In today’s global context millions of families and children experience increasing precarious conditions due to violent conflicts, displacement, climate change and natural disasters. Exposure to toxic stress significantly harms the youngest children’s short and long-term health and wellbeing, detrimentally affecting their development, with negative consequences for our communities and societies impacting future generations.
The goal of the side event is to stress, from different perspectives, the urgent need to make investments in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) initiatives, combined with inclusive child-sensitive social protection, a core human right under international law, clearly reaffirmed by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Goals (SDG 1.3).
Thirty-six years from the declaration of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) that recognized every child’s right to social protection (art.26), only 26% of children age 0-15 are covered by benefits, leaving the majority vulnerable to poverty, exclusion and multidimensional deprivation. Only very recently, social protection has been considered a mechanism to help communities, prepare for, and recover from shocks, by strengthening the humanitarian-development-peace nexus with the final goal to ‘leave no one behind’.
The side event will highlight the positive results of investing in Shock-Responsive Social Protection (SRSP) focused on prevention, preparedness and resilience-building, starting with children and their right to ECCE. A number of case studies in India, Indonesia, Madagascar, Brazil, Timor Lest, Morocco, Ethiopia, Philippines, Madagascar and Jordan demonstrated that humanitarian cash and voucher assistance programs can help vulnerable and marginalized communities, in particular children, recover from shocks more quickly and effectively, with both immediate and longer-term returns.
This event will be held on Tuesday, 11 February 2025, from 1:15-2:30pm (ET) via Zoom. For additional details, please see the event flyer and concept note.