SOS Kinderdorpen position paper

Content

No child is born to grow up alone Position Paper SOS KINDERDORPEN NEDERLAND

FOREWORD

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WHO WE ARE Our identity Our governance SOS Kinderdorpen’s position in the Dutch development debate Working in partnership with others

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OUR TARGET GROUP What international laws and policies say about these children The impact on children of the loss of parental care Risk factors in losing parental care

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WHAT WE DO 1 • Family strengthening 2 • Supporting and providing family-based care 3 • Advocacy 4 • Disaster preparedness, relief and reconstruction

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QUALITY MANAGEMENT Transparency and Accountability

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CONTRIBUTION TO INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENDA 26 The Millennium Development Goals 2000 – 2015 26 Post-2015 global agenda for sustainable development 28 POLICIES, RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS

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IMPORTANT PARTNER RELATIONS

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Foreword In 2015, SOS Kinderdorpen Nederland celebrates its 50th birthday.

A good time to look back at what we have achieved. But also to look forward to how our work will develop in the future.

For all these years, SOS Children’s Villages has been well-known for giving children without parental care the chance to grow up in a family-based environment. In order to reach our goal of providing a loving home for every child, we have started more than 550 SOS Children’s Villages to date in 134 countries across the world. After all these years, our vision is still very strong: Every child belongs to a family and grows up with love, respect and security in a safe home. Family, in all aspects of its meaning, is a child’s only effective place for healing and development. It’s the unconditional care, stability and continuity that nurture the healthy growth of children.

Our reputation is based on our organization’s investment in each individual child who grows up in a family environment in one of our villages.

However, this is just one part of our commitment. Increasingly, SOS Children’s Villages supports vulnerable families from falling apart and children from being left to fend for themselves with preventive measures which help to ensure their safety and guarantee their health, education and awareness of their rights.

Through our expertise and often long-standing presence in 134 countries, we provide support in emergency situations, focusing mainly on reuniting children with their lost families and, if reunification is not possible, providing them with long-term family care.

To you, our colleagues in international development and our donors, we hope that our position paper on the development of children without or at risk of losing parental care, will give you a clear insight in the beautiful work our organization has done, and will continue to do, and will inspire you to think with us on how to best help these most vulnerable children.

Because no child is born to grow up alone.

Margot Ende

Managing Director SOS Children’s VIllages Netherlands

Working with the affected children and their families, the community and other partners, we look for solutions to problems of poverty and produce programme guidelines and services. Our ultimate goal is to support children, adults and communities in such a way that they can help themselves in a sustained and permanent way.

Our world is changing fast. As the global expert in the field of alternative care for children, SOS Children’s Villages helps to create that change.

We have made a significant contribution to the realization of the UN Guidelines on Alternative Care for Children (2009) and the subsequent manual “Moving Forward” (2013). These documents reflect the vision and experience of SOS Children’s Villages. SOS Children’s Villages advocates with governments for family-oriented alternative care and policies that support the most vulnerable of families, and against violence, abuse and neglect. Our commitment to advocacy has increased over the years, and will continue to do so.

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WHO WE ARE Our identity SOS Children’s Villages is an independent, non-governmental and non-denominational child care and development organization. As a global federation of 134 national organizations, we take action in countries and communities where our mission can contribute to the development of children and their families. We are non-religious and respect varying religions and cultures. We work in the spirit of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children and on the basis of more than 65 years of hands-on experience in working with the most vulnerable children and families.

We want to help prevent families from breaking down, and children from losing the care of their parents. But if these families do break down and the children can no longer stay with their parents or caregivers, we want to help these children to find a safe place in a loving family, where they can continue to grow to be happy and self-confident individuals.

SOS Children’s Villages has identified four underlying values which guide its actions, decisions and relationships. These are courage, commitment, accountability and trust1. SOS Children’s Villages has courage to challenge laws and practices that undermine children’s rights, and continues to pioneer innovative child-care approaches. SOS Children’s Villages shows long-term commitment for children. SOS Children’s Villages is a reliable partner and uses all funds and resources responsibly.

SOS Children’s Villages is one of the world’s biggest non-governmental organizations with a presence in close to 550 locations in 134 countries and territories across the world.

