Discusses the psychosocial impacts of unstable situations on children and their families, with an emphasis on child development. Includes UNICEF’s position on policy and programming principles as well as strategies to address the psychosocial needs of children, families, and communities.

Outlines the psychosocial impacts of HIV/AIDS on children and suggests principles and activities to strengthen psychosocial support. Includes a brief list of follow-up resources.

Slide presentation focusing on the definition of orphans and vulnerable children. Includes a discussion of OVC, child vulnerability and the Millenium Development Goals.

A toolkit of good practices for involving children in consultation and policy processes. Includes an extensive guide to additional resources.

A guide designed to help incorporate child participation results into relevant projects. Includes current practices and lessons learned, sample project plans, and a list of suggested resources.

Provides an overview of social service provision in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and provides information on ways to move resources away from institutional care, and into community-based social services. Contains specific examples from Latvia, Iceland, Sweden, Romania and other transitioning countries.

Contains practical tools and policy guidance for family and child welfare policy makers and practitioners. Relevant topics include gatekeeping, redirecting resources into preventive and family based services, and standards of care.

A paper discussing the shortcomings of systems in which separated children are placed into residential/ institutional forms of care. It also considers community-based and some other forms of care as alternative approaches to preventing unnecessary separation of children from their families.

A statement, by UNICEF for the Stockholm Conference on Residential Care, which recommends a move away from institutional care for children and offers the ‘protective environment’ framework as a solution which encourages protective legislations and policies, public debate, government commitment and the need to listen to the children. The statement includes lessons learned about the issue of children without family care and recommendations for reform.

A paper in a series of papers that discusses the problems associated with changing social protection services and provides guidelines to aid countries restructure their financing systems for social care. The paper proposes more family-based and inclusive care programs and less institutional care.