​The most severe challenges to poor and vulnerable households, from the impact of economic crises to human development deficits and daily exclusion, hit their children first and hardest. Social protection programmes have emerged as a key tool to reduce such poverty and vulnerability over the past two decades, but often overlook the multidimensional needs of children and young people. Too often, they remain invisible to policy-makers and to those who design social protection programmes, who tend to focus on the household as a whole.

This paper presents findings from a mixed-methods study of the effects of the Palestinian National Cash Transfer Programme (PNCTP) on children and their families. It explores the impact of the programme across four key dimensions of children’s rights, as recognised in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC): survival, development, protection and participation.

Paola Pereznieto, Nicola Jones, Bassam Abu Hamad and Mohammed Shaheen with Kathryn O’Neill