UNICEF Social Protection Work an overview Show and Tell on Social Protection Bonn, 2011

1. Presentation Outline UNICEF Social Protection Work an overviewShow and Tell on Social Protection Bonn, 2011 UNICEF and Social Protection Principles into Practice • UNICEF and social protection • Rationale: • Equity approach • Social protection and children • Child-Sensitive Social Protection • Guiding Principles • On-going work • Agenda for action • Work with Partners: Social Protection Floor Isabel Ortiz, Associate Director DPP UNICEF Bangkok 13-17 June 2011

2. Presentation Overview • What is social protection: UNICEF definition and principles • Rationale for UNICEF work in social protection • Principles into practice • Policy objectives and prioritization of Instruments • Institutional Arrangements • Benefits • Financing • Transfer Recipient • Monitoring and Evaluation • Participation and Accountability

3. UNICEF DEFINITION AND GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR SOCIAL PROTECTION

4. Definition “Social protection is the set of public and private policies and programs aimed at reducing and eliminating the economic and social vulnerabilities of children, women and families, in order to ensure their right to a decent standard of living” Key elements in definition: • Two components of vulnerabilities: • Risk: changes or threat of an adverse effect, and • Capacity to respond and cope • Both shaped by structural causes of chronic poverty and exclusion. • Social and Economic vulnerabilities: economic support is not sufficient; needs to be integrated with interventions that address social vulnerabilities, as part of an integrated system

5. Principles for UNICEF work in Social Protection • Progressive realization of universal coverage: UNICEF aims to work with states to adopt strategies which build towards universal coverage overtime • Building National Systems, context-specificity: support nationally-owned and lead systems, as well as supports the identification of the most effective and appropriate mix of interventions given context-specific vulnerabilities, national priorities, and capacity. • Inclusive social protection: gender, disparities and child-sensitivity: support an inclusive mainstreaming approach which recognizes the different vulnerabilities faced by children, particularly from vulnerable and excluded groups such as girls, indigenous peoples, and people with disabilities

6. Rationale for UNICEF’s work in Social Protection

7. Rationale: Child’s rights and social protection Internationally recognized rights to social protection: • Convention Rights of the Child Article 26 “States Parties shall recognize for every child the right to benefit from social security, including social insurance, and shall take the necessary measures to achieve the full realization of rights in accordance with their national law”. Article 27 “States Parties recognize the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development”. “States Parties, in accordance with national conditions and within their means, shall take appropriate measures to assist parents and others responsible for the child to implement this right and shall in case of need provide material assistance and support programmes, particularly with regard to nutrition, clothing and housing”. • Supported by other articles: 18, 19, 24,28 and 32 192 countries had become State Parties to the Convention (2005)

8. Rationale: Child’s rights and social protection Internationally recognized rights to social protection: • Articles 22 and 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security” = >But 80% of the global population remains without access

9. Investing in children: Demographic trends

10. Old-Age Crisis? Changing Dependency Ratios Source: UN DESA, 2007: World Economic and Social Survey 2007, United Nations

11. Investing in children: Inequality Global Income Distribution and Children/Youth in 2007 in PPP constant 2005 international dollars*

12. Rationale: UNICEF’s work on Social Protection Equity • Social protection addresses some of the underlying social and economic barriers to children’s well-being; increases access to services for vulnerable and excluded population • Contributes to reach MDG targets with an equity focus: • By reaching out to those who are economically and socially disadvantaged, social protection compliments sector interventions in health and nutrition, education, child protection, and HIV/AIDS to increase equity in outcomes and achieve results for the poorest. => Social transfers to increase demand and use of services

13. The case for Social Protection: SP Contributes Effectively to MDGs Proven results: • Reduced poverty, better nutrition, improved household income stability (MDG 1, 4, 6) • Improved preventive health care (MDG 4 and 5) • Higher immunization rates (MDG 4) • Higher school enrollment rates reduced school drop-out (MDG 2,3) • Decline in child labour among children in rural areas (MDG 2, 8) See: UNICEF 2010: Social Protection: Accelerating the MDGs with Equity http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/index_55915.html

