São Paulo – Social protection programs embedded in a legal framework are crucial to guarantee children’s rights. The statement is by Anna Carolina Machado, co-author of the study “Children’s Right to Social Protection in the Middle East and North Africa Region—an Analysis of Legal Frameworks from a Child Rights Perspective”, which will be launched this Thursday (08) by the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG). The study is written in English and the result of a partnership with UNICEF Middle East and North Africa Regional Office (MENARO).
It is the second in a series of four knowledge products about childhood in the region. The first was released in May and focused on mapping social protection policies, such as cash transfer programs, food donation and school meals. Soon, the executive summary of both studies will also be available in Portuguese, French and Arabic.
In this new study, the focus is on the existing legal and regulatory framework in the Middle East and North Africa countries promoting children’s rights to social protection. It reviewed legislation, constitutions and child statutes in a total of twenty countries in the region. They are: Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Syria, Sudan and Tunisia. All are Arab countries, with the exception of Iran. The study, in its entirety and in English, can be read on IPC-IG’s website.
Machado, who holds a MSc in Public Policy from the University of Bristol (UK), told ANBA in advance that the study was based on a research by UNICEF from 2017 conducted in eleven Arab countries, which revealed that one in four children suffers from acute multidimensional poverty, and that countries affected by conflicts and humanitarian situations, such as Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen, in particular, saw a reversal in child well-being indicators. According to her, vulnerable populations are the ones most affected in extreme environments, since they rely on the government and donations to survive. German researcher Charlotte Bilo co-authors the study with Machado.
“We reviewed existing national legislations of each country and found out around 150 social protection programs focused on children, with 88 of established as law, and we understand that this is a relevant step to guarantee children’s rights and human rights in those countries,” explained the researcher.
Machado said that the fact that these laws exist, although fairly new, is an important element for the UN development agenda, which lists 17 sustainable development goals to be applied until 2030. “We found out that some of the laws are new, from the 2000s to 2010, since the region is going through a period of many political and economical changes, and we saw an important transition, with targeted, focused policies, paying more attention to the poorest population,” she said.
One of the examples of the social protection programs mentioned in the study is the Takaful, an Egyptian cash transfer program similar to Brazil’s Bolsa Família – which became a global standard in the fight against poverty –, with similar features. That is, for families with children younger than six years old, regular exams in health centers are required, and for families with children in school, their attendance in school is what guarantees the right to be included in the program.
Machado said that in Yemen there is also a social protection program similar to Bolsa Família called Social Welfare Fund, but that it was interrupted due to the country’s conflict, which began in 2015. In Algeria, many social protection programs focusing on children are embedded in the legal framework, which surprised the researchers.
“We saw that in some theocracies [those countries in which political power is based on religious laws, in this case, Islamism], there is a passage in the Qur’an that mentions assistance to the poorest, called Zakat (one of the pillars of Islam’s sacred book), a type of a Catholic tithe that in Sudan, Palestine and Jordan was established as law in models that vary from country to country, channeling resources to assistance policies and social protection programs through collection of the Zakat – implemented as a tax,” she said.
The study revealed that in Iraq there is a social protection law since 2014, which includes cash transfer programs, food distribution and funding sources. “It is a very positive case since it identifies the recipients, and when the social protection program is turned into law, there is a greater chance that it will be consolidated as a right,” explained Machado. In Djibouti, there is a similar law.
Overall, the study identified cash transfer programs, school meals programs, access to healthcare, to housing, food distribution (according to Machado, these are very common in the region), cash-for-work – short-term assistance programs to offer temporary jobs in public projects –, and also subsidies to cheapen the cost of supplies such as food and fuel.
“In the case of subsidies, the country ends up predominantly benefiting the richest families, which consume a greater amount of supplies. We know that there is not a perfect solution, but that it could be a gradual transition, since cutting the benefit would also raise the prices too much and harm many people,” said Machado. Subsidy cuts have been taking place frequently in Arab countries running fiscal adjustment policies.
The researcher said that the region is going through important changes and there are fairly new social policies; thus, there is still room to do more for the children in the countries surveyed. “We want to reveal the good practices in the region and disseminate the results to encourage these programs, so this experience can be shared with other regions in the world,” she concluded.
Among the study’s recommendations for the countries surveyed are the effort for legislation and documents that would establish social protection as a right, securing that such right is extended to all, including the children; ensuring that the social protection legislation is inclusive and non-discriminatory, focusing on those least favored and marginalized; establishing regulatory frameworks to guarantee access by refugees to a minimum of social protection, with the support of international donors; and guaranteeing equal treatment to all refugees, regardless of nationality.
About
The International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) is a global forum for South-South dialogue on innovative development policies, aiming to promote the production and dissemination of studies and policy recommendations, the exchange of best practices in development initiatives and the expansion of South-South dialogue. Founded in 2004, IPC-IG is the result of a partnership between Brazil’s government, represented by the Ministry of Planning, Development and Management (MP), the Brazilian Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) and the United Nations Development Programme (PNUD).
Anna Carolina Machado holds a MSc in Public Policy from the University of Bristol (UK) and a specialization in Public Administration from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Anna has been working as a researcher at the IPC-IG since 2015 and has contributed to projects in partnership with UNICEF on child-sensitive social protection, the World Food Programme (WFP), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and other organizations in Brazil, Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East.
Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