1 Who We Are – Mission Statement from SOS Children’s Villages

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Countries with SOS Children’s Villages Promoting and Supporting Associations (PSAs), which raise funds for programmes in other countries worldwide, are shown in bold.

AFRICA

Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad DR of the Congo

Côte d’Ivoire Djibouti Egypt Ethiopia Equatorial Guinea The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Kenya Lesotho Liberia

Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda Senegal Sierra Leone Somalia

Somaliland South Africa South Sudan Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe

EUROPE

Albania Austria Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland

France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Italy Kosovo Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg FYR of Macedonia Netherlands

Northern Cyprus Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Serbia Spain Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United Kingdom

THE AMERICAS

Argentina Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador

ASIA & OCEANIA

Guatemala Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru USA Uruguay Venezuela

Armenia Australia Azerbaijan Bangladesh Cambodia China French Polynesia Georgia India Indonesia

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Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Mongolia Nepal Pakistan Palestine Philippines South Korea

Sri Lanka Syria Taiwan, China Thailand United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam

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Our governance SOS Children’s Villages was founded by Hermann Gmeiner in Austria in 1949 for the purpose of helping orphans and homeless children after the Second World War. Today, each of SOS Children’s Villages’ 134 member organizations are legal entities staffed with local people, and governed by a Board of Trustees. They coordinate all activities in their respective countries and are responsible for establishing, implementing, managing, financing and supporting SOS Children’s Villages programmes and are responsible for complying with national laws and policies. Bound by the same ambition to ensure all children have the chance to grow up in a loving and caring family environment, these organizations have collectively established the SOS Children’s Villages policy guidelines, systems and procedures that ensure a consistently high standard of quality in the delivery of our preventive and alternative care work.

Changes in federal policies and support structures are decided upon in a five-yearly General Assembly, whilst day-to-day decision making is delegated to an international senate of governors elected from their midst.

SOS Kinderdorpen Nederland has a permanent delegate in the senate.

The SOS Children’s Villages Management Council includes the Management Team and representatives of eight member associations. They pre-align and prepare Senate discussions, operationalize Senate decisions and facilitate discussion and exchange between members of all parts of the federation.

The 134 organizations are supported by a secretariat, which has its headquarters in Innsbruck, Austria and six regional branch offices. The secretariat supports the national SOS Children’s Villages associations in their work. It facilitates sharing of expertise and coordinates the development of strategies, policies, as well as manuals throughout the organization.

It also assures that SOS standards are adhered to by all national SOS Children’s Villages associations.

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GENERAL ASSEMBLY All Members Associations

INTERNATIONAL SENATE President • Vice President 20 board representatives of member associations

MANAGEMENT COUNCIL Management Team 8 managing/national directors

GENERAL SECRETARIAT Management Team CEO - COO - CFO

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SOS Kinderdorpen’s position in the Dutch development debate With dedicated local staff in 134 countries and territories, our member associations • provide family-based care for tens of thousands of children who have lost parental care • support hundreds of thousands of children in the most vulnerable families of society; • provide health and education services to many more hundreds of thousands of children and their families living in vulnerable communities Since the establishment of SOS Kinderdorpen in the Netherlands in 1965, the debate surrounding development aid and the role and responsibilities of development organizations has changed course several times. Increasingly, the media, DIRECT researchers and politicians openly question the ESSENTIAL impact of aid in developing countries, especialSERVICES ly its effectiveness in achieving sustainable results. Some argue that service delivery

by NGOs unwisely substitutes the State as the primary duty bearer and service provider, creating dependence and promoting passivity. Critics also argue that the role of northern NGOs should change from being service providers to being lobbyists and advocates in the CAPACITY international development sector, helping BUILDING to build the capacity of local organisations and networks.

SOS Kinderdorpen does not believe that the role of NGOs should be reduced to lobby and advocacy alone. Even the most advanced legal and policy frameworks will not prevent some parents from becoming too ill to take care of their children, and it will not prevent them from dying from disease or accidents. Even in countries with the strongest child protection structures in place, there are vulnerable families in which children risk becoming the victim of violence, abuse, or neglect.

At SOS Kinderdorpen, we are proud to support children by providing high-quality care and services, and we will continue to do so for as long as children around the world need our support. We are recognized for the quality of our work, and as such we are often contracted by local

authorities to support vulnerable families and provide family-based care for children. Increasingly, these government contracts, supplemented by income from private and corporate sponsors, are also sufficient to support the costs of our operations (by 2020, approximately 40% of all SOS Children’s Villages member organizations are expected to be fully financially independent).

