Making Cash Transfers Work for Children and Families
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MAKING CASH TRANSFERS WORK FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES CPSP Child Poverty and Social Protection SOCIAL POLICY © United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), New York, 2017 Any part of this publication may be freely reproduced with the appropriate acknowledgement. The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policies or views of UNICEF. The text has not been edited to official publication standards, and UNICEF accepts no responsibility for errors. The designations in this publication do not imply an opinion on the legal status of any country or territory, or of its authorities, or the delimitation of frontiers. The country examples are based on publicly available information, including the country office annual reports. They may not reflect the latest situation, the official view of the national governments or any other stakeholder involved. About this guide What this document is about UNICEF’s work on social protection has increased rapidly over the last decade. Among social protection interventions, cash transfers are one of the most common components supported by UNICEF, reaching over 70 countries in 2015. Depending on country contexts, the types of activities UNICEF engages in vary greatly – from modelling how cash transfers could work through a pilot programme, to conducting impact evaluations and policy engagement with decision makers. While momentum is growing, UNICEF’s work on cash transfers is sometimes less visible than other aspects of our work. Anyone working on cash transfers can face some basic questions, such as: why give cash transfers to children? If UNICEF is not directly providing the money for cash transfers, what exactly do we do? What are some examples of the work and are there any resources that can help conduct some of the relevant activities? This document aims to answer those basic questions about cash transfers, to illustrate what UNICEF does and to harness the knowledge within and outside the organization to support activities in countries. The first part gives a brief background of why cash transfers matter for children, how UNICEF has engaged with cash transfers globally and what opportunities and challenges exist. The second part introduces 19 activities under four categories that could contribute to the introduction, expansion and improvement of cash transfers undertaken by UNICEF country offices. For each activity, the document describes potential approaches and considerations, along with country examples and further resources which provide more detailed guidance and information about each aspect of the work. What this document is NOT about While cash transfers are an important part of social protection and can have very significant impacts on children and families, the intention of this document is NOT to imply that cash is a silver bullet that will solve all problems. Not only are other aspects of social protection crucial, but a foundation of strong social services is essential for children, and for social protection to be effective. While recognising this broader context, this document focuses squarely on the programming around the cash transfer component of UNICEF’s social protection work. For other UNICEF publications on social protection laid out in UNICEF’s Social Protection Strategic Framework please visit the sharepoint (internal only) or our external website. While this document aims to present the diverse nature of UNICEF’s engagement, it should not be considered as an exhaustive list of all activities undertaken by UNICEF in countries. It is beyond the scope of this document to cover some of the emerging areas of work, including: • Cash transfers in emergency and humanitarian contexts • Cash ‘plus’ (linking cash transfers with other services or goods) • Some emerging or innovative approaches to cash transfers (such as mobile payments or use of Information and Communication Technology) This document is not meant to serve as a step-by-step guide of how to undertake specific activities or how to implement cash transfer programmes; rather it aims to give a range of options and activities for engaging national cash transfers to improve the lives of children and families. As there are already a number of existing documents and guides on cash transfers, this document aims to link practitioners with such documents. We welcome any feedback or suggestions to make this guide as useful as possible. If you have any comments, please get in touch with David Stewart, Chief of the Child Poverty and Social Protection Unit at UNICEF-New York ([email protected]). Acknowledgements This guide was developed by the Child Poverty and Social Protection Unit in UNICEF New York. It was researched and written by Tomoo Okubo, with overall guidance and direction provided by David Stewart. The document was copyedited by Laura Evans and designed by Mark Turgesen. Colleagues in the social inclusion and policy section at New York Headquarters made significant contributions to the document. Sheila Murthy provided research support and contributed to the conceptualization as well as the overall structure of the document. The support and inputs from Jennifer Yablonski, Catalina Gomez, Ian Orton and Nupur Kukrety, based on their deep knowledge and experience in social protection, were critical to the document. Matthew Cummins and Ilija Talev brought technical expertise from the public finance perspective. We are extremely grateful to Alexandra Yuster, Associate Director of Social Inclusion and Policy, for her support and encouragement and keeping our focus on doing what we can to support Country Office colleagues on the frontline of making social protection work for children and families. The document also benefited from comments by colleagues throughout UNICEF: Jose Cuesta and Amber Peterman (Office of Research), Sarah Hague (Ghana Country Office), Paul Quarles Van Ufford (Tanzania Country Office), Joanne Bosworth (Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States Regional Office), Rim Nour (East Asia and Pacific Regional Office), Aleksandar Lazovski (Macedonia Country Office), Hayrullo Malikov (Gambia Country Office), and Thakur Dhakal (Nepal Country Office). We are also thankful to the following experts for their superb comments and advice: Fabio Veras, Pedro Arruda, Raquel Tebaldi and Rafael Osorio (International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth), Keetie Roelen (Institute of Development Studies), Sudhanshu Handa (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Armando Barrientos (University of Manchester), John Cockburn and Luca Tiberti (Partnership for Economic Policy). Finally, a huge thanks to all the UNICEF Country Offices that provided extensive responses to the 2015 Social Protection mapping. These responses have been fundamental in understanding the breadth and depth of UNICEF’s work in social protection and formed the foundation of this guide. Contents Part I. Overview ....................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Why cash transfers matter to children ........................................................................................... 2 2. How UNICEF has engaged with cash transfers ............................................................................... 7 3. Key opportunities and challenges ahead ...................................................................................... 10 Part II. Tools and activities to support the introduction, expansion and improvement of cash transfer programmes .......................................................................................................................................... 15 A. Taking a step back: analysis of the status quo .............................................................................. 22 Activity 1: Understanding child poverty and vulnerability ........................................................... 22 Activity 2: Mapping existing cash transfer programmes and their effectiveness ........................ 33 Activity 3: Analysing the distribution of cash transfers ................................................................ 40 Activity 4: Assessing the impacts of major policy reforms (micro-macro simulation) ................. 46 B. Setting the direction: examining programme design options ...................................................... 51 Activity 5: Simulating the potential poverty impact of cash transfers by different programme design ............................................................................................................................................ 51 Activity 6: Costing different design options .................................................................................. 56 Activity 7: Providing technical assistance on programme design ................................................. 61 C. Mobilizing support and resources: policy engagement and advocacy ......................................... 73 Activity 8: Advocating for new, expanded or improved cash transfers ........................................ 73 Activity 9: Convening partners ...................................................................................................... 78 Activity 10: Supporting exchange of knowledge and experience (field visits, horizontal cooperation/south-south exchange, community of practice and training) ................................. 84 Activity 11: Supporting development of