Child- sensitive social protection initiatives in Nigeria: a role for indigenous social care

Introduction Social protection has been recognized internationally as a means to foster social development and to address the impacts of social vulnerability and exclusion driven by poverty (UNICEF, 2015). According to Devereux and SabatesWheeler (2004), transformative social protection is a term that describes:

public and private initiatives that provide income or consumption transfers to the poor, protect the vulnerable against livelihood risks, and enhance the social status and rights of the marginalized; with the overall objective of reducing the economic and social vulnerability of poor, vulnerable and marginalized groups.