Children Affected by Poverty and Social Exclusion

Around the world, poverty and social exclusion are driving factors behind the placement of children into alternative care.  Families give up their children because they are too poor to care for them, or they feel that it is the best way to help them to access basic services such as education and health care. Discrimination and cultural taboos mean that girls, children with disabilities, ethnic minorities, children with HIV/AIDS and children born out of wedlock, make up a disproportionate number of children abandoned into alternative care.

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Elizabeth Jones, Leslie Gutman, and Lucinda Platt ,

This new study from the Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre, an independent research center with funding from the United Kingdom Department for Education, identifies which family stress factors and parental behaviors are associated with positive and negative outcomes for children at the age of 7 and whether stressful life events experienced in childhood are associated with negative outcomes in adolescence.

Kids Count Data Center ,

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.

The World Bank - Africa Social Protection Policy Briefs ,

This policy brief from the World Bank provides an overview of cash transfers in African countries.

UNICEF Cambodia,

This paper from UNICEF presents a profile of children  in Cambodia, paying particular attention to those who are left behind in different spheres - education, health and nutrition, and protection - against the backdrop of society’s prevalent inequality.

Andy West & Emily Delap ,

The lack of care and protection facing children is a global crisis with billions of children experiencing abuse, neglect or exploitation, and many millions growing up outside of families, on the streets or in harmful institutional care. This lack of adequate care and protection is commonly the result of inequalities. Children without adequate care and protection are stigmatized and have inequitable access to basic services which, severely diminishes life chances and creates a spiral of disadvantage. In order to break this spiral, the authors of this report recommend a three-pronged strategy.

Dr. Andy West and Emily Delap,

The lack of care and protection facing children is a global crisis. This paper is part of an inter-agency series originally developed to feed into the global thematic consultation for the post MDG framework: ‘Addressing Inequalities. The Heart of the Post-2015 Development Agenda and the Future We Want for All.’ It looks at the relationship between this lack of care and protection and inequality. It explores how inadequate care and protection produces and contributes to inequalities and how inequality is itself a cause of inadequate care and protection. The paper also examines the long-lasting impact of inadequate care and protection which greatly affects children’s life chances into adulthood, suggesting that inadequate care and protection is in itself a form of inequity.

Save the Children UK and UNICEF,

Research was conducted in five Rift Valley towns in Kenya in 2011 to understand the link between emergencies and the perceived increase of children joining the streets. Findings show that emergencies such as Post Election Violence and drought have caused children to join the streets. By far the biggest reason for children joining the streets was food insecurity. The authors advocate for an urgent, large-scale response to place children currently connected to the streets in durable situations in tandem with a multi-sectorial development approach to tackle and address the root of the crisis.

Better Care Network,

The People’s Republic of China issued its third and fourth combined report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in June 2012. This extract of the report focuses on sections relevant to children's care and in particular those addressing Family Environment and Alternative Care

International Labor Organization ,

This International Labour Organization (ILO) document introduces a new international standard adopted in June 2012, the Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), that provides guidance to member States in building comprehensive social security systems and extending social security coverage by prioritizing the establishment of national floors of social protection accessible to all in need.

UNICEF,

As debates rage on austerity measures and social spending cuts, a new report reveals the extent of child poverty and child deprivation in the world’s advanced economies. Some 13 million children in the European Union (plus Norway and Iceland) lack basic items necessary for their development. Meanwhile, 30 million children – across 35 countries with developed economies – live in poverty.