On 21st September 2023, the Governments of Canada and Zambia, in partnership with UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage and the Child Marriage Monitoring Mechanism, hosted a High-Level Side Event during the Seventy-Eighth Session of the United Nations General Assembly. The event was titled 'Charting Brighter Futures: Utilizing Data for Accelerated Action to End Child Marriage and Achieve SDG 5.3'.

The study's main themes were establishing the need for residential homes for children (RHCs), RHCs not being an ideal family environment and RHCs as respite. Family marital problems, poor financial situation, stigma attached to some children in care, abusive parents and a lack of suitable alternatives when families have a crisis were identified as key factors that impede DI implementation in Ghana.

The government of Kenya has been working with UNICEF, Changing the Way We Care, Charitable Children's Institutions and local CSOs to pilot care reform at the county level. Learning from these demonstration counties is being used to shape care reform in other counties and at the national level. This video explores care reform in one demonstration county, Kisumu.

This is the monthly update of the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Learning Platform published in September 2023. 

The climate crisis is already changing girls’ lives and futures. Girls across Africa are facing growing challenges as the climate crisis increasingly impacts the continent, leading to a range of extreme weather patterns. In southern parts of Africa, girls are enduring devastating cyclones and floods. Meanwhile, the Sahel, Eastern, and Horn of Africa regions - home to the highest rates of child marriage - are grappling with severe droughts. Climate-induced migration is also on the rise in Western, Southern, and Central Africa.

This is the monthly update of the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Learning Platform published in July 2023. 

This regional portrait describes Catholic-sponsored care for children in Eastern Africa using data from Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia. The first large study of its kind, it focuses on children who are particularly vulnerable—those at risk of or those who have been separated from their families. Many are in institutional care. This portrait also describes growing efforts, led by women and men religious, to ensure children can grow up in safe, nurturing families or family-like environments rather than institutions.

In this course you will learn from Ekisa Ministries, a nonprofit organization located in Jinja, Uganda, that has been working with children with disabilities for over a decade. The hope is that you will finish this course with an understanding of what it may look like for your organization to incorporate children with disabilities and help them find their way home.

This case study details the experience of Attim, a 54-year-old grandmother from Eastern Uganda who provides care for her grandchildren after they left residential care. Social workers in Uganda often find that placement with extended family members is the most appropriate option for children leaving residential care. 

This case study tracks the impact of family support services to a Ugandan mother and her family during the COVID-19 pandemic in an effort to prevent family separation.