This presentation to the 2012 Sofia Conference by Kevin Browne, Institute of Work, Health, and Organizations (I-WHO), School of Community Health Services at the University of Nottingham, introduces the collective findings of his research studies on the harmful effects of institutionalization of young children and major causes of child abandonment in Europe and prevention methods.

This Kinship Care Album was produced as part of a regional participatory research initiative undertaken by Save the Children to build knowledge on endogenous care practices within families and communities, especially informal kinship care. The Album is a compilation of documentation by children who participated in the research, including resource maps, body maps, photos of focus group discussions and observations by child researchers, pictures and letters from children highlighting their experiences of living in kinship care, their views and recommendations about life in kinship care.

This Report from the international ministerial conference, held in Sofia, 21–22 November 2012, entitled 'Ending the placement of children under three in institutions: support nurturing families for all young children', brings together the presentations, political commitments and priority actions identified by the participants, including 20 governments from Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

This report summarizes the findings of a study on parental and alternative childcare in Luang Prabang and Xayabury provinces in Northern Lao People’s Democratic Republic.

The present study explored the changes resulting from the Teenage Mothers Project (TMP) in Eastern Uganda, a program that empowers unmarried teenage mothers to cope with the consequences of early pregnancy and motherhood, as well as factors that either enabled or inhibited these changes.

This study funded by Big Lottery and undertaken in partnership between the University of Bristol and Buttle UK, a grant-giving charity for vulnerable children, aims to fill gaps in understanding about the experiences of children living with kins, and in particular how children in informal kinship care view their situation.

This report provides a review of two projects: Building a Caring Environment for Children in Burundi (UNICEF), which addresses child care reform and New Generation (IRC) which addresses household economic strengthening and parenting skills. 

India submitted its third and fourth combined report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

Oxford Policy Management has conducted two rounds of qualitative evaluations of three poverty-reduction and human development programmes run by the BOTA Foundation in Kazakhstan: the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Programme, the Social Services Programme and the Tuition Assistance Programme. Each report produced by Oxford Policy Management includes a description of the methodology and results of the fieldwork as well as conclusions and recommendations.

This article describes the historical background and current situation of the child welfare system for children without parental care in Poland.