This report and accompanying brief are the first in a series produced for a study on social protection and children in West and Central Africa. It seeks to provide an overview of existing social protection policy and programming initiatives in the region and to assess the extent to which these address the particular manifestations of childhood poverty and vulnerability that characterise different countries in the region. It highlights challenges in the design and implementation of child-sensitive social protection and offers a number of policy recommendations based on the analysis and lessons learned.