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 on the Run: Unaccompanied Children Leaving Central America And Mexico and the Need for International Protection

UNHCR, 01 Mar 2014

This report, issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, examines the situation and needs of unaccompanied children who emigrate from Central America and Mexico to the United States, and offers recommendations based on those needs.

Measuring the Determinants of Childhood Vulnerability

UNICEF, 01 Mar 2014

This study by UNICEF sought to identify key determinants of vulnerability among children –including those affected by HIV and AIDS – that can contribute to developing an improved global measure of vulnerable children in the context of HIV and AIDS. Data from the most recent available household surveys at the time of analysis was used from 11 countries – Cambodia, Central African Republic, Haiti, Malawi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe – were pooled.

International Conference on Population and Development Beyond 2014 Report

UN General Assembly – Report of the Secretary General , 12 Feb 2014

This report was prepared in February 2014 pursuant to General Assembly resolution 65/234, in which the Assembly called for an operational review of the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development

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Child Welfare Policies, Services And Their Aptitude For Care And Protection Of Vulnerable Children And Their Families

Project EDU-CARE, Department of Social Work at St. Xavier's College, 2014

The Technical Team under the Project “EDU-CARE: Social Operators Active in the Protection of the Children and in the Promotion of the Children’s Rights in Nepal” reports on the child care practices, policies, and programs currently in effect in the country.

Models of care for orphaned and separated children and upholding children’s rights: cross-sectional evidence from western Kenya

Lonnie Embleton, David Ayuku, Allan Kamanda, Lukoye Atwoli, Samuel Ayaya, Rachel Vreeman, Winstone Nyandiko, Peter Gisore, Julius Koech and Paula Braitstein, 2014

The authors of this article applied a human rights framework using the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to understand what extent children’s basic human rights were being upheld in institutional vs. community- or family-based care settings in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya.

Kids Count Data Book 2014

Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2014

The KidsCount Data Book for 2014 is produced by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. It is the 25th edition of this data book, which measures state trends and demographics in child wellbeing in the United States.

Drumming Together for Change: A Child’s Right to Quality Care in Sub-Saharan Africa

SOS Children’s Villages, Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland, University of Malawi, 2014

This report is based on a synthesis of eight assessments of the implementation of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (“the Guidelines”) in Benin, Gambia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

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Situation Analysis of Child Poverty and Deprivation in Uganda

Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development, Uganda; UNICEF, Uganda; Economic Policy Research Centre, Uganda , 2014

This report, commissioned by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development of Uganda and supported by UNICEF, presents findings from an analysis on child poverty in Uganda, undertaken by the Economic Policy Research Centre.

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Social Connectedness Programme

Synergos Institute, 2014

This report describes the Social Connectedness Programme and the three strands of research that inform it. The report defines social connectedness and social isolation and explains the benefits of social connectedness.

General Comment on Article 30 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child

African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, 08 Nov 2013

The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) held its twenty-second Ordinary Session from 4-8 November 2013 and issued its first General Comment on the African Charter regarding the rights and welfare of children of incarcerated and imprisoned parents and primary caregivers.