Synergies between social transfers and child protection outcomes?

Presentation by Mayke HuijbregtsInnocenti Research Center

Florence 20 March 2013

Content Definition of child protection and child protection systems Definition of social transfers Child protection outcomes Malawi country profile The face of ultra poverty in Sub Saharan Africa:

grandmother Edina Synergies between social transfers on child protection

outcomes from Malawi Mozambique profile Synergies between social and child protection in terms of

financing, coordination, capacity building and implementation modalities

Kenya Zimbabwe

Definition of child protection

• UNICEF’s 2008 child protection strategy defines the aim of child protection as ‘preventing and responding to violence, exploitation and abuse against children’, which ‘is essential to ensuring children’s rights to survival, development and well-being’

Child protection system: definition

Child protection system is comprised of the set of laws, policies, regulations and services needed across all social sectors —to support prevention and response to protection related risks. At the level of prevention the aims of the system include supporting and strengthening families to reduce social exclusion and to lower risk of separation, violence and exploitation. (UNICEF Child Protection Strategy 2008)

Focus on creating an optimal child protection system

• Optimal CP system should aim to protect all children, unite all actors behind a common set of goals, promote family support and access to early help (social welfare, education, health care, justice, PSS) when needed, and to create a long-term response to the protection of children that is robust, coordinated and adaptable to new problems.

Definition of social transfers• Social transfers are regular, reliable and

direct transfers in cash/ or in kind to households in poverty and deprivation

• UNICEF defines social transfers as ‘predictable direct transfers to households or individuals, both in-kind and cash, to protect and prevent individuals and households from being affected by shocks and to support the accumulation of human, productive and financial assets.

Social transfers vs child protection outcomes

• Are social transfers effective in addressing the negative outcomes derived from children living in childhood poverty and being exposed to vulnerability and risks?

Social transfers vs child protection outcomes

• Direct effects

• Indirect effects

• Implementation effects:

policies, public administration, capacity development,

implementation modalities and M&E

Social cash transfers Malawi Grandmother Edina

Malawi Country Profile• Poverty levels

– 52% of the population live under the poverty line– 22% live under the ultra poverty line

• GNI per capita - 170• A majority of the population lives in rural areas and rely predominantly on

agriculture for subsistence and income

• Children under the age of 18: 6.8 million– Over 1 million of which are orphans and other vulnerable children

• Infant mortality rate: 72 per 1,000 live births (<5 = 122/1,000)• Net attendance ratio: 86%• Children under five who are stunted: 48%• Children involved in child labour: 26%

• Childhood poverty high• Vulnerability very high

Grandmother Edina

• Grandmother Edina represents the face of many social cash transfer programmes in Africa

• Our grandmother is 79 years old and looks after 9 orphaned children

• She lives in a rural village in Malawi• She lost all her own children who left her in the care of

their children• She is labour constrained due to old age, hence she

has no income• Her duties are: to provide for the children in her care

with food, clothes, shelter, access to education and health, love, care and protection

Why is she smiling? Is she succeeding in her role?How?

Malawi social cash transfer scheme

Edina was put on the Malawi cash transfer scheme in 2006 which was designed:

• To reduce poverty, hunger and starvation in all households living in the programme areas who are ultra poor and at the same time labour constrained;

• To increase school enrolment and attendance of children living in target households and invest in their health and nutrition status;

• She receives up to USD 30 per month due to the number of children in her household

Results from the BU external evaluation conducted in 2008 showed

Direct impact on Children

Evidence based impact of cash transfers

• Improved child health & nutrition status

• Education –improved school enrollment,

attendance and performance

• Improved hygiene, clothing and improved housing

• Enhanced food security and diversity

• Investments in livestock and agriculture

Evidence based impact of cash transfers

In terms of child protection

• Child labour originally decreased from 53 to 18%

as did child marriages and child trafficking

• Evidence was found that girls spent less time on HH

chores

•Future impact evaluation will focus more on

assessing to what extend cash grants contribute to

family reintegration

Malawi Zomba pilot Cash grants for schooling girls

The Zomba pilot programme in Malawi tested the

impact of unconditional cash transfers for

secondary schooling girls linked to girls’ sexual

behaviour and found a reduction of 48 per cent in

child marriage and 38 per cent in early pregnancy.

Mozambique

Grandmother Ondina with her daughter and four children

GOVERNMEN

T

COMMITMENT

LEGIS

LATI

ON

ATTITUDES

CUSTOMS AND

PRACTICES

ESSENTIAL

SERVICES CHILDREN`S

LIFESKILLS AND

PARTICIPATION

OP

EN

D

ISC

US

SIO

N

CA

PA

CITY

OF

FAM

ILIES

AN

D

CO

MM

UN

TIY

MO

NIT

OR

ING

AN

D

OV

ER

SIG

HT

Protective Environme

nt

Child Labour22% of children 5-14y(1 million)

Trafficking

Children in

Institutions

15,000

Orphan hood

2,1 millions

Child M

arriage

52% of girls

<18 are

married

Conflict with

Law

CHH

24,000

Adolescent P

regnancy

41% of girls

15-19y

Psychosocial Support

Birth Registratio

n

Alternative care

Social Protection

Health Response to

Violence

Community Radios

Religious Groups

Community Leaders

School Councils

/Clubs

Prevention of Violence

GamesCivil Society

Socia

l Chang

eSyst

em

s Str

ength

en

ing

Police Response to

Violence

DRR Games

Child-to-Child Radio programs

Legal Aid

Sexual Abuse

70% of students

know cases of

sexual abuse

HIV11% of girls and 4%

of boys 15-25y

Poverty54% below poverty

line

Disabilities14% of children

living with disability

Natural Disasters

School Drop Out

15% of students

complete school

Nutrition44% stunting

Mozambique’s poverty and

vulnerability profile

Social Protection Programme (PSSB)• PSSB is an unconditional cash transfer programme for

ultra poor and labour constrained households as the elderly, persons with disability and the chronically ill as well as their dependents

• Largest cash transfer programme in Africa designed since 90’s

• Grandmother Ondina receives a basic value of the transfer USD 4 per month (limited impact so far)

• The good news is that recently the level of the transfer has improved to 8,5 USD p.m. and children can apply for their dependency allowance

• Mozambique is important for fiscal space and synergies on system building and costing: who finances the build up of a child protection system?

