A world where every child can live in a safe and caring family setting is possible. With your help, we can change the life stories of eight million children around the world who are living in institutional care. Raise your voice to help us ensure all children are counted. Thank you.

In 2015, countries around the world adopted the new development agenda, Transforming our World: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.

The new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which replaced the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), include strong targets to reduce violence against children, improve health and nutrition, access to education, and many other aspects in life that are important in a child’s development.

World leaders agreed that the new development agenda would “leave no one behind”. Yet, as it stands, the new Goals will leave children living without parents and outside families, in institutions or orphanages, very far behind.

This is because the methods that are used to count children only count those who live in a family, but do not count children who live without parents or outside a household. This means that the estimated 5.4 million children that live in institutions or orphanages will be left behind by the Sustainable Development Goals.

Therefore, we have joined a large group of organisations in calling on world leaders and the United Nations to change this. We have written a joint open letter, which so far has been signed by more than 250 organisations, NGOs, and academics, calling on world leaders to:

• Ensure that children living outside of households and/or without parental care are counted;
• Improve methodologies to ensure that no children will be left behind.