14. The case for Social Protection: SP Reduces Poverty Fast • South African social transfers reduced poverty gap by 48%

15. EU: Social Protection Reduces Poverty by 50% Source: Ortiz and Yablonski (2010) based on Caminada & Goudswaard, 2009 and EUROSTAT data

16. The case for Social Protection: SP Contributes to Economic Growth • Inequality is economically inefficient / dysfunctional • Consumption concentrated in top income deciles in all countries • 2010: Depressed world markets, lack of demand, excess capacity • Questioning export-led model, surplus cannot be absorbed by world markets. Need for domestic markets as a development strategy. • Social protection as a development policy: • Raising the incomes of the poor increases domestic consumption and, in turn, encourages growth by expanding domestic markets • Enhance human capital and productive employment - a better educated, healthy and well nourished workforce.

17. The case for Social Protection: SP Contributes to Political Stability • Social protection can be effective to prevent conflict and create politically stable societies • Poverty and gross inequities tend to generate intense social tensions and violent conflict • Social benefits ensure the political/electoral support of citizens

18. Child Poverty and Vulnerabilities • Multidimensional nature of children’s vulnerabilities: Children share the risks and vulnerabilities of their families and communities, but also have specific (age and gender) vulnerabilities that need to be considered. Need to concentrate on interaction between both. • Compounding sources: inter-related nature of vulnerabilities. Examples: • Tanzania, households with disabled members are 20% more likely to be living in poverty  • Brazil, nearly three times as many black women as white women die from pregnancy and childbirth  • Serbia and Montenegro, 30% of Roma children have never attended primary school  • India - estimated that discrimination against girls increases the total rate of child mortality by 20%  • In Africa, 80% of 15 – 19 year-olds living with HIV and AIDS are women

19. Translating Policy into Practice: DESIGN, IMPLEMENTATION FINANCING, M&E

20. Design and implementation considerations • Policy objectives and prioritization of instruments • Institutional Arrangements • Benefits • Universal or Targeted? • Conditional or Unconditional? • Size of benefits • Financing • Transfer recipient • Monitoring and Evaluation • Participation and Accountability

21. 1. Objectives and Prioritization

22. 2. Instruments

23. 2. Instruments: Social Transfers • Cash transfers: preferred mechanisms for delivery of social protection. • Contribute to: increase monetary household income, improve food consumption; remove financial barriers to access to education and health; and reduce violation for child’s rights, including reducing child labor.

24. 2. Instruments: Social Transfers • In-kind transfers: intended to provide a specific good (food, nutrition supplements, etc). Comparative look at cash and in-kind transfers:

25. 2. Instruments: Programs to ensure access to services • Programs to overcome social barriers to access at the community, household and individual level

26. 2. Instruments: Abolition on of User Fees • Can contribute to cover these costs and thus ensure children are able to access basic education services. • School Fee Abolition Initiate (SFAI). • Established in 2005 by UNICEF, in collaboration with World Bank and other partners • The main objective is to remove education costs to ensure equitable access to education services. • The rationale behind SFAI recognize that: (i) despite improvements in the number of out-of-school children, there are still structural disparities between groups (ie: rural/urban; boys/girls), and even if in school, many children are still struggling to stay in and/or completing school; (ii) demand side interventions such as SFAI can encourage sector-wide reforms, and need to be integrated into national education programs and systems.

27. 2. Instruments: Social support and care services • Interventions to identify and respond to vulnerability and deprivation a the child and household level

28. 2. Instruments: Policies and Legislation • Explicit effort to address inequality within program’s objective and design. Requires tacking issues of power, discrimination and exclusion.

29. 2. How to choose? • Given the inter-related nature of vulnerabilities, it may be required to introduce a comprehensive package of interventions to address multiple vulnerability sources. Social protection should respond to specific, identified vulnerabilities in specific local contexts – no blueprints. • Interventions should be driven by objectives and needs, not by preferred instruments or available resources. • Interventions should be informed by participants’ preferences, not dictated by donors’ assumptions. • Compensatory social transfers can not solve structural failures of weak markets, institutions or bad policies. • Social protection should be predictable, sustainable and guaranteed by accountable duty–bearers.

