this is also the reason why countries with similar allocations of public social budgets sometimes end up with vastly disparate outcomes following a universal approach for social protection health care and educational services can also have positive spillovers on smaller groups with similar characteristics or that face the same barriers if the interventions are universal in nature the benefits are then likely to positively affect other disadvantaged groups as well eventually responsible actors should also gradually act to remove barriers faced by all groups including those representing smaller shares and groupspecific circumstances for example availability of education for minority groups or child care for young parents focusing on removing barriers would also help governments to ensure breaking the intergenerational poverty cycle permanently the national social protection strategy for the poor and vulnerable mirrored this perception as it focused exclusively on social assistance and while it gathered considerable support from development partners it had little national ownership from line ministries