This report provides data on children living in urban settings, including statistics, conditions, and personal testimonies. The report also includes UNICEF’s recommendations for policy regarding children in urban settings, working with this population, and for future action. Sections that are relevant to children’s care include: children living and working on the streets, migrant children, urban emergencies, and many more.

This document represents the agreements made at the Second International Conference on Children and Residential Care in Stockholm, Sweden, held from 12 to 15 May, 2003. The conference was sponsored by the Swedish Foreign Ministry and the Swedish International Development and Co-operation Agency (Sida). The document includes the principles and actions, regarding children and residential care, that were agreed upon by the participants at the conference.

This paper is a response to the increasing need for agreement on approaches and documented evidence of good practices consistent with system strengthening work. The purpose of the Inter-Agency Working Paper is to consolidate current thinking, examples and lessons learned about child protection system strengthening in sub-Saharan Africa and suggest a way forward.

This paper, written for a US audience, describes recent efforts to reduce child poverty by a peer country, Britain. Drawing on research carried out over the past decade, this paper summarizes what we know about Britain’s war on poverty, their likely next steps, and implications and lessons for the US.

A series of three videos on how early experiences are built into our bodies and brains.

The Essential Package (EP) is a comprehensive set of tools and guides for policy makers, program managers and service providers to address the unique needs and competencies of young children, particularly those affected or infected by HIV/AIDS, in an integrated and holistic way. The work that has been conducted to date encourages service providers to consider the holistic needs of children according to their ages and stage of development as well as cultural context and resources available within their community.

This 10-page newsletter, translated into English, is issue number two of a series produced by the “Protecting children of Moldova from family separation, violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation” project, which is implemented by Partnerships for Every Child, the Ministry of Labour, Social Protection and Family of Moldova, and the Ministry of Education of Moldova.

This newsletter, translated into English, is the first of three issues produced by the “Protecting children of Moldova from family separation, violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation” project, which is implemented by Partnerships for Every Child, the Ministry of Labour, Social Protection and Family of Moldova, and the Ministry of Education of Moldova.

Representatives from International Social Service, Save the Children, and SOS Children’s Villages met with the African Committee on Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child during its 21st session on 15 April, 2013 to present on the international Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (UNGA resolution A/RES/64/142) and its new implementation Handbook “Moving Forward.”

TransMonEE is a database that captures a vast range of data on social and economic issues relevant to the situation and wellbeing of children, adolescents and women in 28 countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States and the European Union. This document includes inter-country comparisons of data on several issues related to children’s care.

This data pack, produced by the Department for Education, aims to summarize national data about children who leave care aged 16 and over and outcomes of care leavers at age 19. The pack was also developed to help local authorities to compare their performance with others and to investigate issues such as age of leaving care and placement stability on the outcomes of care leavers.

This Charter lists the promises that care leavers want the central and local governments to make. The Charter for Care Leavers is designed to raise expectations, aspirations and understanding of what care leavers need and what the government and local authorities should do to be good “Corporate Parents.”

This report analyzes how a small sample of 12 children’s homes in England achieved and sustained outstanding status over a period of three years. The report describes and interprets what inspectors found to be the reasons for success in these outstanding homes and how the providers themselves explained the factors that contribute to outstanding care. The experience of the children and young people who live in these homes is also a key element of the report as it is, of course, the real hallmark of quality.

This informational note for action, produced by World Day of Prayer and Action for Children, aims to support religious communities and partners in promoting “positive parenting” and non-violent disciplining of children.

The purpose of this paper is to provide background information and offer pragmatic steps in relation to priority no. 3 of the European Declaration on the Health of Children and Young People with Intellectual Disabilities and their Families: “To transfer care from institutions to the community”. The paper was produced in preparation for the conference in Bucharest, Romania 26-27 November, 2010.

This document contains the UK National Minimum Standards (NMS) applicable to residential family centres.

This document contains the UK National Minimum Standards (NMS) applicable to the provision of adoption services.

Volume 2 of the Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations provides guidance, primarily addressed to local authorities and their staff in England, about their functions under Part 3 of the Children Act 1989 which concerns the provision of local authority support for children and families. In particular it describes how local authorities should carry out their responsibilities in relation to care planning, placement and case review for looked after children.

The Training, Support and Development (TSD) standards form part of a foster carer's induction into the role. They provide a national minimum benchmark that sets out what foster carers should know, understand and be able to do within the first 12-18 months after being approved.

This guide provides professionals in the UK with information about registering as a children’s social care provider. It helps those considering registration to decide whether to apply and what processes their applications will go through before a decision is made as to their suitability to be registered.

