This background paper and individual country briefs were commissioned to examine the current status of family support services and alternative care in 18 sub-Saharan Francophone, four Anglophone and two Lusophone African countries (a total of 22 countries). This background paper represents a comparative regional analysis, providing an overview of the current situation and illustrating promising practices, opportunities and challenges.

This Resource Guide aims to be a user-friendly and manageable document designed to provide an overview of the current system strengthening approaches, along with a series of resources and tools available to support systems strengthening in child protection.

Joint statement by the Consortium for Street Children to the African Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child on Day of African Child Theme: All Together for Street Children

The following recommendations were made to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in relation to children without appropriate care.

This study analyzed the current social protection environment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and examined the “vulnerabilities and risks facing children living in poverty in Kinshasa, Bas Congo and Katanga provinces.” 

Cette première étude réalisée à Pointe-Noire porte sur une analyse de la population rencontrée par le Samu social Pointe-Noire, basée sur des caractéristiques socio-démographiques, les modalités de vie dans la rue et les causes de départ du milieu de vie familial. Elle s’inscrit dans un objectif de recherche-action dans le domaine de la lutte contre l’exclusion sociale des enfants des rues à Pointe-Noire.

The Minimum Package is a guide to encourage the harmonizing of service delivery for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children and Youth (OVCY) across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

This Situation Analysis Report is one of a series of three documents: (1) Report on the Situation of Orphans and Vulnerable and Children and Youth in the SADC Region; (2) Conceptual Framework for Psychosocial Support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children and Youth in the SADC Region; and (3) Minimum Package of Services for Orphans and Vulnerable Children and Youth in the SADC Region. The Situation Analysis Report has informed the development of the PSS Framework and the Minimum Package of Services.

This article reviews the current discourse on what is being called a crisis of care for children, as well as literature on out-of-home/family care and its adverse impacts on child development. The article also describes an emerging “AIDS orphan tourism” and highlights its negative impacts.

This is the summary report on the research phase of a project looking at the needs of child-carers in four African countries; Nigeria, Uganda, Angola and Zimbabwe. The research consisted of a literature review and participatory child-led research in one site in each of the four countries.