This article offers an extensive theoretical and analytical interrogation of dominant trafficking discourses, with particular emphasis on Ghana, Nigeria, and the wider West African sub-region. It argues that prevailing global and national anti-trafficking frameworks often obscure children’s agency, misrecognise culturally embedded practices such as fostering and labour migration, and produce unintended harms through criminalisation and rescue-oriented interventions.

This study reviews existing research on the challenges faced by orphans in Jammu and Kashmir, India, highlighting that while some children remain with extended family, others are placed in orphanages when relatives cannot provide care. The review finds that orphans in the region face multiple social, economic, psychological, and health challenges throughout their lives.

This article explores the process of deinstitutionalization as a central challenge of contemporary social policy in Europe, with a special focus on Poland as an example of good practices for Ibero-American countries. The Polish case shows that implementing DI requires coordinated strategies, investment in human capital, digitalization, and multi-sectoral cooperation.

This scoping review of 38 studies examines how narrative therapy is used with children and adolescents in foster care and finds that these young people often lack a sense of control and clear understanding of their life stories. It highlights therapeutic approaches such as externalization, re-authoring, and life story work as promising tools for strengthening identity and well-being, while noting the limited number of rigorously evaluated interventions for this population.

The New Zealand National Care Standards (NCS) Regulations came into effect in 2019, and set out the minimum standard of care that must be provided when the state has custody of a child. This is Oranga Tamariki's fifth report on compliance with the NCS Regulations. It finds that children and youth are still not receiving the minimum standard of care required by the NCS Regulations.

This paper explores the issue of child trafficking in Odisha, India, with a particular focus on the heightened vulnerability of children in tribal regions and the legal measures implemented to prevent trafficking and protect victims during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

This Working Paper outlines the complex ways in which displacement affects girls’ access to justice, and how these are often overlooked. It places special emphasis on the achievement of SDG16.2: 'put an end to abuse, exploitation, trafficking, and all forms of violence and torture against children', and SDG16.7: ‘ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels, ’ located in the context of the 70 Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women’s priority theme of ‘ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls. ’

This paper highlights the importance of supporting refugee parents through targeted parenting interventions to promote the well-being and resilience of children and adolescents in refugee settings. It finds that comprehensive, group-based, and longer-term programs, combined with support for basic needs, can strengthen parenting practices, though more research is needed on their cultural relevance and long-term impact.

This evaluation of Save the Children Finland’s Child-Sensitive Social Protection (CSSP) programme (2022–2025) found that it improved access to social protection, strengthened government systems, and supported better parenting practices across six countries in Africa and Asia. The programme showed strong results—especially through its parenting component, which improved caregiver engagement and child development outcomes—while highlighting the need for greater government ownership to sustain long-term impact.

This literature review compares the child protection systems of Seychelles, Ghana, Kenya, and Sierra Leone with a shared colonial history under Britain to identify similarities and differences and to understand the implications of the operating child protection system on child protection social workers. Based on the findings, the paper argues for a system that empowers child protection social workers to work with discretion in the child's best interest rather than within a restrictive, controlled system.