UNICEF Sees Room To Expand Child Social Protection Cooperation With Malaysia
From Hasnah Jusid
SAMARKAND (Uzbekistan), Oct 22 (Bernama) -- The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) sees sees scope to expand its cooperation with Malaysia in strengthening child-focused social protection policies, particularly through more effective assistance programmes for vulnerable families.
UNICEF Global Programme Division’s Senior Advisor on Social Protection Pamela Dale said the organisation already had maintained strong cooperation with Malaysia, with further collaboration possible in developing social protection systems, improving assistance programmes and assessing the financial resources required for their implementation.
“I’m very pleased to say that we have an active UNICEF office in Malaysia and a strong cooperation. I think there is always room for us to expand that if there’s interest from partners,” she told Bernama on the sidelines of the World Summit on Investing in Children’s Wellbeing: A Path Towards Sustainable and Just Development for Future Generations here Wednesday.
In Malaysia, the UN agency has been working with government agencies and other partners on initiatives aimed at strengthening child welfare, including the ASUH KL cash-plus nutrition programme for low-income families.
According to UNICEF Malaysia’s 2025 Annual Report, the initiative, implemented with Kuala Lumpur City Hall and supported by the Finance Ministry, enrolled 650 children under five and pregnant mothers in low-cost housing, providing RM150 monthly alongside nutrition guidance and community support.
Dale said UNICEF had extensive experience working with governments and partners across Southeast Asia and globally, providing technical expertise and facilitating the exchange of best practices in social protection.
She said UNICEF’s cooperation with governments covered various areas, including the development of social protection systems, individual assistance programmes, costing exercises and investment assessments to help policymakers determine the financial resources needed.
She said international platforms also provided valuable opportunities for Malaysia and other participating countries to exchange experiences and learn directly from successful government-led initiatives.
“We’ve done work with partners in Southeast Asia and around the world on everything from development of social protection systems to working on individual programmes, working on things like costings and investment cases so governments know the financial resources that will be necessary in order to develop the programmes,” she said.
On Malaysia’s financial assistance programmes for low-income families, Dale said well-designed and adequately funded cash transfers could play an important role in reducing child poverty while delivering long-term benefits.
She said decades of research had shown that effective social protection programmes could provide immediate relief to vulnerable households while enabling families to invest in their children’s education, nutrition, healthcare, overall development and future opportunities.
Asked about weaknesses in social protection systems across Southeast Asia, Dale said countries faced different circumstances and starting points, making it difficult to identify a single challenge affecting the entire region.
However, she said a common concern was the need to ensure that social protection systems remained responsive to rapidly changing global conditions, including demographic shifts, climate change, natural disasters and conflicts.
“Social protection systems have to be designed for a world that is changing and is changing very rapidly,” she said.
Dale said some countries were experiencing ageing populations while others had expanding youth populations, requiring governments to adapt their social protection policies to meet changing needs.
She said the increasing impact of climate-related crises and conflicts also highlighted the importance of developing systems capable of delivering immediate assistance when emergencies occurred.
“In order to do that, systems really need to be developed in a way that allows for expansion and contraction,” she said.
Dale stressed that continued investment was essential to ensure social protection mechanisms could respond effectively to present-day challenges and provide timely assistance to vulnerable communities.
The two-day summit, which began Wednesday, brings together about 600 representatives of governments, international organisations and experts from more than 100 countries to discuss investments in children’s wellbeing, including social protection, healthcare, education and sustainable development.
-- BERNAMA
