Putting children at the heart of care

This year, as the world marks the UN International Day of Care and Support (29 October), UNICEF Innocenti is proud to announce a new research initiative aimed at advancing evidence, innovation, and policy solutions for children in need of care.

Care is the cornerstone of child development and well-being. Around the world, millions of children depend on the love, attention, and stability that family life and community environments can provide. Yet for too many, this foundation is missing.

In every region, children continue to be separated from their families due to poverty, family dysfunction, conflict, disability, or social exclusion. Many end up in institutional settings. Years of international research has shown that growing up in an institution can severely harm children’s physical and cognitive development. It also exposes them to a higher risk of abuse and neglect. Moving children from institutional care to family-based arrangements is now widely understood to be essential for child protection and well-being. While there is growing global consensus that children belong in safe, nurturing family environments, countries continue to grapple with how to make this a reality.

A Global Effort to Strengthen Children’s Care Reform

The project, Evidence for Strengthening Family-Based Alternative Care for Children, seeks to review existing evidence and identify critical evidence gaps on what works to help children grow up in families rather than institutions—particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where care systems are often under-resourced and fragmented.

Supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) as part of its Global Campaign on Children’s Care Reform, this much-needed research initiative will generate and synthesize knowledge to guide policymakers and practitioners in building better, more inclusive systems of care, and identify a prioritised agenda for future research investment.

In collaboration with leading partners—including Child Frontiers, the Center for Evidence and Implementation, and Johns Hopkins University—UNICEF Innocenti will blend rigorous evidence synthesis with participatory, forward-looking research methods.

Why Now? The Urgent Need for Change

The movement for care reform has gained momentum in recent years. Governments, civil society organizations, and young people with lived experience are calling for transitions away from institutions toward family-based and community-based alternatives, including kinship care, foster care, and supported independent living for adolescents leaving care.

However, progress is uneven. Policymakers and practitioners often lack reliable data and tested models to design reforms that are both effective and sustainable. While care reform efforts should be cross-sectoral, the evidence supporting them remains scattered across disciplines—social policy, child protection, and justice sectors—making it difficult to translate knowledge into actionable guidance, particularly in the context of LMICs.

Moreover, the voices of those most affected—children, families, and caregivers—are too often missing from policy debates. UNICEF’s new research initiative seeks to change that.

Aligning With a Global Movement for Change

UNICEF’s initiative will support the FCDO’s Global Care Reform campaign, which champions family- and community-based alternatives to institutions worldwide. By generating cutting-edge knowledge and practical tools, this research will directly support FCDO’s aim to promote reforms that strengthen families, protect children’s rights, and transform how societies think about and act to improve children’s care.

At its core, the project is about putting evidence behind the vision that every child should grow up in a safe, stable, and loving family environment—a vision grounded in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Guidelines for Alternative Care.

Components of the Research Project

The project combines a global evidence review with country-level research in three diverse LMIC contexts. It will:

• Map the current global evidence on family-based care systems, identifying key policy models, promising cutting-edge practices, and critical gaps in both care reform systems and the wider policy contexts  in which they operate;
• Conduct country-level analyses to understand how different national contexts shape the delivery of family-based care in LMICs;
• Gather lived experiences through focus groups and participatory research with children, young people, and caregivers to ensure their perspectives inform care reform strategies; and
• Examine the political economy of reforms to unpack how power dynamics, governance, and financing influence national care reforms.
• Integrate a foresight component to explore how global megatrends—such as demographic change, digital transformation, and climate impacts—will shape the future of care systems

Together, these components will provide an evidence-based picture of what drives or hinders sustainable care reform—and how countries can respond in ways that are equitable and child-centred.  It will provide the foundations for a new research agenda to address gaps, and support governments, donor partners and civil society to collaborate in taking forward evidence-informed reforms.

Through this new initiative, UNICEF and its partners aim to bring visibility to what has too often remained invisible: the experiences of children living without family care, the resilience of caregivers and communities, and the practical solutions that can turn evidence into action.

The results will help shape a new global framework for family-based alternative care—one that recognizes care as both a human right and a shared social responsibility.

As we celebrate this UN International Day of Care and Support, UNICEF reaffirms its commitment to reimagining care systems that truly put children first. Because when we invest in care, we invest in every child’s right to grow, belong, and be nurtured.