In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, the World Bank has invested significant resources in social protection projects to support vulnerable communities who have seen social safety nets weakened by the pandemic. Given the ways in which the pandemic has particularly harmed children, BIC has done a review of the Bank’s COVID-19 social protection spending and urged the Bank to do more to use these social protection projects to strengthen child protection systems.
Through the Emergency Response and Nafa Program Support Project (Nafa project), the Bank is supporting Guinea to “develop the building blocks of a national shock-responsive social protection system and increase access to shock-responsive safety nets for poor and vulnerable households.” However, due to the COVID-19 crisis and changes in the implementing agency’s organizational structure, implementation of the project is delayed. This paper aims to provide nine concrete recommendations to the Bank on how to use this delay as an opportunity to bolster the child protection system in Guinea and strengthen the project's approach to supporting the most marginalized.
For further information on the opportunities to enhance outcomes of the Nafa project for children, read our recommendations here.