This graphic provides a visual representation of the causal framework of children’s institutionalization in Moldova. It was developed as part of the USAID/DCOF-funded project “Protecting children in Moldova from family separation, violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.”

This paper was submitted to the Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on Children affected by HIV and AIDS in June 2013. It presents findings from a study commissioned by the IATT.

This preliminary report analyzes the practice of foster care in Argentina. The material will be useful for the development of foster care services in the Latin American region, due to the fact that the situation of foster care in Argentina can be seen as a model of the current regional context.

This paper is based on The Latin American Report: The situation of children in Latin America without parental care or at risk of losing it. Contexts, causes and responses, which was prepared using reports from 13 countries in the region. The paper gives an overview of the state of one of the most fundamental rights - the right to parental care, a keystone for the right to live in a family and a community.

This paper, produced by RELAF, is part of a series of publications on children without parental care in Latin America: Contexts, causes and answers. This document, and others in the series, pertains to the broad topic of children without parental care and examines the particular situation of institutionalised children.

The main aims of this assessment were to identify and address problems in both the domestic and intercountry adoption processes, with a view to assisting Viet Nam in its preparations to accede to the 1993 Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption (THC-93); and to review the new draft law on adoption, and propose any amendments that may appear necessary to ensure compliance with international standards and good practice.

The 2013 KIDS COUNT Data Book provides a detailed picture of how children are faring in the United States. In addition to ranking states on overall child well-being, the Data Book ranks states in four domains: Economic Well-Being, Education, Health, and Family and Community.

General Comment 14, issued by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, refers to article 3, paragraph 1, of the Convention on the Rights of the Child that asserts the right of the child to have his or her best interests taken as primary consideration in all actions or decisions that concern him or her (in both the public and private spheres).

The USA-based National Child Traumatic Stress Network has recently released a second edition of the Child Welfare Trauma Training Toolkit, which is part of the Child Welfare Trauma Training course. The course assists those in the field of child welfare who wish to learn more about child welfare and trauma.

This paper provides details of research into the gatekeeping system in Bulgaria for children under three and examples from recent Bulgarian and international practice. It suggests that gatekeeping could benefit from a social development orientation including activities to combat poverty and promote social inclusion through supporting community and family strengths.

This paper presents a comprehensive literature review of evidence-based parenting programs from around the world. The report reviews published literature from 2000 to 2012 and summarizes empirically based recommendations for supporting and strengthening child-caregiver relationships in the context of AIDS and poverty.

Following three previous initiatives – the Road to Toronto, the Road to Vienna, and the Road to Washington, The Coalition for Children Affected by AIDS, with the cooperation and support of other UNICEF, UNAIDS and organizations, led the Road to Melbourne meeting in New York on May 30-31, 2013. The objective of the meeting was to influence funder and policy-maker priorities, and country-level practice for children affected by AIDS and their families.

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child as part of its examination during the sixty-third session (27 May-14 June 2013) of Israel’s second to fourth periodic reports to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as other care-related concluding observations, ratification dates, and links to the Universal Periodic Review and Hague Intercountry Adoption Country Profile.

This country care review includes the care-related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities during the seventeenth session (20 March 2017 - 12 April 2017) of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child as part of its examination during the sixty-third session (27 May-14 June 2013) of Guinea Bissau’s second through fourth periodic reports to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as other care-related concluding observations, ratification dates, and links to the Universal Periodic Review and Hague Intercountry Adoption Country Profile.

This article describes the historical background and current situation of the child welfare system for children without parental care in Poland.

This issue No. 3-4 is one in a newsletter series concerning care reform in Moldova. The magazine was produced by Partnerships for Every Child (P4EC), an NGO in Moldova, with funding from the project, “Protecting children in Moldova from family separation, violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.”

This paper presents an examination of the linkages between education and the deinstitutionalization of children in Azerbaijan. The paper explores the role of education in social policy and its interplay with economic policy; underlines the links needed between deinstitutionalization, inclusive education and alternative services; and examines how child protection can be understood in the context of inter-Ministerial responsibilities and coordination.

This study, published by the UNICEF Office of Research and Brooks World Poverty Institute, examines the direct, indirect, and implementation impacts of social transfers on child protection outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. The paper discusses the ways in which social transfers can promote the welfare of children by preventing violence, abuse, and exploitation of children and offers recommendations for future research, programming, and practice.

Oxford Policy Management has conducted two rounds of qualitative evaluations of three poverty-reduction and human development programmes run by the BOTA Foundation in Kazakhstan: the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Programme, the Social Services Programme and the Tuition Assistance Programme. Each report produced by Oxford Policy Management includes a description of the methodology and results of the fieldwork as well as conclusions and recommendations.

