Children Affected by Poverty and Social Exclusion

Around the world, poverty and social exclusion are driving factors behind the placement of children into alternative care. Families give up their children because they are too poor to care for them, or they feel that it is the best way to help them to access basic services such as education and health care. Discrimination and cultural taboos mean that girls, children with disabilities, ethnic minorities, children with HIV/AIDS and children born out of wedlock, make up a disproportionate number of children abandoned into alternative care.

Poor-quality alternative care leads to a vicious cycle of poverty and inequality. With limited family-based alternative care options in many countries, children often end up in institutional care. Already marginalized by poverty or stigmatization, they risk becoming further excluded from society, as they grow up separated from their families and communities. In the worst cases, inadequate or unsafe care standards expose them to neglect, violence and abuse. When they eventually leave institutional care, young adults may then struggle to reintegrate into their communities and face high rates of homelessness, unemployment, chronic poverty, depression and even suicide.

Greater political and financial commitment is needed to tackle the poverty and social exclusion that drives families to give up their children. This includes wide-ranging measures to combat poverty, discrimination and stigmatization, to change attitudes towards single parenthood and disability, and to adopt social policies promoting family empowerment and parenting skills. Greater priority must also be given to developing good-quality family-based care options, such as foster care and adoption, for the girls and boys who need alternative families.

The documents in this section examine the relationship between poverty, social exclusion and placement of children in alternative care.

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Children returning from care: The challenging circumstances of parents in poverty

Elizabeth Fernandez, Paul Delfabbro, Ioana Ramia and Szilvia Kovacs - Children and Youth Services Review , 14 Jun 2017

This paper reports the findings from an Australian study that examined longitudinal data on reasons for entry to care, trajectories in care and patterns of reunification and associated factors.

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Stolen Childhoods: End of Childhood Report 2017

Save the Children, 01 Jun 2017

Every child deserves a childhood of love, care and protection so they can develop to their full potential, but this is not the experience for at least a quarter of our children worldwide. This new report – the first in an annual series – takes a hard look at the events that rob children of their childhoods.

Stolen Childhoods: End of Childhood Report 2017 - Arabic

Save the Children, 01 Jun 2017

The Economic Case for the Expansion of Social Protection Programmes

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and UNICEF, 18 May 2017

This brief brings together the critical mass of evidence emerging from recent rigorous impact evaluations of government-run cash transfer programmes in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

A child is a child: Protecting children on the move from violence, abuse and exploitation

UNICEF, 01 May 2017

Among the millions of children on the move worldwide, many – including hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied children and adolescents – undertake dangerous journeys. This report shows how the lack of safe and legal pathways for refugee and migrant children feeds a booming market for human smuggling and puts them at risk of violence, abuse and exploitation. Building on recent UNICEF policy proposals, it sets out ways that governments can better protect these vulnerable children.

Where Past and Future Meet: The 84th International Session of the European Youth Parliament Resolution Booklet

European Youth Parliament, 29 Apr 2017

This Resolution Booklet includes the motions and resolution adopted by the European Youth Parliament at its 2017 meeting.

Understanding the linkages between social safety nets and childhood violence: a review of the evidence from low- and middle-income countries

Amber Peterman, Anastasia (Naomi) Neijhoft, Sarah Cook, Tia M Palermo - Health Policy and Planning, 22 Apr 2017

This paper reviews evidence and develops a framework to understand linkages between non-contributory social safety nets (SSNs) and the experience of childhood emotional, physical and sexual violence in low- and middle-income countries.

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Poverty, early care, and stress reactivity in adolescence: Findings from a prospective, longitudinal study in South Africa

R. M. Pasco Fearon, Mark Tomlinson, Robert Kumsta, Sarah Skeen - Development and Psychopathology, 12 Apr 2017

This report finds that there is a paucity of research on the role of caregiving in low- and middle-income countries, where the protective effects of high-quality care in buffering the child's developing stress regulation systems may be crucial. This paper reports findings from a longitudinal study (N = 232) conducted in an impoverished periurban settlement in Cape Town, South Africa.

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Homelessness and aging out of foster care: A national comparison of child welfare-involved adolescents

Patrick J. Fowlera, Katherine E. Marcala, Jinjin Zhangb, Orin Dayc, John Landsverk - Children and Youth Services Review, 30 Mar 2017

The present study represents the first large-scale, prospective comparison to test whether aging out of foster care contributes to homelessness risk in emerging adulthood in the USA.

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Child Abuse and Neglect in Uganda

David Kaawa-Mafigiri & Eddy Walakira - Makerere University Dept. of Social Work and Social Administration; Child Maltreatment: Contemporary Issues in Research and Policy, 20 Jan 2017

Bringing together cross-disciplinary expertise, this volume addresses a vast range of topics related to child abuse and neglect in Uganda.

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