Understanding the Linkages between Social Safety Nets and Childhood Violence: A Review of the Evidence from Low- and Middle-income Countries

"...violent behaviours are typically normalized in childhood, putting children who experience or witness violence at a higher risk of experience and perpetration in adulthood....While risk and protective factors for childhood violence have been studied, effective prevention strategies, particularly in LMIC settings, remain elusive."

This review of impact evaluations of social safety nets (SSNs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) finds they have the potential to reduce physical, emotional, and sexual violence experienced by children under the age of 18 years, but there remain large gaps in our understanding across typologies of violence, region, and programme design. SSNs include: (i) conditional cash transfers (CCTs), (ii) unconditional cash transfers (UCTs), (iii) unconditional in-kind transfers, (iv) public works (PW) or cash for work (CfW) and (v) vouchers or fee waivers. SSN programming bundled with other services or intervention components, for example, additional livelihoods training or community information sessions, are considered and referred to in this review as "plus" (e.g., "CCT plus" or "PW plus"). This paper is a comprehensive synthesis of a largely emerging and fragmented evidence base, with a focus on understanding existing evidence and gaps that need to be filled in order to support policymakers seeking to utilise SSNs in their effort to prevent childhood violence. Section 2 presents a framework, Section 3 describes the methodology, and Section 4 discusses the findings from this review. Section 5 concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the review, implications for programme design, and ongoing research efforts and key gaps on the evidence base linking SSNs and childhood violence.

The researchers' framework (Figure 1) articulates hypothesised direct and indirect pathways by which SSNs may positively or negatively affect childhood violence; it is designed to serve as a starting point for understanding empirical findings and research gaps, as well as to inform future evaluation studies. To cite only one example, transfer-induced improvements in economic security, changes to labour force participation and time use, reductions in stress, and more equitable intra-household power dynamics (e.g. women's bargaining power) may in turn influence factors at the caregiver and interpersonal level, including substance misuse, psychosocial well-being, caregiving behaviours, intra-household conflict and interpersonal violence (including intimate partner violence, or IPV), and caregivers' supervision of children. In turn, and for example, children's psychosocial well-being, as well as problem and risk behaviours, may be influenced by transfers through the economic security, caregiver psychosocial well-being, intra-household conflict, caregiving behaviour, and caregiver supervision pathways.

The researchers catalogued 14 rigorous impact evaluations (January 2000 to April 2016), 11 of which are completed, analysing 57 unique impacts on diverse violence indicators. (Table 2 in the paper summarises the evaluation or research findings of the 14 studies summarised in Table 1 (region of origin and by country alphabetically). Among these impacts, approximately one in five represents statistically significant protective effects on childhood violence. Promising evidence relates to sexual violence among female adolescents in Africa, while there is less clear evidence of significant impacts in other parts of the developing world (and there are few studies from the Middle East and Asia - "Ahmed et al. (2016) have completed an evaluation of a UCT and in-kind transfer programme with behaviour change and communication (BCC) components and plan to examine violent discipline among young children in Bangladesh - making this the only study in Asia catalogued to date."). There is also less clear evidence on young child measures, including violent discipline and peer bullying. Further, few studies are set up to meaningfully unpack mechanisms between SSNs and childhood violence; however, those most commonly hypothesised operate at the household level (through increases in economic security and reductions in poverty-related stress), the interpersonal level (improved parental behaviours, caregiving practices, improved psychosocial well-being) and at the child level (protective education and decreases in problem or risky behaviours). Despite their potential, traditional SSNs are not designed with violence prevention as the primary objective - thus, a strong argument is made for integration with child protection systems to leverage synergies.

The researchers assert that future research on SSNs and childhood violence should not only focus on filling regional gaps, but also seek to unpack differential effects of various programme design and implementation variations. As a priority, all programmes must be designed to minimise potential harm. (Despite their potential to reduce childhood violence, SSNs may also bring about unintended adverse effects - for example, exposure to peer-violence, most notably bullying due to programme-related stigma or discrimination.) In addition, while acknowledging differences in the sophistication of social protection and child protection systems across countries, there is potential for: (i) light-touch complementary interventions - for example, behaviour change communication (BCC) strategies delivered within existing programme structures, utilising the wide coverage and unique ability of SSNs to reach people at the level of the household; (ii) intensive or specialised complementary interventions, such as an adapted version of the Sinovuyo parenting programme from South Africa introduced as part of family development sessions conditional for beneficiaries of the Philippines' Pantawid Pamilyan Pilipino Program; and (iii) integration and system linkages focused on case management and referral systems using single registries and programme monitoring as key entry points, such as Chile's Solidario.

In conclusion, the researchers demonstrate that the linkages between non-contributory SSNs and childhood violence are understudied, but there exists some emerging evidence to suggest the potential of such programming to reduce aspects of multiple violence typologies across age, gender, and regions.