With the establishment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the issue of child poverty has re-emerged. Like other vulnerable groups, children is one of the groups that is most affected by poverty and will be affected for a long term. Because children experience various forms of deprivation, a holistic intervention is required in order to improve their welfare status.

Social protection is a means that governments use to reduce poverty. However, as is the case with other policies, there have been concerns over the possibilities that programs do not reach or, in fact, exclude those who are most vulnerable and in need.

Actually, there are a number of studies in the field of social protection that are related to child issues which have been conducted in various countries, including Indonesia, to examine how the programs are implemented. It is unfortunate, however, that there is limited opportunity for researchers and academics, especially those from different countries, to share their ideas.

It is for this reason that the National Planning Development Agency (Bappenas), UNICEF Indonesia, and The SMERU Research Institute organized an international conference on “Child Poverty and Social Protection” on 10–11 September 2013 in Jakarta. This conference was held as a forum for governments, policymakers, researchers, nongovernmental organizations, and international organizations to discuss about social protection and children from various perspectives as well as share experiences with the aim to encourage evidence-based policy improvements.

In this newsletter edition, we present the abridged version of five selected papers from the papers presented during the conference to represent the themes which were highlighted in the conference. All conference papers can be accessed at SMERU’s website. With more studies on child poverty, it is hoped that governments will develop policies that are more accurate and inclusive and are encouraged to raise the priority of child poverty in their national agenda