Three major new papers published in the Lancet with the support of Lumos shed new light on the situation of children living in institutions globally and make important recommendations for donors, governments, civil society and individuals to help ensure every child can grow up in a safe, supportive and loving family and have the best chance in life.
One paper, commissioned by Lumos and published in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health in March 2020, examined what is known about the global scale of institutionalisation of children. The paper reports an estimate of 5.4million 1 children still living in institutions globally, but stresses that there is a great deal of uncertainty as their existence remains largely off the radar in many countries around the world. Much more and better-quality data needs to be collected to fully understand the scale of the problem and ensure children are adequately protected.
In June 2020, two papers were published by the Lancet Institutional Care Reform Commission Group: a meta-analysis analysing 65 years of research into the effects of institutionalisation on children’s development, which makes the harms of institutionalisation clearer than ever, and a set of policy and practice recommendations, co-authored by Lumos, that provide concrete steps to help global, national and local actors address this issue.
