This technical brief examines how the meaningful participation of children and young people with lived experience (PWLE) in alternative care can strengthen child protection systems, improve service quality, and influence policy reform. It presents international examples from Ireland, Scotland, the United Kingdom, Moldova, Kenya, Romania, Albania, and the United States, illustrating how children and care leavers contribute to individual case planning, service design, regulatory monitoring, advocacy, and national care reform.

This chapter examines the effectiveness of Zimbabwe’s National Case Management System in protecting the rights and meeting the needs of children in street situations in Harare. It identifies key challenges—including limited resources, weak coordination, stigma, and gaps in social protection integration—and calls for reforms to strengthen child participation, staffing, funding, and trauma-informed, rights-based support.

Over three years, MJF Global partnered with Child’s i Foundation to strengthen foster care and family-based care systems in Uganda. This report explores the impact, challenges and lessons that emerged from the partnership, highlighting Child’s i’s community-led approach to family strengthening, foster care, reunification and collaboration with government systems.

This article describes how the Government of Zimbabwe has intensified measures to support the reintegration of returning Zimbabweans.

This article highlights key lessons from Ethiopia’s decades of experience in alternative care, emphasizing that strengthening families and preventing unnecessary separation should be at the center of child protection efforts.

This UNICEF article describes how in Musenyi, Burundi, a project implemented by Save the Children, with support from UNICEF and funding from the Global Humanitarian Fund, provides protection, care, and hope to Congolese refugee children sepa

This investigative documentary by Africa Uncensored uncovers the disturbing reality inside Ebenezer Children's Home in Kajiado, Kenya. Through exclusive whistleblower testimonies and secret audio recordings, it exposes allegations of systemic sexual abuse and exploitation within a facility meant to be a sanctuary for vulnerable children.

Through a brief history of both domestic and intercountry adoption practice, as well as case studies of intercountry adoption abuses in Guatemala, Cambodia, Uganda, and Kenya, this article demonstrates the problems that have resulted from intercountry adoption and the challenges they have posed for the social work profession.

This article examines the growing concerns around child-headed households in Zambia as disruptions to HIV treatment access leave some parents unable to continue receiving life-saving medication.

This qualitative study examines the perspectives of community duty bearers on protecting orphans and vulnerable children from sexual abuse in Bikita District, Zimbabwe. It explores perceived drivers of abuse, existing protection strategies, and the role of collective community responsibility in safeguarding children.