Promoting synergies between child protection and social protection

At the core of social protection is a concern for addressing vulnerability and risk. It is increasingly understood that social protection policy frameworks and programmes must be informed by a recognition of the diversity of vulnerabilities and risks, and the way in which these evolve across the lifecycle. This report focuses on children’s vulnerabilities and risks related to an absence of protection from violence, abuse and neglect, and the ways in which measures to address such vulnerabilities and risks can be more effectively integrated into social protection policy frameworks in the West and Central Africa region. The analysis is based on a desk review as well as the findings from five in-depth country cases: Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Mali and Senegal. It is one of a series of reports produced by a regional study on social protection and children in West and Central Africa, commissioned by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) West and Central Africa Regional Office (WCARO) and carried out by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London between November 2007 and November 2008, in partnership with local researchers in the region.