30. 3. Integrated social protection systems • Integrated social protection systems to address some of the underlying determinants of children’s vulnerabilities. • Integrated social protection systems in terms of: • addressing social and economic vulnerabilities; • providing a comprehensive package of interventions based on population’s needs and context; • coordinating interventions with appropriate supply-side investments to enhance availability and quality of services; • facilitating inter-sectoral coordination acknowledging the multidimensional nature of poverty and exclusion; and • framing social protection strategies within a broader set of social and economic policies that promote human development and growth

31. 3. Integrated Social Protection Systems • .

32. 3. Integrated Social Protection Systems

33. 3. Working towards integrated systems: A Social Protection Floor Social Protection Floor: Goal is to guarantee a minimum level of benefits to all– a floor of SP for all individuals, including all children. • Integral part of integrated social protection systems • Two main elements: • Services: access to essential services such as health, education, water and sanitation, child protection • Transfers: basic set of social transfers to provide minimum income security and access to essential services • Potential impacts of SPF: • A basic package of pensions and child benefits can reduce the poverty head count by 40 per cent in poor developing countries at a cost of 2-4 per cent of GDP.

34. A basic set of social security transfers and services for: • Older persons • Children • Persons with disabilities • Unemployed • ... • See: www.socialsecurityextension.org Lead UN agencies: ILO and WHO Participating UN-system agencies - FAO, OHCHR, UN Regional Commissions, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNDESA, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNHABITAT, UNHCR, UNODC, UNRWA, WFP. Participating Civil Society: Helpage, ICSW…

35. 3. UNICEF and the Social Protection Floor Voluntary insurance Mandatory social insurance/social security benefits of guaranteed levels for contributors THE FLOOR: essential guarantees Access to essential healthcare and education for all assistance (unemployed and poor) income security (children) income security (elderly and disabled) Promote and support govt’s in the creation, expansion and consolidation of SP in order to ensure children's rights. Support to the SPF For every child Health, Education, Equality, Protection ADVANCE HUMANITY

36. 4. Institutional Arrangements • Design and implementation of social protection interventions imply effective institutional arrangements. Issues to consider: • Socio-economic context: countries’ (or region’s) political context, as well as on existing legal frameworks.; what is politically, as well as financially feasible in each context. (Eg: review of political environment; vulnerability • Expected results and outcomes: What are the goals and specific objectives? Is there a comprehensive framework/policy that clearly defines and delineates the country’s approach to social protection ? (eg: inter ministerial body vs. line ministry in charge)

37. 4. Institutional Arrangements • Existing programs and structures: what structures /programs are currently in place? What are the advantages and trade-offs involved in creating a new structure vis-à-vis strengthening existing bodies –financially and politically? What is the capacity of existing structures? • Actors roles and responsibilities • Strategic vs. supervisory roles: There may be a need to clearly define responsibilities in terms of: (i) strategic and policy oversight and (ii) implementation (leadership, coordination and budgetary control and strategic decision-making. • Core implementation structures for social protection – registration, beneficiary systems, eligibility, delivery /payments and monitoring and evaluation

38. 4. Institutional Arrangements: structures External Databases Overlap and interface: Enrolment Component 1: Administration Determine Eligibility Registration Process Enrolment Process Single Registry Payments Database • How do you register people? • survey approach • on-demand approach Payments System Component 2: Payments Processes

39. 4. Payments • Disbursements – To be effective, social transfers must be regular and predictable. • Periodicity of disbursements: • Where developed financial systems exist, beneficiaries should be given transfers on monthly basis, as this is best to ensure a stable income for basic needs. • Where systems are less developed, or administrative costs larger, governments may opt for a yearly payment (e.g. Bolivia’s BONOSOL) or semi-yearly (e.g. pensions in India). • Disbursements methods, different alternatives exist: • Banking system • Postal Services • Schools or health centres for remote locations • NGOs • Armed convoys (in high insecure locations)