Development Partners/

SAWG

Pri

vate

sec

tor

GoM

SP Common Fund

MoF

Basic Social Security

Coordination Council

MMAS/INAS Other line Ministries

30 INAS Delegations

11 DPMAS

UN TA

128 SDMAS

11 DPEC11 DPS

128 DDEC

  Sys

tem

Str

eng

then

ing

Health

Access to basic services

 

 

Education

WatSan

Nutrition

Social Protection

Psychosocial support

Legal protection

Protection from violence & abuse

Alternative care

Community Case Management and Referral(Community Committees, Community Social

Worker/Permanentes)

Civi

l Soc

iety

Birth registration/

Social Protection synergies Mozambique – implementation effects

• Identification• Registration, enrollment• Birth certificate and civil registration (singly registry)• Case Management • Referral to other social services (education, health,

watsan)• Referral to complementary support services (PSS,

alternative care, legal protection, prevention and response to violence and abuse)

• Knowledge management on the status of the household in an IMS

• Beneficiary card/booklet

Social Protection synergies Mozambique

• National level Coordination, Social Security Council• National Social Action Work Plan - Social Action Working

Group• Capacity development of social welfare workforce, child

protection committees• On case management and referral• Common Fund• With joint Financing and Procurement Modalities• Cost of child protection system reflected in SA Work

Plan which is the basis for your Common Fund allocations

KENYA CASH TRANSFERS FOR OVC PROGRAMME (CT-OVC)

• Total of 144,931 HH OVC reached in December 2012

• CT-OVC benefiting approximately 525,000 (27% coverage)

• Increasing government support and ownership (40% of the programme funded by GOK

Programme Coverage

CASH TRANSFER FOR ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN

Implementation synergies – Child Protection / Social Protection Systems

CT-OVC as part of the Child Protection System

•Entry point to the Systems Approach to Child Protection •Focus on one of the target groups (Orphans / AVED / Disability / Parental Care) •Possible Links with Child Protection Centers•Source of information from MIS and possible links with Child Protection Data base

SP and CP Synergies in Zimbabwe

Direct effects:We have evidence that the social transfers impact directly on child protection through the identification and follow-up processes for child protection which are built in to the Harmonised Social Cash Transfer (HSCT) targeting mechanisms

Through engagement of child protection committees as HSCT focal persons and community watchdogs.

The HSCT MIS also collects data on reported child protection violations and generates local lists for Department of Social Services follow-up.

SP and CP synergies in Zimbabwe

Indirect effects through sensitisation on child protection issues of key enumerators involved in CTP:

Independent verification: Similarly through the innovations in Verification.The trained enumerators for Verification have received specific child protection training and act as a further level of surveillance and reporting to statutory authorities of protection violations.

SP and CP synergies in Zimbabwe Cash and care nexus: The implementation of cash

transfers as part of a package of measures specifically intended to address protection violations has meant the development of an digitalised national case management system intended to integrate access to social welfare and justice.

The HSCT MIS has been designed to accommodate the Case Management system, initially to track reports, and act as a management tool to ensure appropriate follow-up as well as identify gaps in service provision for planning processes.

The MIS is also designed to harmonise with other social protection mechanisms through the adoption of national statistical agency conventions for household and household member identification.

SP and CP synergies in Zimbabwe

Formal independent evaluation: The Impact Evaluation for the Zimbabwe HSCT (baseline 2013 and follow-up 2014 and 2015) will specifically ask if cash transfers improve the human development of children and adolescents, including improved access to health and education services, improved nutrition, reduced abuse exploitation, and HIV risk.

Zim is interested in the violence element which tracks VAC through HSCT households...do we change service access? Does violence look different in these households? What really is the link between poverty and violence at household level?

Hence, exciting info to come from Zimbabwe!

Grazie,Obrigada, Thank you

Do we need to broaden the definition of child protection to feature some risks related to childhood poverty and vulnerability?

Grazie,Obrigada, Thank you

HealthFree basic health care for pregnant

women and children

HIVFree access to ARVs,

paediatric care, VCT & PMTCT, HBC

EducationFree basic education, school feeding, life skills, vocational

training, Child Friendly Schools

Youth Clubs

Child ProtectionPsychosocial Support,

Alternative Care, Prevention and Response

to Violence and Abuse, Legal Protection, Birth

Registration

WASHTargeting ultra poor and labour constrained HHs for water supply,

sanitation and CLTS

ECDCBCCs

Parenting Education

DEMAND

SUPPLY

NutritionPrevention and

treatment of chronic and acute

malnutrition

Social Protection•Social Cash Transfer with education bonus•Inputs Subsidy Programme•Public Works Programme & Micro-credit•Village Savings & Loans•Insurance programmes (social, crop, livestock)

Social Policy

•Policy, legal and regulatory

framework

•Data collection & analysis

•Information Management

Systems

•Technology

•Research

•M&E

•Advocacy

•C4D

• Case Management

Referral• Access to

Services

Child Poverty and Vulnerability(Bottom quintile)