Child support and social protection during the pandemic in Latin America in 2020: opportunities to overcome disconnection

Abstract

This article examines the public debate and political measures taken in relation to child support and emergency monetary transfers in 19 Latin American countries during the first eight months of the pandemic. Though every child and youth not living with one of her or his parents has a right to child support, in Latin America the vast majority of them do not receive them. We seek to determine the degree to which this problem is visible and review government efforts to address it in general, and measures explicitly linked to the right of the family to social protection in particular. After determining media coverage of child support and reviewing information from regional data depositories and official sources regarding the measures identified, this articles provides an overview of developments in the area of social protection related to emergency monetary transfers and food subsidies. Highly innovative measures were identified that associated child support with social protection (unemployment insurance and pension funds). In addition, emergency cash transfers could have ended up guaranteeing income among children. The article underlines the opportunities created through the measures imple­mented and concludes that in both the best and the worst national scenarios analyzed, the guarantee of income for children depends to a great degree on strengthening their links with social protection through, for example, a universal basic income.