Every child growing-up in a safe and loving family: Time for a radical re-think of global childcare reform?
10.03.2025
The global geopolitical landscape is undergoing a historical transformation, marked by changing political alliances, redefined economic and defence strategies, and significant shifts in foreign aid.
Over the last year, nearly a dozen OECD donor governments have implemented or announced major cuts to foreign aid, most recently the US and UK. As a consequence, the global childcare community is seeing a breakdown of essential services that are critical for the wellbeing and survival of the most marginalised and vulnerable children and families.
There is overwhelming evidence that children who are in institutions of care are not only deprived of their right to thrive in a safe and loving family environment, they also suffer significant negative impacts on their physical, psychological and social development. And the millions of children who are currently outside of any care – including street connected children, children who have been trafficked, children on the move, and children unnecessarily in the justice system – are at even higher risk of violence, abuse and neglect.
There is also consensus that when national systems of protection and care are transformed to family-based care, support systems help prevent family breakdown and reintegrate children back to their parents or extended family. When that is not possible, effective systems provide family-based alternative care, including kinship care, foster care and adoption. This transformation is not only better for children, it is cost effective and it’s sustainable.
The global childcare reform community is neither as coherent nor as coordinated as we need to be. This moment of rapid change is an opportunity to reshape our movement to more effectively champion, catalyse and support accelerated progress. This will require radical re-thinking, including but not limited to:
- putting into practice the principles set out in the United Nations 2019 Resolution on the Rights of the Child and the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children;
- systems thinking that recognises that transformation of childcare and child protection requires a multidisciplinary approach with stakeholders from other sectors including education, disability, health, positive parenting and tackling violence against children;
- a shift to prevention of family breakdown, addressing the drivers that lead to separation;
- genuine localisation that:
– shifts decision-making and implementation power to local communities and ensures that childcare systems reflect cultural norms, economic conditions and specific needs;
– does not apply top-down, one-size-fits-all solutions, but prioritises community-led approaches, grassroots participation, and flexible policies that adapt to diverse settings; and
– sees global organisations playing an enabling role in partnership with governments and national and local organisations, facilitating the exchange of good practice and promoting local leadership.
- a smarter division of labour by global organisations in the childcare sector:
– between countries, i.e. expanding our collective geographical reach by not clustering in the same countries; and
– within countries, i.e. promoting the same approach and collaborating strategically on different elements of childcare transformation, each organisation playing to its respective strengths, ensuring that we add value to the work of existing local organisations rather than inadvertently undermining or competing with them.
- a new narrative that reframes our collective vision and mission, links to tackling violence, poverty, discrimination, disability, and a lack of basic services and social protection, and informs collective global and national advocacy so that we speak more powerfully with a consistent voice;
- a compelling investment case for childcare reform that equips in-country champions to make the case for transformation and attracts new and more diverse donors from multiple sectors; and
- collaborative (not competitive) fundraising from more diverse donors that also builds sustainability by enhancing local capacity and making direct connections between local organisations and global donors.
This will require us to work in new ways. We will need to simultaneously: think and work strategically, tactically and boldly; plan and work more closely together; collaborate with and learn from new and diverse partners, including people with lived experience; compromise where necessary for the greater good; and work with a pace, drive and urgency that this historical moment demands.
