Social policy
UNICEF will support periodic child poverty measurements to track and monitor progress on the reduction of child poverty.
Challenges
This component is aimed at achieving the following: “By 2025, vulnerable children benefit from shock-responsive social protection and equity-sensitive efficient budget allocations”. UNICEF will focus on the following three priorities.
Solution
Priority 1. To strengthen the evidence base for improving policies and programmes to address the rights of the marginalized, UNICEF will support periodic child poverty measurements to track and monitor progress on the reduction of child poverty. The evidence will improve the regular monitoring of the situation of children and help UNICEF and its partners to identify gaps in service delivery and in assessing vulnerabilities. The evidence will also be used for guiding decisions on resource allocation and for focusing development programmes on reducing disparities and vulnerabilities.
Priority 2. UNICEF will support evidence generation, capacity-building and the creation of platforms for social dialogue for improved spending on child-related sectors and programmes in an open and accountable manner. UNICEF will utilize evidence generated through studies and budget analyses to influence financing and expenditure decisions by the Parliament, the Ministry of Finance, social sector ministries, local authorities and development partners.
Priority 3. UNICEF will support the design, development, adoption and implementation of a comprehensive social-protection policy, and build the capacity of the Government to coordinate and manage its implementation. UNICEF will support the strengthening of the social-protection system and its national scale-up. The programme will establish processes for identification, registration, enrolment, payment, monitoring and case management. UNICEF will work with the Government to ensure that the design and administration of social-protection programmes are shock-responsive and enable a stronger government response to future crises and shocks.
The main partners of the social policy programme are the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, the Ministry of Finance, the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office and all child-related ministries, as well as bilateral and multilateral organizations, such as the United Nations agencies, the European Union and the World Bank.