November 2016: Universal Children’s Day

Welcome to the new edition of socialprotection.org’s newsletter!

This month’s edition is dedicated to Universal Children’s Day, celebrated on 20 November. The date marks the day on which the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in 1989, important milestones towards the protection of children worldwide.  With that in mind, we suggest two new publications shared by members of the platform, which shed light on the assessment of child-sensitivity in social protection and the quality of child care. Definitely, a must-read!

We are also pleased to present you socialprotection.org’s Annual Report, detailing all activities undertaken during the first year of work of the online platform. 

Happy readings!
 

Uganda launches its first-ever Social Service Delivery Equity Atlas
Aiming at monitoring the effective delivery and impact of basic services affecting children and other vulnerable groups across the country, the Government of Uganda launched the “Social Service Delivery Equity Atlas” on 26 October, a publication that maps key results versus public expenditures for children. The Atlas specifically provides analysis on the impact of public investments on social outcomes such as school completion rates, antenatal care visits and improved water source functionality, among others, enabling the government and its partners to track decentralised allocations across the priority sectors of education, health and water. The tool is part of the “Rethinking Public Finance for Children: Monitoring for Results” initiative by the Ugandan Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, the Economic Policy Research Centre (ERPC), and UNICEF.

Ghana reports key achievements in the area of child protection
Birth registration rates in Ghana reached 58 per cent in 2015, up from 17 per cent in 2002, while cash grant programmes to reduce childhood poverty were made available to poor and vulnerable families, according to a new article by the Graphic Online newspaper. These are among the significant advances reached by Ghana over the last decade in creating systems and structures that have enabled the implementation of children’s rights. Ghana's Deputy Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ms. Della Sowah, presented the country's Initial First and Second Consolidated Report on the implementation of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) to the Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child at the 28th Ordinary Session of the African Union Commission, held in Banjul, Gambia, on 26 October. Read the full article here.

Our Yearly Report is Out! We have just released socialprotection.org’s Annual Report 2016, which provides a full review of the platform’s content, major accomplishments and activities carried out during its first year, from September 2015 to September 2016. Celebrated on 12 September, the first anniversary of socialprotection.org was an opportunity to reflect on the platform’s collective achievements, with the collaboration of partners, members, colleagues and funders. Read the full report here.

Assessing Child-Sensitivity in Social Protection 
Mr. Andrea Rossi, advisor with UNICEF Mozambique, shared the publication titled "Assessing child-sensitivity in social protection", published by UNICEF. This study builds on UNICEF’ Social Protection Strategic Framework and its primary purpose is to conduct assessments of the extent to which a country’s social protection system is child-sensitive. This tool is an attempt to unpack these concepts and lay out a range of criteria and metrics which, when considered together, should help in those assessments. Mr. Rossi is also one of the authors. The report is available here.

New Toolkit on Child Care Quality
The publication "How is Child Care Quality Measured? ", released by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), is a toolkit designed to be a resource for researchers and technical staff of any discipline, working for governments and institutions interested in measuring and monitoring the quality of child care centres for infants from ages 0 to 3 (36 months). It is available in English and Spanish.

Cash transfers and Impact Evaluation in sub-Saharan Africa 
Mr. Massimiliano Terzini, Communication and Advocacy Specialist with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), shared the book "From Evidence to Action: The story of cash transfers and impact evaluation in sub-Saharan Africa", which presents a detailed overview of the impact evaluations of these programmes, carried out by the Transfer Project and FAO’s “From Protection to Production (PtoP)” project. It includes a review of eight country case studies: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, as well as a description of innovative research methodologies, political economy issues and good practices to design cash transfer programmes. To download the publication, click here.   On 15 November, FAO and UNICEF will launch the book during the Critical Thinking Forum hosted by Mail & Guardian in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Looking for a great new opportunity?  In the Discussion Forum area, under the Connect tab, we have recently launched a forum titled "Institutions and Networking" where you can explore job opportunities and calls for papers announced by our partners.  Likewise, we also invite you to post your own job opportunities and calls for papers in the field of social protection, to share with our specialised community!