A short case study by the Open Society Foundations on preventing the separation of children with disabilities from their families.

This country care review includes the Concluding Observations for the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilites.

This country care review includes the Concluding Observations for the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities adopted as part of their examinations of Kuwait’s periodic reports.

This country care review includes the care-related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 

This country care review includes the Concluding Observations for the Committee on the Rights of the Child adopted as part of its examination of Monaco’s combined second and third periodic reports at the 64th Session of the Committee held between 16 September to 4 October 2013.

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Committee on the Right of the Child at their recent examinations of the State's report.

This country care review includes the Concluding Observations for the Committee on the Rights of the Child adopted as part of its examination of Sao Tome's combined second to fourth periodic reports at the 64th Session of the Committee held between 16 September to 4 October 2013.

This country care review includes the Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

This report  by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) analyzes children’s right to live and be raised by their families, and establishes the resulting obligations for States when it comes to supporting and strengthening families’ ability to raise and care for their children.

The Program P Manual is a resource developed as part of the global MenCare campaign that identifies best practices on engaging men in maternal and child health, caregiving, and preventing violence against women and children, through the lens of gender equality. Though the main focus of Program P is to engage men via the public health sector, the manual also provides tools and resources for individuals and organizations that want to work more generally with men as caregivers and fathers.

Through participatory information gathering tools, War Child Holland implemented a Child Right Situation Analysis to discuss and analyze the issues identified by Syrian children as the most important to them.

A report examining the experiences and attitudes of men involved in non-traditional care activities and roles in Brazil, Chile, India, Mexico, and South Africa.

This study examines the prevalence of maternal and paternal spanking of children at 3 and 5 years of age and the associations between spanking and children's externalizing behavior and receptive vocabulary through age 9.

This article investigates effectiveness of parenting interventions on reducing harsh and harmful parenting practices in low-to-middle income countries.

The Global Survey on Violence against Children, conducted under the auspices of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence against Children, examines the measures in place around the world to ensure follow-up to the recommendations set out in the 2006 UN Study on Violence against Children.

This report summarizes the findings of a study on parental and alternative childcare in Luang Prabang and Xayabury provinces in Northern Lao People’s Democratic Republic.

This comprehensive report by the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children analyses data regarding progress toward eliminating corporal punishment amongst all states party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

This country care review includes the Concluding Observations for the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

A report on the evidence of children’s wellbeing relating economic strengthening programs and the need for expanded monitoring and evaluations.

This excellent article explains the process through which indicators of family care for (child) development were drafted and tested in several countries.

This report summarises the presentations and conclusions from the 2nd Pan-African annual conference on parenting held on the 16-17th October 2013 in Malawi on the theme of "Understanding realities of teenage parenting: a special focus on adolescents (boys and girls) with parenting responsibilities."

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as part of its examination of El Salvador's initial reports, as well as other care-related concluding observations, ratification dates, and links to the Universal Periodic Review and Hague Intercountry Adoption Country Profile.

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as part of its examination of Paraguay's initial report adopted by the Committee at its ninth session, as well as other care-related concluding observations, ratification dates, and links to the Universal Periodic Review and Hague Intercountry Adoption Country Profile.

This article reviews a new book by Charles A. Nelson, Nathan A. Fox and Charles H. Zeanah who conducted seminal studies in Romania on children who were institutionalised, comparing their developmental and well-being outcomes to children who were placed in foster care or adoptive families.

The UN Commission for Social Development (CSocD) held its 52nd session in New York on the 11-21 February 2014. As part of its mandate, it held discussions in observance of the 20th Anniversary of the International Year of the Family and drafted a resolution to be adopted by the UN Economic and Social Council.

This moving short film (7 mins) produced by MenCare examines the circumstance of one man who found himself as the primary caregiver to his children when his female partner moved abroad for work.

The discussion paper provides an overview of existing definitions of formal care within the UN Guidelines and a summary of the basic characteristics identified for each, together with explanations for the proposed characteristics.

This policy brief reviews the legal framework for foster care in India, including an analysis of the current provisions of foster care along with the rules and schemes on foster care framed by states in India, with a focus on Delhi and Goa.

A report by Save the Children examining the role and extent of kinship care in West Central Africa, as well as looking into program and policy implications and gaps in advocacy.

This Kinship Care Album was produced as part of a regional participatory research initiative undertaken by Save the Children to build knowledge on endogenous care practices within families and communities, especially informal kinship care. The Album is a compilation of documentation by children who participated in the research, including resource maps, body maps, photos of focus group discussions and observations by child researchers, pictures and letters from children highlighting their experiences of living in kinship care, their views and recommendations about life in kinship care.

