UNICEF: Child-Sensitive Social Protection (CSSP) approach Project 2018-2022

UNICEF has applied to Sida for funding of 152 million SEK to implement the project "Tackling child poverty and vulnerabilities in the Boucle du Mouhoun, Centre-North, North and East regions through child-sensitive social protection, July 2018" during the period 2018-2022. The overall objective is to improve the realization of children's rights through support to child-sensitive social protection in 15 municipalities combined with access to basic services and to capacity development at national and local level to develop the system for child-sensitive social protection. The specific objectives are: - Reduce multidimensional and monetary child poverty through supporting deprived and vulnerable children and their families to have a minimum income and remove financial barriers to accessing basic social services. - Build a supportive enabling environment to address both demand and supply-side bottlenecks underlying drivers of poverty in general, child poverty in specific. - Promote meaningful participation and sensitization of the most disadvantaged children, their families and communities in planning, budgeting and monitoring processes to enable chidlren to achieve their full potential. - Reduce malnutrition through preventive both nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific interventions, using a multi-sectoral approach at community level. - Reduce open defacation through community-led total sanitation and increase safe water, sanitation and hygiene access. - Address demand-side related bottlenecks to improve the realisation of children’s rights through a Child-Sensitive Social Protection intervention with vulnerable groups living in poverty, vulnerability and deprivation in 5 municipalities of the Boucle du Mouhoun. The implementation approach is a combination of key components meant to empower children, their families, communities and local and national service providers to address deprivation and vulnerability among children. The purpose is to plan, design and implement the cash transfer and related complementary actions in such a way that sustainable impacts of a “Child Sensitive Social Protection” approach could be demonstrated. Approximately 3 700 households will receive cash transfers through the project. Other direct beneficiaries include 101 000 pregnant women, 123 000 lactating women with children under two years. In addition some 192 000 people (of which 6 000 school pupils) will be reached by different water and sanitation interventions and 9 571 community members including community health workers will be indirect beneficiaries of health interventions. The project proposal builds on the extensive evidence of positive effects of cash transfers for child survival and education, food intake, dietary diversity, family food security and asset accumulation. It also recognises the importance of combining cash with additional interventions, so called 'cash plus', in order to achieve higher level of outcomes for children such as improved learning, health and nutritional status and protection. The project therefore combines cash transfers with interventions for awareness-raising on child care and parenting, availability and accessibility of basic services realting to health, nutrition and WASH. Social protection in Burkina Faso is fragmented with several actors and interventions. Through support from Sida and UNICEF there is an ongoing effort to develop an action plan to strengthen the system for social protection in Burkina Faso. The proposed project will contribute to implement the national action plan and to strengthen capacity at the national level, while also contributing to capacity development for implementing actors at the local level in the municipalities. An important aspect of the project is to contribute to learning that can influence the design of the system for social protection in Burkina Faso to integrate a child-sensitive approach. An impact evaluation is included in the project.