40. 4. Scaling Up: Pilot vs. Nation-wide/expanded • Too many pilots; preference for working with governments to scale-up • But some countries do not have adequate systems in place. What is the potential role of a pilot interventions? • Improving design: modify existing model • Building capacity • generate evidence to help evaluate potential scaling up to a national programme • The most important principle is that we must operate within the constraint of national scalability • Build national implementation capacity through the design process and emphasize developmental delivery systems: national ownership • If you must pilot, then ensure pilots are scale-able

41. 5. Targeting or Universalism? • Key questions: • Should social protection interventions be targeted or universal? • How does targeting fit within an equity and progressive coverage approach? • When Is targeting appropriate? • If necessary, what are the most effective and appropriate targeting methodologies? • UN and UNICEF approach: support activities that aim at the progressive realization of universalization. Although universal access is the main goal, there is recognition that reaching such goal may require subsequent steps. • Need to identify which are the best mix of interventions/ methodologies that will enhance policy objectives and be more conducive to universalization.

42. 5. Targeting: Methodologies • Individual/Household level • Income means test: Direct assessment of eligibility based on independent verification of income (salary or tax records) • Simple proxy means test: Eligibility is assessed through a household visit by program social worker using simple proxy indicators such as housing quality, food stock, etc • Proxy means test: A score is generated based on observable characteristics such as location and quality of housing, ownership of goods, demographic structure of household; education and occupation of members (statistical analysis derived from household surveys) • Community based targeting: Community members are part of the eligibility assessment based on the understanding that they are familiar with community characteristics and may have insider knowledge • Other • Categorical: Eligibility defined based on broad social categories and/or groups such as age, disadvantaged regions, gender, ethnicity, social status, economic status • Self-Selection: eligibility is assessed by each individual and thus design components (size of transfer, timing of benefits, location of payments, etc) makes the program attractive only to specific groups-ie: poorest.

43. 6. Conditional or Unconditional? • Mostly conditional in Latin America and unconditional in Africa • Both conditional & unconditional achieve positive outcomes – unclear effects due to conditionality • Arguments for: behavioral incentives, maximize links with services However, serious questions about value-added: • Costs and difficulty of ensuring compliance and administrative burden, particularly where limited administrative capacity • If service supply is weak or unequally distributed, conditionality may impose large costs for beneficiaries and unintentionally exclude those most in need • Is conditionality consistent with principles of empowerment and human rights, or does it betray attitudes that ‘the poor’ cannot make wise choices?

44. 7. Size of benefit Adequacy Affordable Acceptable • Key questions: • How to design the most appropriate design to enhance outcomes? • What types of assessments are needed? – market analysis; price structures; household spending patterns, etc. • What are the potential trade-off between different types of benefit structures? • How does the heterogeneity of beneficiaries impact design?

45. 7. Design features and modalities

46. 8. Financing • Affordability: • Whether or not a country can afford a basic set of social protection benefits can be the “wrong” question to ask. In the case of many less developed countries, affordability is a relative term. • While countries may share similar levels of GDP, they are in a position to exercise discretion vis-à-vis both total public and social expenditures. Fiscal space and policy space should not be confounded. • Costing: how much would social protection interventions cost? What is the cost of a minimum package? How would it change given difference scenarios: different mix of interventions? Different options within different instruments? (Costing tool) • Financing: what are the financing options available? Domestic and international?

47. 8. Financing: Issues to consider • Inter-sectoralnature of Social Protection – budget challenges • Importance of predictability (and therefore recurrent expenses) in many social protection programmes • Counter-cyclical demand – i.e. need for social protection is likely to rise during periods of shocks, economic downturns, etc. – when government income is likely to decline • Often high initial costs • Evolution of financing modalities over time? • Political economy of financing – does source of funding matter? Equity, sustainability, etc.?

48. Phase I of Crisis: Social Protection in Fiscal Stimulus Plan 2009

49. Phase II of Crisis: Contraction of public expenditures

50. Sector Expenditures (2008-2010) Average GDP spending by sector in 28 Low Income Countries Source: Kyrili and Martin (2010), Oxfam • Social Protection spending fell from 2008-2010 reaching 0.2% of GDP