Child Care and Protection System Reforms

Social welfare sector reform is increasingly common, particularly in transitional countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Increasing attention has been paid to the development of preventive community based child and family welfare programs that would, in coordination with health and education programs and social assistance, provide a range of support for vulnerable families.

Recognition of the damaging effects of institutional care on children and its high cost has influenced governments to redirect resources towards alternative family and community-based care practices such as kinship care, fostering, and adoption. Redirecting resources in the context of social welfare reforms requires a commitment from governments to provide adequate financing for effective policy implementation.

Funding availability raises a variety of issues regarding the level and type of support to be provided, the private or public management of services, and the entitlement process. Social welfare should protect the rights of children and their caretakers via fair and clear criteria of support provisions, with transparent procedures for the effective allocation of services.

Social welfare reforms to protect and support children and families need to be built on legal protections and child care policies which reflect the same child centred goals. Alternative forms of community based care, combined with social reintegration programmes and family support services, must be developed to reduce the use of institutions and enable children leaving institutions to rejoin their communities.

The resources in this section focus on country initiatives in reforming their social welfare sector to finance community based care developments.

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Improving Protection for Children without Parental Care: A Call for International Standards

UNICEF and International Social Service, 2004

Outlines problems and issues in providing appropriate out-of-home care solutions. Advocates for development of more comprehensive international standards for out-of-home care.

Improving Protection for Children Without Parental Care - Kinship Care: An Issue for International Standards

UNICEF and International Social Service, 2004

A paper outlining the use of formal and informal kinship care, child headed households and cross border kinship care. It discusses the advantages and limitations of each, including welfare costs, and argues for international standard setting.

Taking Better Care? Review of a Decade of Work With Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Rakai, Uganda

Sophie Witter, George Calder, and Timothy Ahimbisibwe, 2004

Examines the long-term impacts of the Child Social Care Project in Rakai District, Uganda. Outlines good practices for OVC support, as well as recommendations for governments and donors.

Children in Residential Care: The Zimbabwean Experience

G. Powell, T. Chinake, D. Mudzinge, W. Maambira, and S. Mukutiri, 2004

Analyzes the state of institutional care in Zimbabwe against the national child protection policy. Focuses on the role of donors in the proliferation of institutional care and strategies to better regulate the development and provision of child protection services.

Child Welfare Reform Projects and Initiatives

Alexandra Posarac and John Innes, 31 Dec 2003

Provides a brief overview of child welfare reforms implemented in the ECA Region and the collective effort to move away from over-emphasis on institutional care through the Changing Minds, Policies and Lives Project.

National Strategic Programme Plan of Interventions For Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in Uganda, 2005/6 - 2009/10 Fiscal Year

Uganda Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, 31 Dec 2003

The NSPPI provides overall guidance to implementers to mitigate the impact of orphan hood and other vulnerabilities among children in Uganda.

Changing Minds, Policies, and Lives: Improving Protection of Children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Gatekeeping Services for Vulnerable Children

UNICEF , 17 Feb 2003

A 2 part document containing a concept paper on strategies that divert children from institutional care into community based support programs, and a toolkit with practical resources for implementing improved gate keeping.

Redirecting Resources to Community Based Services: A Concept Paper

Louise Fox and Ragnar Götestam, 2003

A paper in a series of papers that discusses the problems associated with changing social protection services and provides guidelines to aid countries restructure their financing systems for social care. The paper proposes more family-based and inclusive care programs and less institutional care.

Changing Minds, Policies and Lives: Redirecting Resources to Community-Based Services

Andy Bilson, Louise Fox, Ragnar Gotestam, and Judith Harwin, 2003

Provides an overview of social service provision in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and provides information on ways to move resources away from institutional care, and into community-based social services. Contains specific examples from Latvia, Iceland, Sweden, Romania and other transitioning countries.

Russia Country Report

N/A, 2003

Country report of Russia on the situation of children in residential care in anticipation of the Second International Conference on Children and Residential Care: New Strategies for a New Millennium, to be held in Stockholm 12 – 15 May 2003.