So far, traditional definitions of social protection do not make specific reference to children. An exception is the Asian Development Bank, whose definition includes child-protection among the policy responses to address poverty and vulnerability in the region (Kamerman and Gabel, 2006). Social protection has, in fact, a cross-sectoral nature and its activities may complement core elements of child protection, especially the preventive and protective functions (i.e. by addressing the underlying causes of violence or exploitation), therefore mutually reinforcing each other (Blank et al.,