Social protection and children's rights in developing countries

Abstract

Children are one of the most vulnerable groups in almost any population because of their physical and emotional dependence on adults and social status. Their vulnerability is greater in many developing countries because of the higher incidence of poverty and nascent social protection mechanisms. Social protection can serve as a tool to perpetuate inequities or can be used to promote human rights, equality, and inclusiveness. This paper looks at how social protection evolving in four developing countries, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, and Bangladesh, affects the realization of children's rights. Each country's social protection efforts are analyzed according to the type of effort and then compared to indicators measuring the realization of children's rights. The analysis indicates that well-coordinated social protection systems with wide coverage that include social assistance, social insurance, as well as human capital and empowerment efforts are more likely to result in the progressive realization of children's rights.

Keywords:

• children's rights
• social protection
• children's well-being
• developing countries
• Indonesia
• Bangladesh
• Ethiopia
• Ghana

Notes on contributors

Shirley Gatenio Gabel is an Associate Professor at Fordham University's Graduate School of Social Service. Her diverse experiences include directing public policy analyses for government and NGOs, lobbying, and organizing community efforts. Her primary research area is comparative child and family policies in both industrialized and developing countries. Dr Gatenio Gabel's research increasingly focuses on how public policies improve the well-being of children from a child right's perspective. She was selected to serve as a Fulbright Scholar in Bulgaria and Argentina, chairs CSWE's Commission on Global Education and recently co-edited a special issue of JSWE on the globalization of social work education.