Theme:
Social Protection
About the Issue
Young children need more than just basic services to survive—they need a safe, nurturing, and protective environment to truly thrive. This means that families and primary caregivers must have access to essential resources, time, and support necessary to foster healthy development during a child’s most critical years.
Social protection programs aim to alleviate poverty and reduce vulnerability of all people, including families and children. Globally, an estimated 333 million children—about 1 in 6—live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than US$3.00 per day according to the most recent joint analysis by the World Bank and UNICEF.
Children are disproportionately affected by poverty. According to the Global Monitoring Database (2020), 17.5 percent of children lived in households below the international poverty line, compared to 7.9 percent of adults. In the developing world, the youngest children are the worst off—nearly 20 percent of all children under five live in extremely poor households, according to the World Bank.
Social protection programs can play a protective, preventative, promotive, and transformative role in supporting the rights and well-being of both children and caregivers. The benefits of social protection extend beyond poverty reduction to health, education, gender, and labor outcomes. Despite their proven benefits, nearly two-thirds of children worldwide are not covered by any form of social protection—even though hundreds of millions live in poverty and deprivation. Recent data shows that since the adoption of the SDGs, there has been modest global increase in child benefit coverage from 22 percent in 2015 to 28 percent in 2023. Progress is too slow due to financing gaps.
There are different types of social protection programs that can be put in place to significantly improve outcomes for young children. For example, subsidies for education and health services, income support for parents, job skills training for parents, and other support services for parents (e.g., home visiting, parenting interventions, parental leave, birth grants, nutrition benefits) to help them meet the needs of their young children can positively impact child development. Social protection programs targeting families can also be instrumental in promoting gender equality, as they can empower women and reduce the burden of unpaid care work. The well-being of children cannot be disassociated from the well-being of their parents.
According to the World Bank’s State of Social Protection Report 2025, well-designed social protection programs can generate a US$2.50 return for every dollar invested, with benefits extending to nutrition, early learning, and long-term productivity. The more universal the benefit, the more powerful the well-being benefits. By supporting families and enhancing their economic stability, social protection programs can dramatically improve a child’s ability to survive, grow, and reach their full potential.
This thematic page provides key information and resources for implementing organizations, policymakers, advocates, and donors to guide their efforts in designing and strengthening social protection programs that prioritize the needs of young children and their families.
Why it Matters
Poverty in early childhood can severely hinder brain development, learning, and health—effects that often last a lifetime. Without support, children face barriers to reaching their potential. Social protection programs help break this cycle by giving families the stability and resources needed to nurture healthy, thriving children from the start. Investment in social protection leads to growth and human capability formation.
Resources
According to the World Bank,
- There are three pillars of social protection—social assistance, social insurance, and labor market programs. These programs help create pathways to build families’ self-reliance and independence.
- Redirecting cash transfers from the wealthy to the poor could cover nearly half the cost of providing social protection to the bottom 20%.
According to the International Labour Organization and UNICEF,
- Children are twice as likely to live in poverty yet only 28% of children under age 15 have access to child or family benefit.
- Public expenditure on social protection is low, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This results in children often being excluded based on age, gender, disability status, location, and more.
- Universal child benefits (UCBs) are regular cash or tax payments that provide flexible support for children’s needs. It is the foundation for a simple and scalable policy to increase public investment in children.
- UCBs are proven to be a cost-effective way to reduce child poverty and meet social and economic development goals.
According to USP2030,
- Income support and social and care services may include child benefits, birth grants, paid maternity or paternity leave, or childcare support.
- Failure to provide social protection for children leaves them vulnerable to disease, missed education, poor nutrition, poverty, and increased inequalities.
- Caregivers need the most support when their children are young, as this is when children’s minds and bodies are developing at a rapid rate. Social protection and income security play a critical role at this time.
- Social protection programs can help to stabilize economies and societies during times of economic or social upheaval, mitigating damage to children and families.
- Social protection coverage rates for children are especially low in Africa, the Arab states, and Asia and the Pacific.
- Families need to be connected to critical health and social services and caregivers must receive adequate benefits—including unemployment, sickness, disability, and pensions—so that they can provide nurturing care for their young children.
According to the International Labour Organization,
- A gap in protection anywhere in the life cycle adversely impacts child well-being. Ensuring parents and other caregivers receive adequate social protection is indispensable.
- Public expenditure on social protection for children needs to increase. On average, 0.7 percent of GDP is spent on child benefits globally.
- To guarantee at least a basic level of social security for all children, lower-middle-income countries would need to invest an
additional US$88.8 billion and upper-middle-income countries a further US$98.1 billion per year – equivalent to 1 and 0.3 per cent of GDP, respectively. Low-income countries would need to invest an additional US$59.6 billion, equivalent to 10.1 per cent of their GDP.
Social protection programs play a vital role in supporting families with young children, especially during the critical early years of development. These programs help reduce poverty, improve access to essential services, and promote long-term well-being. Key types of social protection that support early childhood development include:
Unconditional Cash Transfers (UCTs): UCTs provide direct cash support to eligible families without requiring specific actions. Evidence shows that universal child benefits in middle-income countries could reduce child poverty by 20 percent or more. Universal approaches also reduce administrative costs, minimize exclusion errors, and avoid stigma. UNICEF and ODI recommend starting with children aged 0 to 4 as a pathway to universal child benefits.
Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs): CCTs provide cash to families contingent on fulfilling specific conditions, such as ensuring children attend school or receive regular health checkups. These programs have been widely used to incentivize behaviors that support child development.
Cash Transfers Plus Services (CCT+): These programs combine cash support with additional services such as parenting education, nutrition counseling, early learning, or vocational training. This integrated approach aims to break the cycle of poverty by addressing multiple dimensions of child and caregiver well-being.
In-Kind Transfers: These programs provide goods instead of cash—such as food, school supplies, or hygiene kits—to support children’s basic needs. In-kind transfers are often used in humanitarian or food-insecure contexts.
Social Insurance (e.g., Health Insurance, Maternity Benefits): Social insurance schemes help families manage health-related costs and income loss due to childbirth or illness. Access to affordable health insurance is critical for ensuring maternal and child health during the early years.
Labor Market and Employment Programs: These include parental leave, job training, and employment guarantees that support caregivers—especially women—in balancing work and caregiving responsibilities. Such programs are essential for promoting gender equality and economic stability.
In 2023, the International Labour Organization and UNICEF released their second joint report on social protection for children in 2023 titled More Than a Billion Reasons: The Urgent Need to Build Social Protection for Children. This report outlines six steps that national policymakers should pursue to provide children with universal social protection.
- Accelerate progress towards universal coverage for children as a critical step toward improving their well-being.
- Guarantee adequate benefit levels to generate meaningful change in children’s lives.
- Provide a comprehensive range of benefits that supports children and families through a life-cycle approach.
- Ensure sustainable and equitable financing of social protection systems that allows for the necessary investment in social protection for children.
- Build social protection systems that are rights-based, inclusive, gender-responsive, informed by social dialogue and able to effectively respond to multiple shocks and crises, and that can therefore deliver for children and families.
- Ensure that social protection systems are adapted to developments in the world of work to enhance economic security for parents, caregivers and their families.