This virtual study tour aims to provide you with an overview of care reform in Malawi from the comfort of your own home. Care reform relates to the care of children. It refers to efforts to improve the legal and policy frameworks, structures, services, supports and resources that determine and deliver alternative care, prevent family separation and support families to care for children well.

This Toolkit for Disability Inclusion in Care Reform represents a collection of work developed from the experience of many practitioners and organizations. The aim of this toolkit is to increase the capacity and confidence of those working in children’s care, child protection and family strengthening to mainstream disability through every step, utilizing improvements to systems, practices, skills and attitudes. We envision family care for all children and the use of residential care only as a last resort when absolutely necessary and appropriate. The toolkit reinforces the importance of placing family care for children with disabilities at the top of any care reform agenda.

Considerations for facilitating the assessment workshop, group selection, building consensus and drafting priority recommendations during the workshop.

This policy brief summarizes the key findings and recommendations from the International Review of Parent Advocacy in Child Welfare in low, middle and high-income countries, and identifies elements of a strategy to strengthen children’s care and protection through parent participation.

This short paper examines why children on the move need to be included in care reform in the region, how the care needs of these boys and girls can be met, and what lessons can be learned from the care of children on the move to inform the care of children more broadly.

Guided by UNICEF’s Child Protection Strategy (2021 – 2030) which provides the overarching strategic framework for UNICEF’s child protection programming globally, the paper discusses key considerations that have shaped this approach.

This guidance specifically refers to mapping of services as the process of locating and sharing information to a wide range of people about available services to support children with disabilities and their families.

The terminology and tips that follow may help as you use the Toolkit for Disability Inclusion in Care Reform and apply its principles to your program activities. It is recommended that you become familiar with these terms before reading the rest of the content and revisit as needed. Please keep in mind that disability is an evolving concept. Language that is preferred in one context may be different in another. Ask local organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) for the preferred terms in your language and country text.

In this document, the awareness raising and advocacy is on behalf of or to benefit children with disabilities—many of whom may struggle to communicate because of their disability or whose voices are not heard—and because adults, systems and services often do not consider the opinions of children and children with disabilities are often left behind in changing or improving systems of care.

This facilitator’s guide accompanies the workshop slides by the same title, 'Introduction to the Identification of Developmental Delay and Disability' as part of the Toolkit for Disability Inclusion in Care Reform. It is designed to be used by the person providing the workshop.