Social Policy

Social protection

A woman prepares a meal for her son and her sister's two children at their home in Harare, Zimbabwe. The family can only afford to eat one meal a day.

Social Protection is a set of interventions intended to reduce social and economic risks and vulnerabilities, and to alleviate extreme poverty and deprivation. Until recently, Social Protection was considered a privilege of developed nations. A majority of countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, however, now agrees that Social Protection is no longer a luxury that they cannot afford.

In 2006, 13 countries in the region signed the Livingstone Accord under the auspices of the African Union (AU). Governments committed themselves to developing national Social Protection strategies and integrating them into their national development plans and budgets.

The Livingstone Accord was followed by the Social Policy Framework for Africa (2008), which signaled increased political commitment from the AU with regards to Social Protection. The African Ministers of Social Development committed their countries to gradually building up Social Protection and social security, based on comprehensive longer-term national Social Protection Action Plans.

The declarations represented an emerging consensus that a minimum package of essential Social Protection should cover essential health care and benefits for children, informal workers, the unemployed, the elderly and persons with disabilities, to be expanded as more fiscal space becomes available. Overall, these commitments have opened up new opportunities for UNICEF and partners to work with governments on the fulfillment of children’s rights to survival, development and protection.

A girl sells fruits and peanuts in Soavinandriana District, Itasy Region of Madagascar.

UNICEF in action

UNICEF advocates for child-sensitive Social Protection systems that mitigate the effects of poverty on families, strengthen families in their child care role, enhance access to basic services for the poorest and most marginalized, and provide special services to children who live outside a family environment. UNICEF also advocates for Social Protection instruments that are gender-sensitive and based on the universality of human rights.

In its framework and strategy for Social Protection in Eastern and Southern Africa, UNICEF focuses on five key interventions:

Reform of the legal and judicial system: These reforms aim to provide equal protection to women and children, and to make sure that national legislation is consistent with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the African Charter on the Rights and the Welfare of the Child, and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). UNICEF’s work in this area includes the drafting or revision of comprehensive Children’s Acts based on these international treaties. Such Children’s Acts have been drafted and reviewed in Botswana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Tanzania.
Cash transfers: Such small predictable sums of money to poor families with children, are a relatively new and successful strategy in the region to alleviate household poverty. UNICEF supports the implementation of cash transfer programmes in a number of countries including Kenya, Lesotho, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa. UNICEF and partners provide financial support and technical assistance in programme design, implementation, monitoring, reporting and evaluation.
Early childhood care and development (ECD): Pre-school programmes tailored to the most vulnerable children can greatly reduce inequities in child survival and development by increasing children’s opportunities to start their education well prepared. UNICEF’s work in this area includes technical assistance to develop early learning and development standards.
Gender-sensitive social welfare and protective services for the most vulnerable children: The core of any Social Protection system is a strong social welfare service that supports vulnerable individuals and families, including victims of gender-based violence and other abuse and discrimination. The Social Protection system should also provide mechanisms to enable the most vulnerable children to access other basic social services in health or education. To strengthen the social welfare sector in the region, UNICEF provides support for capacity assessments, training, policy guidelines and professional standards, and programme implementation.
Second chance education and life skills for unattached adolescents: This includes a range of Social Protection mechanisms such as bursaries, education grants and fee waivers to allow children to access primary and secondary education. Given the significant number of adolescents who are either illiterate or have minimum skills, an important component of a child- and gender-sensitive Social Protection system in the region is to address the human capital and life skills gaps of adolescents. UNICEF’s contribution is through curriculum design, policy development in the areas of access and certification, and financial support for service delivery.

Results for children

Throughout the region, UNICEF has been supporting governments in the development of national Social Protection strategies or frameworks as well as civil society and other partners in the implementation of Social Protection programmes.

In Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa for example, UNICEF has provided support for the development of policy guidelines and professional standards as well as training and human resource development.

In Namibia, UNICEF supports a programme of the Church Alliance for Orphans, which has a membership of 380 local congregations and faith and community-based organizations. The church plays a key advocacy role with the country’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, which leads a permanent task force on orphans and vulnerable children. This is an example of cooperation that has expanded the coverage and capacity of both the government as well as religious and community-based organizations.

In Zimbabwe, the Government has expanded its definition of vulnerability and empowered a network of civil society organizations to distribute the necessary resources for orphans and vulnerable children - at the district and local levels, and through a large pool of partners. This type of approach has succeeded in dramatically increasing the number of children who receive social assistance.

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