In countries where local subsidies and government contracts are insufficient, other member associations promote and financially support the work being done. As of 2015, SOS Kinderdorpen Nederland supports operations in 24 locations across 14 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America, in addition to providing incidental support to other countries when requested.

Our work does not contradict or undermine the belief that national authorities need to be alerted to their obligations under international laws and policies. We are guided by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Guidelines on the Alternative Care of Children, and we promote these guidelines everywhere we work. Lobbying and advocacy activities are both useful and essential in changing the ‘environmental setting’ in which children can claim their rights.

We are confronted on a daily basis with the fact that good laws and great policies are in and of themselves not enough to ensure that children will grow up safely. For the most vulADVOCACY nerable children to truly have a chance, laws and policies need to be both implemented and practically applied, and attitudes need to change at all levels of society. Consequently, SOS Children’s Villages works with national and local authorities and communities structures, as well as with the most vulnerable families and children, in order to build their capacities to protect children, provide for their needs and prevent violence, abuse and neglect.

We know that change takes time. It often takes years before laws are drafted and implemented, and even longer for them to be adopted and accepted as standard practice. While critical for success in the long-term, lobbying and advocacy work has no immediate impact on the situation of children that are at risk today. Direct support will therefore always be required in some form. Therefore in addition to capacity-building, lobbying and advocacy, as an expert-practitioner in child care and development, SOS Kinderdorpen will therefore also remain a proud provider of services for children and their families.

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Working in partnership with others Our work is not done in isolation. While SOS Children’s Villages is a key expert in family-based alternative care provision and parenting support, other organizations are experts in providing people with safe drinking water, or in improving the access of youth to labour markets. Our target group needs support in a wide variety of areas and sectors.

In each situation and in all areas where we work, try to establish who is best-placed to provide the required support. As a result, we work closely with local and national authorities and civil society organizations, foundations, corporate partners and knowledge institutes. Here are some examples: International and local civil society organizations • The Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF) is a partner in a project on violence reduction in the context of our Family Strengthening Programmes in Peru. In addition to providing a financial contribution, BvLF provides valuable input on programme design, shares research results, and links SOS Children’s Villages Peru to their own network of local organizations, including those on ‘fatherhood’. Partnering with BvLF has opened new doors for SOS Children’s Villages, both in Peru and beyond.

• In collaboration with the Female Cancer Foundation (FCF), we implement a programme in five African countries aimed at the eradication of cervical cancer. FCF developed a simple screening technique appropriate for low-resource contexts, while SOS Children’s Villages provides infrastructure, medical staff and access to local networks. Since the start of the programme, approximately 100.000 women have been tested, and 15.000 women who tested positive have been treated.

• SOS Children’s Villages Uzbekistan and UNICEF have teamed up to protect children and families at risk. Research findings on the child care system in Uzbekistan showed that there are insufficient services available to support vulnerable families in the country which would help prevent separation of children from their families. One priority focus of the programme is to strengthen the capacity of alternative care providers to ensure that each individual child gets

the kind of alternative care which is best matched to their personal situation and needs.

• In a USAID-funded CSO working group in Suba, Kenya, SOS Children’s Villages Kenya engages with other local and international CSOs to improve the protection of and promote the rights of children in the community.

Corporate partners • The global law firm Allen & Overy provides SOS Children’s Villages with pro-bono international legal advice; • British Telecom connected twenty SOS Children’s Villages programmes in nine African countries via its global satellite network through its Connecting Africa Programme Knowledge institutes Since 2010, SOS Kinderdorpen has been working with Context, International Development to promote the Civic Driven Change approach in our Family Strengthening Programmes.

This approach emphasises the strengthening of the capacity of local communities and individuals to use available resources to create social change and the promotion of social entrepreneurship as a sustainable alternative to charity-dependent and donor-driven development.

Local and national authorities In all of our programmes, SOS Children’s Villages works closely together with local government authorities to ensure that we are involved in the development and implementation of policies relevant to the situation of vulnerable children and that our interventions are sustainability anchored in the social support structures in the country.

