This page contains documents and other resources related to children's care in Africa. Browse resources by region, country, or category. Resources related particularly to North Africa can also be found on the Middle East and North Africa page.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 2598
The Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN), together with the Government of Rwanda, UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO, and the Africa Early Childhood Network (AfECN), is hosting Investing in the Early Years: A Global
This qualitative case study in Arua City, Uganda, explores how parenting practices contribute to the persistence of street children, drawing on interviews with 30 street-connected children as well as parents and community leaders. Findings show that poverty, neglect, abuse, weak supervision, and family breakdown—combined with push factors like hunger and domestic violence and pull factors such as peer networks and perceived economic opportunity—drive children to the streets, underscoring the need for strengthened family support, community protection systems, and parental economic empowerment.
This article tells the story of Nigerian missionaries Olusola and Chinwe Stevens, who have spent three decades rescuing babies and young children in central Nigeria from harmful traditional beliefs that label them as “cursed” and sometimes lead to
This article reviews global evidence on the impacts of institutional care versus family-based alternatives and examines how these findings inform foster care reform in Ogun State, Nigeria. It synthesizes research from 2009–2025 to identify key developmental outcomes, implementation lessons, and policy priorities for transitioning away from institutional care.
In Kenya, young people’s experiences of residential care and life after leaving care highlight trade-offs between material support, emotional guidance, and personal freedom. The study emphasizes that family strengthening and individualized case management are crucial to support children reunifying with families and successfully transitioning out of residential care.
This article describes how, in Ghana, government officials report that more than 60,000 children are currently living and working on the streets of major urban centres, a situation described as a national emergency due to its links with deepening child poverty and multidimensional deprivation.
This article talks about how the Western Cape Department of Social Development in South Africa has launched a new Independent Living pilot programme aimed at supporting young adults as they exit alternative care after turning 18, addressing the ga
The piece argues that Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, is mishandling the growing crisis of street children by relying mainly on enforcement actions — such as rounding up boys seen begging or washing windscreens along busy roadways
The KUOW article explores a striking reduction in the number of children in southern Uganda who have lost a parent, dropping from nearly one in four in the early 2000s to just 6% by 2022, and links this trend to global HIV treatment efforts.
