This report is the result of a seminar held in Kazakhstan 2004. It focuses on social welfare sector reform, and includes topics such as expanding legislative agendas and financing frameworks, as well as gate keeping. Case studies of reform processes from Romania, Tajikistan and Serbia are discussed. Includes conference agenda.

Contains practical tools and policy guidance for family and child welfare policy makers and practitioners. Relevant topics include gatekeeping, redirecting resources into preventive and family based services, and standards of care.

Research study of the current social security provisions for orphans in South Africa, with a comparison of four alternative cash grant scenarios. Recommends a universal income support system for all children in need.

A paper discussing the shortcomings of systems in which separated children are placed into residential/ institutional forms of care. It also considers community-based and some other forms of care as alternative approaches to preventing unnecessary separation of children from their families.

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.

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.

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.

Discusses approaches to protecting at-risk children in five Asian countries. Identifies programming and policy measures that effectively address child abuse. Emphasis on committing all levels of society to coordinated practical response.

This paper examines the negative impact of institutional care in central eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltics region. It promotes community-based care alternatives and provides statistics. It also includes a list of useful resources addressing orphaned and vulnerable children.

Discussion of the cost of care and support for children affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa, with a recommendation for the combined use of state based interventions and community based solutions.