Social protection
Ensuring every child has an equitable chance in life
Challenge
Children in Lesotho continue to experience the impacts of poverty, inequality, and limited access to basic services due to a wide range of challenges including socio-economic, climatic and other shocks as well as structural weaknesses in public financing of social services, social protection systems and the policy environment to sustainably reduce child poverty. Many children remain excluded from the benefits of economic and social progress, particularly those in rural and remote communities.
How governments choose to allocate and utilize available resources shape how children get what they need to survive, thrive, be protected and live free from poverty. In Lesotho, as everywhere in the world, children are more likely to live in poverty than adults. They are also more vulnerable to its effects, hence the need for enabling socio-economic policies and budgets as well as social protection programmes – like cash transfers – to improve children’s access to good nutrition, health care and education, and reduce the lifelong consequences of poverty.
Key issues
- Public spending on human capital sectors – health, education, social protection, child protection, water and sanitation – is often inequitable and inefficient, particularly in rural and hard-to-reach areas, leaving many children without access to essential services.
- High rates of multidimensional child poverty persist, with 46 per cent of children experiencing multidimensional poverty meaning they are deprived in at least three dimensions such as nutrition, education, health, child protection, nutrition, water and housing.
- Coordination across government ministries and sectors is weak, impeding the development and implementation of integrated, child-sensitive social policies and robust social protection systems.
- Weak child rights data and information systems that hinder timely and evidence-based decision-making for planning, budgeting, and monitoring the situation of children.
- Limited fiscal space constraints to increase public investments in children due to slow and shallow economic growth, compounded by recurrent weather shocks.
- Limited opportunities for child and youth participation in governance and development processes including social service delivery.
Solution
UNICEF collaborates with partners to ensure every child has an equitable chance in life by urging governments to prioritize child poverty and protect children from its severe impacts through inclusive and shock-responsive national social protection systems. We assist in assessing and addressing both monetary and multidimensional child poverty through various measures, including regulations, programs, and budgets. We are supporting the government to improve social sector spending, and promote inclusive, and evidence-based policies to improve outcomes for every child. Specifically, we:
- Regularly monitor, measure and report on the child poverty situation in Lesotho and ensure results are used to influence policies, programs and budgets.
- Support the government to improve the quantity and quality of public investments in sectors and programmes which aim to improve the well-being of children.
- Promote equitable, shock responsive and inclusive social protection by expanding coverage of programmes such as the Child Grants Programme and enhancing their targeting and impact on the most vulnerable children.
- Strengthen data and information systems to ensure timely, disaggregated information is available to inform policies, monitor child poverty, and track progress across sectors.
- Improve cross-sectoral coordination and governance by supporting institutional mechanisms that enable ministries to work collaboratively in designing and implementing child-focused policies and deliver social protection systems.
- Advocate for improved public participation – including children and young people – in budgeting and promote transparency and accountability in the use of public resources.
- Monitor and respond to emerging vulnerabilities, including those driven by economic and climate shocks, to ensure that social protection systems remain adaptive and responsive to the needs of children.