Joint Statement on Child-Sensitive Social Protection

Hope and Homes for Children, UNICEF and a number of other partners have developed a joint statement to promote greater protection and support for vulnerable children.

The statement focuses on advancing social protection for children. Social protection is a set of actions which address poverty, vulnerability and exclusion. Many governments in developing countries have social protection policies but they do not always take into account the needs of vulnerable children.

Research from a range of developing countries has highlighted that social protection can effectively increase the nutritional, health and educational status of children and reduce their risk of abuse and exploitation. Failure to invest in the well-being of children has long-term implications as it increases the likelihood of poverty into adulthood.

This statement is aimed at ensuring children’s issues are integrated into wider social protection policies and, crucially, in moving the rights and needs of children to top of the government’s agenda.

The statement offers a set of principles for undertaking child-sensitive social protection as well as outlining steps to achieve it. These include greater investment in social protection; ensuring that every vulnerable child has access to a basic social protection package; and raising awareness of the issue of social protection and the capacity of those responsible for delivering it.

It is hoped that this statement will encourage further discussion amongst key stakeholders and decision makers and ultimately improve the lives of many more children and their families.

Read the full statement – Advancing Child-Sensitive Social Protection

August 2009

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