Child Sensitive Social
Protection
Approaches developedin South Asia
Disa Sjoblom
Senior Social Protection Adviser
Save theChildren

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 effects
and 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 effects
of 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

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