Strengthening child protection systems requires more than policy commitments, it requires realistic and evidence-informed financing strategies.
Costing tools help governments answer critical questions:
The session will emphasize that:
Strengthening child protection systems requires moving from broad advocacy to evidence-informed planning and financing.
OR/AND!?
Evidence on the economic and social costs of neglect, abuse and violence against children is increasingly informing the case for greater investment in child protection. However, translating this evidence into funded policies and services requires practical tools that enable governments to estimate costs, prioritize investments and plan for implementation. Costing provides this critical bridge between policy ambition and sustainable financing.
This session will demonstrate how costing can support governments to move from advocacy to evidence-informed planning, budgeting and investment decisions. Drawing on practical examples from Ukraine's Social Services Costing Tool, Kenya's child protection systems and case management costing models, care reform costing tools, and the Social Service Workforce (SSW) costing work in Kenya and Zambia, participants will explore different approaches to estimating the resources required to strengthen child protection systems. The session will highlight how costing can be applied to workforce planning, service package design, phased implementation, and budget negotiations across national and subnational levels.
The session will demonstrate that costing is not simply a technical exercise, but a strategic public financial management tool that supports governments to prioritize investments, strengthen domestic financing and develop credible, costed implementation plans.
Facilitator: Shar Kurtishi, Senior Associate, Public Finance specialist, Maestral International
Biography: Shar Kurtishi is a public finance management (PFM) and social policy expert with over 20 years of experience supporting governments to strengthen public financing, budgeting, and planning for social sectors. He has advised Ministries of Finance, UNICEF, the World Bank, EU, Swiss SDC and Swedish SIDA and other international partners across more than 30 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia, Pacific, and the Middle East on public financial management reforms, costing, investment cases, budget and expenditure reviews, and financing strategies. His work has included Public Finance Management system and instruments improvements and its corelation with social sectors such as developing costing tools and investment cases for child protection, social services, and the social service workforce; designing funding formulae and medium-term expenditure frameworks; and supporting governments to translate policy commitments into realistic, costed implementation plans. Shar has led the development of national and regional costing models for child protection and social services, helping governments strengthen domestic financing, improve resource allocation, and make evidence-informed investment decisions.
Purpose
To demonstrate how practical costing tools can support governments to move from policy commitments to evidence-informed planning, budgeting and sustainable financing for child protection and social services systems.
Using examples from different country contexts, the session will illustrate how costing can support:
Learning Objectives
By the end of the session participants will:
Section 1: Opening Mentimeter (5 min)
Which best describes your experience with costing child protection or social services?
What has been the biggest challenge in costing child protection systems?
Section 2: Why Costing Matters (8 min) Powerpoint presentation
Moving from:
to
Governments need answers to questions such as:
Section 3: Practical costing tools in action (30 min)
The four costing applications. Rather than one costing tool, different costing tools answer different policy questions.
Example 1: Ukraine Social Services Costing Tool (7 min)
Purpose: Integrated local government planning
Example 2: Kenya Child Protection & Case Management Costing (7 min)
Purpose: Costing integrated child protection services
Example 3: Social Service Workforce Costing Tool (8 min)
Purpose: Planning workforce expansion
Example 4: Care Reform Costing Tool (8 min)
Purpose: Investment in family strengthenining; Planning transition from institutional to family-based care
Section 4: Interactive Discussion: Applying costing in your country (12 min) facilitated discussion.
Poll Question: If you were advising your Ministry tomorrow, where would costing add the greatest value?
Closing (5 min)
Key Messages
If systems are not costed, they are difficult to finance, implement and scale sustainably.
Handouts:
Reference Docs:
