Save the Children has released a policy brief outlining its position on the institutional care of children.

The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) held its twenty-second Ordinary Session from 4-8 November 2013 and issued its first General Comment on the African Charter regarding the rights and welfare of children of incarcerated and imprisoned parents and primary caregivers.

This report highlights the needs of children without adequate family care, the impact inadequate care on children and society, and why family care is important. In this report, Family for Every Child also issues several recommendations for those in all sectors of society and an example of care reform from Brazil. 

This report features the results of, and recommendations based on, a study conducted in Rwanda which investigates the links between the cash transfer program “Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme (VUP),” child well-being, and children’s care and family reunification.

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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 the first periodic report of Azerbaijan under Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at its 125th and 126th meetings, held on 1 and 2 April 2014, respectively.

Practical guidance, case examples, and tools to assess, monitor, and evaluate child protection services and facilitate reform away from institutionalization of children.

This paper analyses the financial costs of residential services as compared to community-based services in Moldova. It also addresses the negative effects of institutional care on the well-being of children and society as a whole.

A brief fact sheet on the multilevel support needs of children without parental care. Includes a brief section on statistical data and examples of UNICEF action in several countries around the world.

Examines the planning, coordination, and early implementation of UNICEF’s programme to demobilize and reintegrate war-affected youth in the context of Afghanistan’s reconstruction process.

Concise guide designed to aid the implementation of best practice principles concerning the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of child soldiers. Includes a risk-analysis matrix and a results-based grid for programme proposal evaluations.

Examines the impact of war on gender relations. Discusses the role of gender relations in creating conflict.

A situation analysis of laws, policies, and structures relevant to child protection in Sri Lanka, and a set of recommendations for improving the alternative care system.

A short 2-page fact sheet on how to evaluate the suitability of a family that wishes to adopt a child.

The impact of pensions on the lives of older people and grandchildren in the KwaWazee project in Tanzania’s Kagera region.

A qualitative study of children living with grandmothers in the Nshamba area of northwestern Tanzania

The purpose of this report is to create a strategy for assessing the status and progress of child welfare reform in CEE/CIS countries using the best available quantitative and qualitative information.

Project Evaluation Report for UNICEF Moldova

Comprehensive evaluation of national responses and level of care standards for children without parental care in Indonesia.

Summary of past successes and future priorities in responding to children affected by HIV and AIDS

Assesses constraints and opportunities for social protection programming regionally with particular consideration for child sensitive social protection.

Guidance and preconditions on use of Best Interests Determination for unaccompanied and separated children

Promotes and provides inter-agency information management tools for a coordinated approach to child protection particularly in regards to separated children, children associated with armed groups and forces and other especially vulnerable children.

Assessment of individual African government's performance in regards to child welfare.

This report presents the findings of an assessment conducted between 8 July and 22 August 2006 that gathered and analyzed information on inter-country adoption to support strengthening Liberia’s adoption laws and develop operating guidelines for adoption agencies.

Evaluates the need for reform within Nepal's intercountry adoption programming and the broader needs within the child protection and alternative care arenas nationally.

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.