Child fostering is a widespread practice in Africa, whereby children are sent temporarily to another household to be raised by foster parents, while links with biological parents are not severed. In Senegal, about 14% of adults were fostered in their childhood. Using data from a nationally representative household survey conducted in Senegal in 2006-2007, the survey Pauvreté et Structure Familiale, this paper examines the outcomes for adults who have been fostered in their childhood, including children fostered to Koranic schools. It focuses its analysis on education, first employment and current employment as well as on marriage. In particular, this paper aims to see whether fostering strengthens network ties that are then further used to improve marriage and labor outcomes.
In the case of education, while fostering seems to have a positive impact on school enrolment, the impact of fostering was found to be no longer significant when the probability to complete primary school was examined. In terms of status in employment, fostering only had a limited impact but in the study of intermediary outcome, the practice increased the likelihood to find the first job through personal relations. This suggests that fostering may be used to expand one’s family and social network. In terms of marriage outcomes, men who had been fostered were more likely to marry earlier and to be in a polygamous marriage. For women, the impact of fostering was found to be more ambiguous; women fostered in their childhood married younger and had more children. Fostered women were also more likely to end up in a polygamous marriage.
The authors conclude that the long-term impacts of fostering are heterogeneous, depending on various reasons including the locations of fostering, host parents, fostering age and gender. However, fostering overall seems to have a rather positive impact both in improving human capital and marriage. The study suggests that being fostered expands one’s social network, which is put to good use for enrolment in school, finding a first job, and marriage. Nevertheless, fostering does not increase the likelihood of completing primary education and seems to have only a limited impact on labor outcomes beyond the first job.
©UNICEF, Paris School of Economics
