Nearly 60,000 children across Central Asia are growing up in residential care facilities, separated from families

GENEVA, 15 August 2024 – Despite the well-known and devastating impact of family separation and child institutionalization, nearly 60,000 children aged 0-17 years across five countries in Central Asia remain in residential care facilities, according to a new policy brief published today by UNICEF.

“We know that the impact of institutionalization on children is severe and can last a lifetime, making greater investments in family support services essential,” said Regina De Dominicis, UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia.

“We have seen progress in recent years in reducing the number of children in alternative care – including the closure of institutions. We must continue this work so that no child is ever placed in alternative care because of poverty, disability or challenging behaviour, or because their family lacks access to services they need to care for their own child at home.”

Keeping families together in Central Asia finds that an estimated 203 children for every 100,000 children live in residential care across Central Asia – almost double the global average of 105 per 100,000.

Despite progress made in reducing the overall number of children in institutions across Central Asia, children with disabilities are over-represented in residential care facilities. In all countries in Central Asia except for Kazakhstan, the share of children with disabilities in residential care increased between 2015 and 2021, demonstrating deep-rooted social norms and limited community-based services for children with disabilities.

The rate of children in residential care can reflect the strength of a country’s child protection system, with a higher rate signalling a system that is failing to keep families together, the policy brief notes.

Children in institutions are deprived of the social, emotional and intellectual stimulation that is critical for the healthy development of their brains. Shut away from mainstream society, children in institutions are vulnerable to violence, neglect and abuse.

UNICEF proposes seven policy recommendations to facilitate the closure of large-scale institutions and transition to family-based alternatives to institutional care in Central Asia:

1. Implementation of effective childcare reforms to keep children with their families where possible, including planning for the closure of large-scale institutions and developing a comprehensive continuum of child and family support and protection services.
2. Investment in a range of child and family support services, including statutory family support services, and a strong social service workforce, for the early identification of, and intervention in, situations when children are at risk of separation.
3. Securing alternative care that is family based including stronger support for extended family members who care for children and strategies to keep siblings together where possible.
4. Protecting children who are already in alternative care against violence, neglect and abuse through robust safeguarding policies and practices.
5. Investing in more and better data on children who are at risk of family separation, in alternative care or who have left care.
6. Raising public awareness of the benefits of keeping families together and the urgent need to prioritize family-based care.
7. Ensuring that children have a voice in the decisions that affect them and are consulted when new policies and practices are developed to meet their needs and rights.

UNICEF works with governments and partners across Central Asia to help keep families together and support family- and community-based care. This includes developing and implementing deinstitutionalisation policies and programmes, scaling up protection and family support services to prevent children being separated from their families, promoting family- and community-based care and family reunification and reintegration and safe transition to independent life.

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Notes to editors:

Alternative care data from the TransMonEE database was analysed from five countries in Central Asia.