UNICEF’s Regional Office for West and Central Africa has commissioned a major study on social protection and children in the region with the aim of understanding better the existing state of social protection provision and the opportunities and challenges in strengthening social protection to benefit the poorest and most vulnerable children. In July 2009, it released five thematic reports:
Strengthening Social Protection for Children in West and Central AfricaThis report discusses the role of social protection in addressing child vulnerability and deprivations in a region with very high poverty levels and child mortality, and multiple risks to child survival, development and protection.
Child Poverty: a Role for Cash Transfers?
This report presents the international evidence on the positive impacts of cash transfers as a mechanism for reducing child poverty and vulnerability, provides information on the pilot cash transfer programs launched in West and Central African countries, and discusses the challenges that need to be addressed in designing, implementing and scaling up such programs in the region.
Fiscal Space for Strengthened Social Protection in West and Central Africa
The report explores whether stronger child-focused social protection is affordable and sustainable in West and Central African countries.
Promoting Synergies between Child Protection and Social Protection
This report emphasizes the complex nature of child vulnerability, at different stages of childhood, and the multiple risks that children face, from economic, social, cultural, natural and political/conflict-related factors.
Maternal and Child Health: the Social Protection Dividend
This report examines West and Central Africa as having the highest regional child and maternal mortality rates in the world , highlighting that progress towards the health-related Millennium Development Goals has been frustratingly slow.
