This Project Briefing synthesises findings from a study mapping social protection in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with a particular focus on policies and programmes that impact children and how these might be strengthened.

Key findings include:

• Social protection is an important policy area in the Middle East and North Africa Region, although most related resources are currently spent on regressive subsidies
• Despite important progress in child well-being indicators across the region, income, gender and spatial inequities remain that keep children in a situation of poverty and vulnerability
• Well designed and evidence-based child-sensitive social protection can be instrumental in improving the equitable development of children in the region