This article reviews the Evidence Summit on Protecting Children Outside of Family Care held in December 2011 in Washington DC. The Summit brought together more than 150 of the world’s leading advocates for children to examine the strength of the research evidence on existing programs and interventions, and most importantly to identify critical knowledge gaps and areas where more research is needed so that systems and programs designed to improve the overall health and well-being of these vulnerable children may be strengthened.
The Evidence Summit followed a Pre-Summit held in October 2011 where participants divided into four teams to review peer-reviewed and gray literature through the lens of four focal questions.
1) What systems are most effective in identifying and enumerating children outside of family care?
2) What are the most effective system to assess and address immediate needs of children outside of family care?
3) What systems are effective for sustainable long-term care and protection of children with a history of living outside of family care?
4) What systems demonstrate efficacy, effectiveness, and sustainability for monitoring children who are or were outside of family care and/or for evaluating the impact of the programs and systems intended to serve them?
Each of these focal questions teams was tasked with writing evidence synthesis papers which describe the current evidence based for policies, programs, and research related to assisting highly vulnerable children outside of family care in low and middle income countries.
The evidence reviews presented form a strong foundation to inform effective design and implementation of future assistance for vulnerable children. Furthermore, the team created the United States Government Action Plan on Children in Adversity: A Framework for U.S. Government International Assistance: 2012-2017. This is to promote coordinated, comprehensive, and effective assistance to prevent and respond to the needs children facing severe deprivation, exploitation, and danger over the next five years. The culmination of the Evidence Summit and the resulting Action Plan represent the formal recognition of a fundamental shift in how the needs of vulnerable children are viewed and addressed holistically in national policy.
©Valerie Maholmes, John D. Fluke, Richard D. Rinehart, and Gillian Huebner