1.
The Adaptive Social
Protection in the
Sahel and Nutrition
Carlo del Ninno
Patrick Premand
Roland Berenger Berehoudougou
Abuja 12-14 décembre, 2016

2.
The Adaptive Social Protection Program (ASPP)
program in the Sahel
 A special Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) has been set up to
support adaptive social protection in the Sahel (Burkina Faso,
Chad, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, and Senegal).
 The ASPP is managed by the WB and is supported by a Multi-
Donor Trust fund that for the time being includes DFID which
provides GBP 47 (~USD 65 million).
 The objective of the ASP Program is to
– increase access to effective adaptive social protection
systems for poor and vulnerable populations in the
Sahel.
 The ASPP aims to achieve its objectives through financing activities
that will help develop adaptive social protection systems and
programs to help individuals, households and societies to build
resilience, equity and opportunities. (ASPP complements more
than USD 252 million in IDA funding for SP programs in 6 countries)
 These systems are also expected to enable households to better
withstand future shocks and invest in human capital
development
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3.
What do we mean by Adaptive Social Protection?
 Adaptive social protection is an integrated approach that
was developed to address the challenges of adaptation
to climate risk and improve the management and
response to shocks
 Adaptive social protection programs are flexible
programs
– They can protect poor households from climate and
other shocks before they occur through predictable
transfers, building community assets, and other
programs that help them build households’
resilience; and
– Can be scaled up to respond to extreme events
when they hit.
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4.
Improving household resilience
 The ASPP is expected to improve the
resilience of poor and vulnerable households
by design programs that increase the adaptive
capacity of households and communities.
– Providing transfers
– helping them to develop their human capital including
early childhood development and nutrition (for
example using accompanying measures),
– diversifying their livelihoods (training and access to
capital), and thus decreasing the need for adverse
coping mechanisms.
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5.
The ASP promotes Nutrition-Sensitive Adaptive
Social Protection activities
Nutrition sensitive ASP programs are key building blocks
for developing human capital of children
Potential operational linkages between ASP and
ECD/Nutrition include:
 Cash Transfers + accompanying measures (or home visits) aimed at
improving parenting practices
– Many programs in Africa have incorporated accompanying
measures/ Complementary activities: Niger, Madagascar,
Cameroon, Etc.
– Often in partnership with UNICEF
 Cash transfers with linkages to supply-side interventions
– nutrition interventions (growth monitoring, supplements…)
– health sector interventions (results-based financing,…)
– water and sanitation interventions
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6.
Behavioral Accompanying Measures to Cash
Transfers in Niger
 A “behavioral change component” (BCC, Volet
Comportemental) seeks to foster behavioral changes
among parents and encourage investments in young
children’s human capital
– Encourage adoption of parenting practices conducive to early
childhood development on nutrition, health, sanitation, and
psycho-social stimulation
– Participation in the Behavioral Component is a "soft condition"
to receive cash transfers
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7.
In Niger, BCC Content builds on ‘Essential Family Practices’,
but goes beyond to cover psycho-social stimulation and child
protection
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NUTRITION
Exclusive Breastfeeding
Complementary feeding
Malnutrition
HEALTH
Protecting children against
diseases Utilization of health
services at first sign of illness
Hygiene and handwashing
Family Planning
CHILD PROTECTION
Discipline
Attachment and socio-emotional
development
PSYCHO-SOCIAL STIMULATION
Language stimulation
Stimulation through play
School readiness
Brain development
Birth registration, school
enrollment and attendance

8.
PSYCHO-SOCIAL STIMULATION
Language stimulation ++
Stimulation through play ++
School readiness 0
Brain development 0
Birth registration, school enrollment and
attendance 0
The BCC component has a value-added beyond cash transfers
NUTRITION
Exclusive Breastfeeding ++
Complementary Feeding ++
Malnutrition 0
HEALTH
Protecting children against diseases +
Utilization of health services at 1st sign of illness
+
Hygiene and handwashing +
Family Planning 0
PROTECTION
Discipline ++
Attachment and socio-emotional development +
 The behavioral change accompanying measures to the cash transfer
program lead to a range of changes in parenting practices among cash
transfer beneficiaries
– Improve practices in nutrition, health, child protection and psycho-social
stimulation
– Impacts on cash transfer beneficiaries and non beneficiaries (social dynamics)
 Impacts are important in some domains, but a need to strenghten linkages
with supply-side interventions across sector remain to strenghten impacts on
final outcomes
Impact (Value Added) of Behavioral Change Component by Domain

9.
ASPP contribution to making demand-side
interventions nutrition-sensitive
 expand the evidence-base on determinants of
malnutrition in the Sahel to provide additional
information on key constraints to improved nutrition
that demand-side interventions could address
 promote learning and evidence generation on
how best to design and implement nutrition-
sensitive demand-side interventions, in particular
behavioral accompanying measures
 encourage stronger coordination between
prevention activities as part of safety nets with direct
nutrition interventions such as supplementation, as
well as by strengthening linkages with water and
sanitation interventions
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10.
Strengthening linkages to supply-side
interventions: Integrating SP/WASH community-led
interventions
 Generate evidence on the complementarity and
modalities of WASH interventions in the context
of safety nets programs. The proposed activities
would allow better understanding the linkages
between safety nets programs and WASH and
the modalities of interventions yielding best
results.
 The proposed activities include the piloting of
different behavioral oriented WASH interventions
in Niger, as well as the evaluation of this
innovative integrated approach aimed at
improving children nutritional outcomes
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11.
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The ASP Program in the Sahel