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This report explores how gender-restrictive groups are using child protection rhetoric to manufacture moral panic and mobilize against human rights, and how this strengthens the illiberal politics currently undermining democracies. The report’s comparative analysis of three country case studies (Bulgaria, Ghana, and Perú) underscores recurring strategies, narratives, and actors and gives insight into how gender-restrictive groups collaborate and engage in coalitional work across the globe. This significant new research report includes important findings and recommendations for funders.
Highlights
UNICEF’s Europe and Central Asia Region (ECAR) is diverse and dynamic, comprising 23 countries which range from low- to high-income, contain among the world’s largest and smallest populations, and are in various stages of the demographic transition. Children, adolescents, and youths in the region face unique challenges that have the potential to derail their opportunities, including exposure to man-made and natural disasters, risks of poverty and deprivation, discrimination and marginalisation, lack of opportunities to attain appropriate skills and…
This research is based on a stock-taking of the current situation. It is based on a comprehensive literature review and a genuine primary research with service users as well as policy makers, service providers, children and families. The exercise aims to develop recommendations for the further development of the Bulgarian Child Protection System in its different components that provide child protection services, both in prevention and intervention.
Three themes are consistently pursued throughout the report, namely violence against children, children deprived of parental care and justice…
Abstract
This article describes a policy adoption case study about deinstitutionalization of childcare in Georgia since independence. It highlights the evolving and non-homogeneous nature of transnational agency in the area of childcare deinstitutionalization, and offers insights into the complex relationship between transnational agency and national policymaking. The analysis draws on national policy documents, reports of United Nations agencies, the European Union, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and non-governmental organizations that contributed to the…
This brief identifies the steps necessary to realize an integrated system of care, reviews two current approaches, and makes recommendations—including specifying policy reforms that would promote interagency collaboration, integration, service delivery, and improved outcomes for California’s children, both with and without disabilities. As a full commitment from the state administration is necessary to realize the proposed solutions at scale, this brief recommends the formation of a statewide interagency leadership council that has legitimacy, decision-making authority, and accountability…
This case study seeks to summarise the policy priorities of the four UK nations for care leavers, review outcomes for which data is publicly available, and discuss a number of areas where policy differences can be identified. The paper reviews legislative and policy frameworks in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland and compares outcomes data for care leavers across those four UK nations, highlighting policy differences. The paper ends with four main conclusions regarding care leaver policy in the four UK nations.
Abstract
Since the conceptions, norms, and values that govern the work of child protection are elusive, they are rarely discussed in the research. This study is based on diaries maintained by three social workers in relation to 15 families that were the subject of interventions by the child protective services in Sweden. All of the mothers in the 15 families had been diagnosed with mental health problems. The diaries include both signifcant events within the families and the social workers’ own feelings and perceptions about their work. This article discusses four themes: the Janus face of…
Reform is necessary in [the U.S. state of] Minnesota to address both the statutory and procedural barriers that impede relatives from being licensed as foster care providers. This article tracks the history of foster care licensing requirements in Minnesota, discusses the real-life story of a grandmother with a grandchild placed in foster care, explains the federal mandates established through the Adam Walsh Act, discusses the existing flaws in the process, and highlights the ways in which Minnesota’s current statutory scheme and processes disproportionally impact communities of…
On Wednesday, May 29, 2019 Princeton University and the Brookings Institution released the latest volume of “The Future of Children”—a journal that promotes effective, evidence-based policies and programs for children, along with a policy brief titled “Achieving Broad-Scale Impacts for Social Programs.” This volume, titled “Universal Approaches to Promoting Healthy Development,” explores universal social programs designed to serve entire…
Abstract
To make a serious dent in the [US] social and health problems, the child welfare system— and others—must develop strategies that have broad impact on people and contexts. That is, they must seek to make a difference at the level of entire populations, rather than targeting only the individuals and families at highest risk. In this brief from Universal Approaches to Promoting Healthy Development, Ron Haskins,…