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Social protection and children's rights in developing countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2020

Shirley Gatenio Gabel
Shirley Gatenio Gabel*
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Social Service, Fordham University, 113 West 60 Street, New York, 10023New York, USA
*
*Email: gateniogabe@fordham.edu
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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 rightssocial protectionchildren's well-beingdeveloping countriesIndonesiaBangladeshEthiopiaGhana
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , October 2014 , pp. 199 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 Taylor & Francis

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