This paper discusses the challenges of reforming the child welfare and protection systems in Hungary and Romania -two countries in transition from socialism to capitalism- and the impact on children, young people, families, and professionals. The focus is on the efforts made to deinstitutionalise children from large institutions, develop local prevention services, and develop alternatives to institutional care.

The article reviews the historical development of out-of-home care in Italy and Spain and compares foster family and residential care, as well as the main research contributions to these topics in both countries.

This article focuses on the structural similarities and dissimilarities that exist between child protection systems in France and Switzerland, as exemplified by the evolutions of the last decade.

This article reviews the history and development of out-of-home care services in Germany and the Netherlands comparing trends and numbers.

This article provides an overview of the current situation in the out-of-home care in Norway and Sweden. Development in later years is described and discussed, including the trends towards privatization of the welfare system in both countries and the role of private, commercial actors within the care sector including out-of-home care for children and young people.

There has been a significant growth in the use of formal kinship care in the UK and Ireland in the last 20 years. The paper charts some of the reasons for the 'organic growth' of kinship care and the multiple dynamics that have shaped this.

This article provides an outline of the early development of care and protection in Australia and New Zealand as a backdrop to an overview of child protection systems and policies and the current child protection profile in both countries. An overview of trends in relation to out of home care, including routes into care, care arrangements and permanency policies is provided.

This paper provides overview of the US and Canada in-care system, noting certain differences and similarities between the two systems. Estimates of the number of children in care in Canada and data on children in the US foster care systems is also provided.

This article closes a special edition focused on the state of child protection in 16 countries chosen to represent very different cultural contexts, historical backgrounds, and social welfare systems with special attention to out-of-home care placements, principally family foster care and residential care, though several aspects related to adoption were included as well.

The objective of this study was to investigate which model of care and support is more appropriate for improving psychosocial and economic security of AIDS orphans in Nepal.

For this study conducted in and near Kampala, Uganda, 518 youth (8 to 18 years old) and their caregivers were interviewed individually, examining the association between relatedness and perceived food and work equity, and school attendance.

This powerful chart illustrates preliminary research findings using data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in 5 African countries (Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Uganda and Zimbabwe) to better understand how orphan status affects the school attendance of children in Africa and the extent to which living in kinship care can act as a protective factor in this context.

This systematic review published by the Campbell Collaboration reviewed controlled experimental and quasi experimental studies in which children removed from the home for maltreatment and subsequently placed in kinship care were compared with children placed in non-kinship foster care for child welfare outcomes in the domains of well-being, permanency, or safety.

This Handbook aims to provide guidance for Save the Children staff, NGO partners, Community Child Protection Groups and community volunteers in Myanmar in protecting the welfare of children living with extended family members.

This comprehensive policy report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation summarizes what is known about kinship care in the United States, identifies the problems and issues these families face, and recommends how best to support caregivers as they step up to take responsibility for children in their extended families and communities.

This position statement by Save the Children highlights the central place of families in numerous international legal instruments and how the concept has been understood. It also clarifies its own understanding of families and reviews key provisions under international law regarding their crucial role and responsibilities, and that of States towards them.

This important report documents a 22-month longitudinal study of the reintegration of children in residential care in Moldova.

This webinar presentation by Professor Marie Connolly of the University of Melbourne introduces the history and background of Family Group Conference (FGC) in New Zealand and Australia and discusses the influence of FGC on the development of formal or statutory kinship care in the region.

In this presentation Professor Connolly reviews recent trends in the use of kinship care in Australia and discusses what this shift means in the context of the ‘residual’ model of child protection used in the country.

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child as part of its examination of the fourth periodic report of Yemen under the Convention on the Rights of the Child at its sixty-fifth Session (13 Jan 2014 - 31 Jan 2014).

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child as part of its examination of the combined second to fourth periodic report of the Congo under Convention on the Rights of the Child at its sixty-fifth Session (13 Jan 2014 - 31 Jan 2014).

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child as part of its examination of the second periodic report of the Holy See under Convention on the Rights of the Child at its sixty-fifth Session (13 Jan 2014 - 31 Jan 2014).

This leaflet is a mapping of Save the children’s role and work in promoting the engagement of fathers. It presents some of the evidence of the benefits of involving fathers and some of the strategies used by the organization and others.

This narrated interactive feature presents a logic model showing how policies and programs that strengthen specific kinds of caregiver and community capacities can build the foundations of healthy development.