The Child Protection Index (the Index) is a comparative policy tool, organised and implemented by local and national level civil society organisations, that examines a country’s current child protection system using a common set of 626 indicators that measure a country’s policy and actions toward greater child protection. The index evaluates each national government’s actions through the lenses of policy, service delivery, capacity, accountability and coordination. The index does not measure the wellbeing of children in each country directly, instead, focusing on policies, investments, and services that impact children’s wellbeing.
This Index measures Georgia’s efforts toward child protection in comparison with other countries in the region. Georgia’s average score was calculated for three of the four sources of indicators: (1) Current Child Protection Status of Girls and Boys, (2) Governance Environment, and (3) Social Work. This Index includes an analysis of Georgia’s child protection system across these three indicators as well as recommendations related to each.
The Index results indicate that Georgia is currently holding the last position in the region, out of the 5 pilots considered so far in Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova, Romania, and Serbia. The Index results do find, however, that Georgia is a “strong performer” on certain indicators, including children outside of family care. In measuring Georgia’s child protection system against these indicators, the research team found that Georgia had relatively low numbers of children separated from their families (including children with disabilities), low rates of children living in state-run institutions, and, for those children separated from their families, a higher level (64%) of children living in foster care arrangements than in institutions. This, the index says, is one of Georgia’s strongest child protection policies implemented.
