On 14th December, Save the Children, Plan, World Vision, working with UNICEF, organized consultations with 124 children and young people in Capiz, Cebu, Iloilo, Leyte and East and West Samar to listen to their views about the humanitarian situation six weeks after the Typhoon, find out what their priorities are and ask for suggestions to improve the response.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted on the 18th December 2013 a resolution on Preparations for and observance of the twentieth anniversary of the International Year of the Family.

This book by Dr. Xiaoyuan Shang and Karen Fisher provides a comprehensive and clear picture of the situation of children who are orphaned or abandoned in China. It introduces the context and framework for the alternative care system and China’s welfare system as it applies to children, and provides a profile of orphans and of care arrangements, describing both the formal child welfare system and the informal care system, particularly kinship care.

This important study on foster care practices in India provides important insight into the history, approaches, challenges and opportunities facing the development of foster care services in the country, presenting a picture of foster care practices across nine Indian states.

This presentation to the 2012 Sofia Conference by Kevin Browne, Institute of Work, Health, and Organizations (I-WHO), School of Community Health Services at the University of Nottingham, introduces the collective findings of his research studies on the harmful effects of institutionalization of young children and major causes of child abandonment in Europe and prevention methods.

This presentation to the 2012 Sofia Conference by Paul Martin introduces family support mechanisms and services to better equip parents to care for their children.

This presentation to the 2012 Sofia Conference by Pauline Watts, Professional Officer for Health Visiting, Public Health Directorate, United Kingdom Department of Health, introduces key lessons learned in regards to preventing child abandonment by looking into intervention and support services available to children and families in the United Kingdom.

This Kinship Care Album was produced as part of a regional participatory research initiative undertaken by Save the Children to build knowledge on endogenous care practices within families and communities, especially informal kinship care. The Album is a compilation of documentation by children who participated in the research, including resource maps, body maps, photos of focus group discussions and observations by child researchers, pictures and letters from children highlighting their experiences of living in kinship care, their views and recommendations about life in kinship care.

This Report from the international ministerial conference, held in Sofia, 21–22 November 2012, entitled 'Ending the placement of children under three in institutions: support nurturing families for all young children', brings together the presentations, political commitments and priority actions identified by the participants, including 20 governments from Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

This report summarizes the findings of a study on parental and alternative childcare in Luang Prabang and Xayabury provinces in Northern Lao People’s Democratic Republic.