Missing: Children without parental care in international development policy

20 years on from the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), evidence suggests an alarming lack of progress in achieving children’s fundamental rights to grow up in a loving family environment.

Research, particularly from less developed regions, shows a substantial and growing number of children without parental care, with devastating impacts on children’s rights to survival, development, education, health, nutrition and freedom from abuse and exploitation. In recognition of this problem, child rights activists have campaigned for the 20th anniversary to coincide with the agreement of UN guidelines aimed at preventing family separation, and ensuring appropriate care for girls and boys who are without parental care. The full implementation of these guidelines is urgently needed as governments, and many of those working in international development, are not doing enough to address the pressing problem of children without parental care. EveryChild has made a strategic decision to focus all of its work on this vulnerable group. This paper draws on EveryChild’s programmes in 17 countries, and on an extensive literature review and consultations with over 400 children. It argues that in addition to urgent reform of child care systems, it is also essential that those working in fields such as social protection, juvenile justice, health and education recognise the importance of children without parental care. In short, children without parental care must be mainstreamed, rather than missing from the international development agenda. A failure do this will be another barrier to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and condemn a generation of children to a life of abuse and neglect without the support and protection of parents.