Child-sensitive Social Protection

Creating safety nets for vulnerable children 

Social protection can be understood as a set of public actions that provide support and services to the most vulnerable people to help them address risk, vulnerability, exclusion and poverty. A child-sensitive focus in social protection ensures maximized positive impact on children by placing them at the core. Child-sensitive social protection that accounts for childhood poverty and vulnerability can mitigate the effects of poverty on families, strengthen families in their child care role and enhance access to basic services for the poorest and most marginalized, hence making a positive impact on children’s well-being and development.

Save the Children Finland supports existing social protection instruments by promoting the special needs of children in social protection initiatives.

• Improve access to existing government social protection programmes for the poorest of households.
• Build child-sensitivity with adults, especially parents and other care givers, to ensure that social protection measures that accrue to the household have a positive impact on children.
• Collaborate with other organizations engaged in social protection to influence governments´ social protection policies to become more child-sensitive.
• Build the expertise of governments and partner organisations on child-sensitive social protection in their respective countries.

It is well recognized that poor children will become poor adults. Save the Children´s Child Sensitive Social protection Programme in South Asia aims to break intergenerational transfer of poverty by ensuring that social protection measures lead to meaningful investment in children. See video below.