Child Sensitive Social Protection

Approaches developed in South Asia

Disa SjoblomSenior Social Protection AdviserSave the Children

Contents

•The CSSP South Asia initiative in brief

•How we understand CSSP in this initiative

•Different approaches to CSSP

•Achievements

•Challenges

Our overall approach to CSSP

Improve access to

government social

protection

programmes

1. Social assistance

(cash & kind

transfers

Enhance child

sensitivity of

parents/

caregivers,

community

selected service

providers

Advocate with

governments for

more child

sensitive social

protection

policies and

programme

1.Document expe

Integrate with improved service delivery

Improve access to

government socialPilot new social protection programmes

CSSP project locations under this initiative

★

★

★★

★

Projects: 2011-2016

- 2 in India

- 1 in Nepal

- 1 in Bangladesh

- Added Philippines

in 2015

Budget:

Approximately

1.1 mill EUR per year

CSSP definition and measures in the South Asia

initiative

Social protection programmes include:

• social assistance

• social insurance

• targeted and time bound social services

CSSP= Social protection programmes are designed in such a

way that they result in positive development outcomes for poor

and vulnerable children – this includes;

Child focused SP as well as SP targeted at the household

Save the Children globally - CSSP position paper, sets out our

global understanding

Why Child Sensitive Social Protection ?

• Social protection is a basic human right for children.

• Children are not best placed to claim their rights and entitlements and hence are dependent on adults.

• Children are particularly vulnerable to multiple dimensions of poverty and deprivation that can have long-lasting effectsand can put their lives and future well-being at risk.

• Child-sensitive social protection has sustained impacts for girls and boys, households and society and has potential to reduce intergenerational transfer of poverty.

• Lack of attention to the specific needs of boys and girls in social protection programmes can blunt the positive effectsof such programmes or lead to adverse impacts.

Intended outcomes of the initiative

• Reduce child labour

• Increase regularity in school attendance

• Improve well-being (social, physical, emotional) of orphans

and other vulnerable children

• Reduce malnutrition/ improve growth monitoring

• Sustained access to government social protection

Getting started -understand child poverty & vulnerability

Child Poverty & Vulnerability

Mapping (CPVM)

Understand magnitude of selected dimensions of child poverty and vulnerability that can be addressed through CSSP

Eg child labour, irregularity in school, malnutrition, orphanhood

Status of adults that make children vulnerable - single parents, chronically ill, disabled

Identify reasons and trends for child poverty& vulnerability

Secondary data

Knowledge Attitude Practice analysis

Analysis of availability and quality of services (school, health, child protection)

Getting started -understand existing social protection

Analysis of social

protection

programmes

National/state social protection framework/strategy

Monitoring & Evaluation

impact on children

Design and operational features of programmes

Objective, eligibility criteria, targeting, coverage

Conditions, if any, how these are reinforced

Size, amount, and frequency of transfers

Accompanying measures, if any

Provisions for exit/graduation, if any

Transparency and accountability mechanisms

IMPROVE ACCESS TO

GOVERNMENT SOCIAL

PROTECTION

Improve access to government social protection -

selected approaches

• Disseminate information on

existing schemes

• Facilitate the application process –

eg social protection camps

• Facilitate access to required

documents – registration of vital

events, application for ID cards

• Display list of beneficiaries

• Community based targeting –

include the poorest

• Community-based monitoring -

improve delivery

Improve access to government social protection

protection- enhance transparency & accountability

• Nepal photo ????Use of statutory/formal accountability

measures:

• Right to Information Act

• Public Services Guarantee Act

• Public Hearing Act/ public hearing

• Social audit

MAKE SOCIAL PROTECTION

PROGRAMMES MORE CHILD

SENSITIVE

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)

Problems identified

Children dropping out of school to substitute parents at the work site and/ or to take care of younger siblings

Young children left unattended at home

Make a household SP child sensitive- Dungarpur, India

Make the MGNREGA child sensitive

Measures adopted by the CSSP

project

• Crèche facility at the government

ECCD centre in collaboration with

government

• Community based norms against

child labour and for school

attendance

Advocating at state level for

• Scale up of crèche facilities and

community norms

• Maternity benefit

• Outline soft conditions in guideline

• Include monitoring of child labour/

school attendance in “list of

workers”

Palanhar Yojana:A conditional cash transfer for orphans and other vulnerable children

Problems identified

Distribution of cash alone has limited/ no impact – many children in a dire situation (physically, emotionally and socially)

