Children and social protection in the Middle East and North Africa: Project Briefing

This project briefing presents findings from an earlier study mapping social protection in the Middle East and North Africa region, with focus on policies and programmes that impact children and how they can be strengthened.

The key points from this article are:

• Social protection is an important policy area in the Middle East and North Africa Region, although most related resources are currently spent on regressive subsidies
• Despite important progress in child well-being indicators across the region, income, gender and spatial inequities remain that keep children in a situation of poverty and vulnerability.
• Well designed and evidence-based child-sensitive social protection can be instrumental in improving the equitable development of children in the region