This paper describes tradeoffs in child welfare policy in the United States and provides background on the latest trends in foster care practice to highlight areas most in need of rigorous evidence. These trends include efforts to prevent foster care on the demand side and to improve foster home recruitment on the supply side. With increasing data availability and a growing interest in evidence-based practices, there are opportunities for economic research to inform policies that protect vulnerable children.

In this video Simon Kanyembo, Director of Social Services at ACE Zambia, addresses the following questions: why child welfare organizations should prefer family-based care to institutional care and response to children who are abandoned or unable to be reintegrated.

In this video Chilala Shilimi Nyendwa, Manager of the Family Preservation and Empowerment Program for ACE Zambia, addresses the following questions: social stigma facing reintegrated children; ability of families to financially support their children and how organizations might respond when families cannot; and child safety outside of institutional care.

In this video Daisy Muzukutwa, Executive Director of ACE Zambia, addresses the following questions: financial viability of reintegration; future of institutional staff after the transition; and where to begin when considering a transition.

This is the second monthly update of the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Learning Platform published in April 2022. 

In this best practice article, the challenges faced by these children with disabilities and the potential for inclusion within the CCI are discussed based on the field action project intervention of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, with selected government CCIs. The article suggests a multi-pronged intervention approach for the Children with disability (CWD) at the levels of the individual CWD, peer group, CCI and the juvenile justice (JJ) System, which are together recognised as the stakeholders of an ‘inclusive ecosystem’. The article arrives at the ‘Inclusive Ecosystem Model of Rehabilitation’ by drawing from the individual–environment interaction model of disability.

This article identifies risks and vulnerabilities that child monks can face, including sexual abuse. It reflects on how aspects of entrusting young children to live as child monks do not necessarily fit with principles articulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNGA, 1989) and the United Nations Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (UNGA, 2009).

This new set of evidence-based parenting tips were developed in response to the war in Ukraine and focus on the prevention of child trafficking and child sexual violence.

Engaging with key stakeholders is an essential part of any transition and must be handled with tact and wisdom. Located in South Africa, the organization Beautiful Gate began its ministry to protect street children and later grew to provide residential programs for children in need. Yet, as they began to learn more about the needs of children in families, they decided to shift away from residential care and expand their services to include the families of the children they served. This case study summary explains how Beautiful Gate communicated these changes with donors.

This article explores the role resilience processes play in education and well-being outcomes for street-connected children. It draws on research and practice undertaken as part of the Building with Bamboo Programme (BwB) on resilience. BwB investigated the forms a resilience-based approach might usefully take in practice, the effect this has on promoting resilience in children, and how this resilience leads to improved outcomes in their lives.

In this editorial published in the special edition of the Global Studies of Childhood journal focused on separated childhoods in April 2022, the authors aim to create the space to gather and share new findings from around the world, especially evidence that centres on the voices of children and family members with lived experience of separation, and on the practical experiences of social service workforce who are key to providing adequate support to strengthen the capacity of families to remain together and to reunite safely.

The Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Learning Platform hosted a webinar on April 13, 2022, featuring a panel of people with lived experience in care.

Despite high risks en route and upon arrival, Rohingya movement to Malaysia continues. This snapshot focuses on the specific risks facing Rohingya women and children before leaving Myanmar or Bangladesh, during their journey, and upon arrival in Malaysia. MMC Asia has been conducting survey with Rohingya in Malaysia since January 2019 in order to better understand their migration experiences. This snapshot contributes to building a solid evidence base to inform targeted responses that improve protection for Rohingya refugees and inform advocacy efforts related to movements to Malaysia.

This Framework for Disability Mainstreaming in Parenting Resources is a tool to help organizations and practitioners to review existing parenting resources in terms of information and content gaps, limitations of instructional guidance, and at-home activities. The aim of the framework is to ensure parenting resources are inclusive of the needs of parents of children with disabilities ages 0 to 17 years.

The International Data Alliance for Children on the Move (IDAC) held this webinar on April 11, 2022, to discuss the need for concrete data and information crucially needed to support affected children inside and outside Ukraine. Representatives of countries directly affected by the Ukrainian crisis as well as key partners on the ground shared their insights.

This study looked at how well matched children in England are to their homes and the extent to which their participation, views, wishes and feelings are considered in the decision-making process. The study looked at a small group of children who have a very wide and diverse set of needs and who live in children’s homes that were visited by Ofsted inspectors in late 2019.

Typical large-group institutions for abandoned children or orphans are known to be bad for the development of children, but what about small-group care?

The report shows that, overall, although legislative changes have taken place in many Member States, national guardianship systems continue to face many challenges. The guardianship systems also still vary greatly across the EU.

This case study focuses on kinship care in the Kenya context. The purpose is to help practitioners better understand the practical implications of kinship and other forms of family-based alternative care and inform similar work in other contexts.

These two case studies focus on kinship care: one describes kinship care in the Kenya context and the other describes family-based alternative care in Guatemala, including kinship care. They are meant to help practitioners better understand the practical implications of kinship and other forms of family-based alternative care and inform similar work in other contexts. These case studies have been produced by Changing the Way We CareSM, a global initiative implemented by Catholic Relief Services and Maestral International, and other global, national and local partners working together to change the way we care for children around the world.