Social transfers and child protection in the South

Most low and middle-income countries have implemented programmes providing transfers to families in poverty, often with a focus on children. The paper examines the potential effects of social transfers in these countries on child protection outcomes: the reduction of violence, exploitation and abuse of children, family separation and improved birth registration. The analysis is based on database including information on 79 impact evaluations in 28 countries, covering 45 medium and large-scale social transfer programmes. The paper identifies and evaluates three sets of effects: direct effects observed where social transfers have explicit child protection outcome objectives; poverty-mediated effects where the impact of social transfers on poverty and exclusion leads to improved child protection outcomes; and operational synergies arising from the implementation of social transfers. An extended report of this study, including full references can be accessed at: http://www.unicef-irc.org./publications/691.