.

2 www.unice.org/inobycountry/northarica.html3 www.childino.org/labour.html4 Generally supported by the World Bank.

Reerences:

Devereux, S. and Sabates-Wheeler, R. (2004) Transformative

Social Protection. Working Paper 232. Brighton: IDS.DFID, HelpAge International, Hope & Homes or Children,

IDS, ILO, ODI, Save the Children UK, UNDP, UNICEF and

the World Bank (2009) ‘Joint Statement on AdvancingChild Sensitive Social Protection’.

IFPRI (2010) ‘Strategy in the Middle East and North AricaRegion’. Washington, DC: IFPRI.

Marcus, R., Pereznieto, P., Cullen, E. and Jones, N. (2011)‘Children and Social Protection in the Middle Eastand North Arica, A Mapping Exercise’. ODI reportcommissioned by UNICEF MENA.

Prasad, N. and Gerecke, M. (2010) ‘Social Security Spendingin Times o Crisis’, Global Social Policy 10(2): 218-247.

UNDP (2009) Arab Human Development Report 2009.

Challenges to Human Security in the Arab Countries. New York: UNDP.

World Bank (2010) ‘Solidarity and Productivity in a ChangingWorld: How Well Can the Social Saety Nets o the MiddleEast and North Arica Region Adapt?’. Concept Note.Washington, DC: World Bank.

Project Inormation:

This project was commissioned by UNICEF to map social pro-tection in the Middle East and North Arica (MENA) region witha particular ocus on policies and programmes that impact

children. The study was based on a desk review o secondarydata and literature across 19 countries within the MENA region,complemented by regional- and country-level stakeholder in-terviews in seven countries (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon,Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory and Yemen).

Written by ODI Research Fellow Paola Pereznieto([email protected]) and independent consultantsRachel Marcus and Erin Cullen.

6039 ODI PB Child & Social Protection in MENA Oct 2011

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