Caregivers/ parents lack skills/ motivation/ sometimes interest required to take appropriate care of children

Make a child focused SP programme child

sensitive- Dungarpur, India

Make the Palanhar scheme child sensitive

The Palanhar Plus Approach

• Develop caregiver skills – 3

modules - My Child & Me; My

Healthy Child; My Happy Child

• Develop life skills of children – 3

modules

Me & My Family; A Healthy Me: A

Happy Me

• Panel study of 130 children and

their

caregivers to “measure’ impact

• Develop regular monitoring by the

school- progress of children

Negotiate scale up by the

government of Palanhar Plus

Make household social protection child sensitive-

Bangladesh

• Employment Generation

Programme- 40 days work

• Vulnerable Group Development

– wheat distribution

Enhance child sensitivity

• Chairman of Union Parishad - the

need to invest in children at the

time of payment

• Community Watch Group –

informal group of respected

villagers, follow up with households

and create pressure - child labour,

child marriage

• Parenting sessions with recipients

of EGP and VGD

• Child club – platform for all children

to interact on issues of common

concern; regular meeting with

government; theatre in the

community on social protection and

child poverty

The Philippines – making a CCT child sensitive

The CSSP approach

Can’t take away conditions, but can

make the programme more child

sensitive and inclusive

• Improve pro-poor targeting (CPVM)

• Improve grievance redressal

mechanism

• Make Family Development

Sessions and Youth Development

Sessions more effective

• Promote the voice of children

Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino

Programme – 4PS

Conditional Cash Transfer for poor

households with children 0-18 years

Modelled on CCTs in South and

Latin America

Conditions of the 4PS:

• Pre and post natal health care

• Growth monitoring (0-5 years)

• Vaccination (0-5 years)

• School attendance (3-18 years)

• Family Development Sessions

(FDS)

PILOTING NEW SOCIAL

PROTECTION PROGRAMMES

Filling a critical gap - the Child Endowment Fund in

Nepal

• CPVM – large number of orphans

• A capital fund with local

government (VDC) –use interest as

grants to selected children; Rs

1200 for 4 months

• 114 Endowment funds, almost 800

children benefitting

• Village Child Protection Committee

identifies eligible children &

monitors well-being

• Child sensitivity sessions for

caregivers and children (under

review)

• Discussing scale up with national

government

Child Endowement Fund example– 12 year old girl

• Lost her father

• Mother engaged in daily

wage labour, not keeping

well

• Dropped out of school and

sent for labour at a small

hotel

• Mother attended CSSP

sessions, convinced to bring

her back

• Selected for the Child

Endowment Fund and

mother accessing the

government scheme for

single women

Community Health Protection Programme (CHPP)

in India- prevent and respond to health shocks

• Health shocks in the family –

children become a coping

strategy

• Community based insurance

run by federated Self Help

Groups

• Community health service,

verified network hospitals

• Rs 120 per household

member per year

• 16000 household members

enrolled

INTEGRATE CSSP WITH

IMPROVEMENTS IN SERVICE

DELIVERY

Promoting education in Nepal – CSSP plus Quality

CSSP achievements

• Access to education stipends

and other social protection

improved

• Child sensitivity increased-

parents promoting education,

visiting schools

• As a result- children’s

attendance has increased

Introducing Quality Learning

Environment in school

ACHIEVEMENTS AND

CHALLANGES

Key achivement – in numbers

• Supported more than100 000 people to access regular social

protection

• More than 3000 children brought back to school from child

labour

• More than 1000 orphans and other vulnerable children are

covered by our ‘cash plus’ interventions

Key achievements – towards wider impact

• Government of Nepal showing interest in replicating

- the CSSP approach in all federal states of the country

- the Child Endowment Fund (local government)

• Government of Rajasthan, India, showing interest in scaling

up

- Palanhar Plus

- creche facility for MGNREGA workers at the ECCD centre

• Government of Bangladesh

- changed the targeting of VGD based on Save the Children’s

recommendations

Challenges

• Demonstrate impact – high quality M&E not a key skill of

programme staff and generally expensive

• Scale up by government – our child sensitivity approaches/

modules are often expensive as implemented by experienced

staff

• Takes time to evolve scalable approaches as CSSP is a

relatively new area …develop, fine tune, provide evidence-

requires long-term funding

Thank you!

Key Save the Children staff involved in developing this initiative since 2009/ 2010:

-Neema Pant-Bishwa Ratna Pun-Harish Chanderiya-Mukesh Lath