• For example, SOS Children’s Villages Kenya works with seven Locational Area Advisory Councils on building their capacity for better child care and increased vigilance on child right abuses. SOS Children’s Villages Kenya is also an active member of the Technical Working Group for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, advising the national government in the development and implementation of a National Psychosocial Policy Document for Child Care.

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OUR TARGET GROUP No child is born to grow up alone. Every child born into this world has a father and a mother. Although far too many children live in poverty or are exposed to war, conflict and danger, even most of these children grow up with the unconditional love of their parent(s). Irrespective of all else, the family is the place where children learn to connect and develop emotional ties, where they can make mistakes in the knowledge that they are supported in their learning, and where they find the safe haven they can return to when the outside world is physically or mentally threatening. But not all children are so lucky to live in a safe and loving family.

SOS Children’s Villages works with children and families that are living in the most marginalized circumstances. Exact figures on the number of children without parental care are missing. It is also not known exactly how these children are coping. It is estimated that 24 million children live in some form of alternative care environment. It is assumed that most will have found a new home with relatives or in the larger community. But millions in Africa alone live in ‘child-headed households, in which elder siblings take care of their younger sisters and brothers. Another eight million children are reported to live in institutions.

Global estimates indicate that 140 million children have lost one or both parents, whilst a multitude of that number are faced with severe illness of their parents, violence at home, neglect, abandonment, forced labour migration or because of the effects of war and natural disasters. Not all of these children have yet lost parental care, but many children are at risk.

The primary target group of SOS Children’s Villages is children who have lost the care of their families and children who are at risk of losing family care.

Vision Every child belongs to a family and grows up with love, respect and security in a safe home. Family, in all aspects of its meaning, is a child’s only effective place for healing and development. It’s the continuity, stability and caring environment that nurture the healthy growth of children.

• Children are considered to have lost the care of their family when they have been physically separated from their family.

• Children are considered to be at risk of losing parental care when their basic material, emotional, health and educational needs are neglected, or who are abused because their caregivers lack the capacity or commitment to adequately care for them.

2 Everychild, 2009. Missing: children without parental care in international development.

3 World Report on Violence against Children, 2006 4 UNICEF, State of the World’s Children 2015

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What international laws and policies say about these children International provisions relating to the protection of children’s rights exist within various legal systems and at global, regional and local levels. The most important global legal frameworks are developed within the United Nations systems. Conventions are considered to be international laws; guidelines are not.

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child UNCRC (1989) For children to play a part in determining their own development, they must have rights they can call on. For this reason, SOS Children’s Villages campaigns actively for the observance and implementation of the UNCRC and supports children in claiming their rights themselves.

Of particular importance to our target group are: The right to be raised by its parents (Article 18): The preamble of the UNCRC recognizes that “the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding”, and the primary responsibility for the upbringing and development of the child lies with both parents. The role of the extended family is also acknowledged by the UNCRC in its article 5 as this article not only refers to the biological parents but also to the “members of the extended family and community.

SOS Children’s Villages, through its ‘family strengthening’ programmes, will do whatever it can to ensure that children can stay with their family. In addition to helping families to access essential services, we also engage with national authorities to advocate for the development of institutions, facilities and services for the care of children, so as to optimally support parents and caregivers in their child-rearing responsibilities.

The right to special care and help if a child cannot live with its parents (Article 20): Article 9 of the UNCRC states that children should not be separated from their parents unless it

is necessary and in their best interests. When considering an alternative care placement, due regard has to be paid to the “desirability of continuity in the child’s upbringing and to the child’s ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic background” (see also articles 8 and 30). Article 20 of the UNCRC prescribes that children temporarily or permanently deprived of their family environment or removed from their family environment in their best interest are entitled to special protection. Four possible types of alternative care are mentioned: foster placement, kafalah of Islamic law, adoption and placement in a suitable institution. The wording of article 20 implies a hierarchy in the types of alternative care options: family-based options should be given priority and institutions must be considered a last resort.

The four guiding principles of the UNCRC are: Non-discrimination (Article 2): Regardless of political, cultural, national and religious backgrounds, all children have equal rights. The SOS Children’s Villages programmes works on behalf of all children regardless of the political situation in the country. Every child also has an equal voice, irrespective of colour, gender, language, religion, political or other opinion, or origin. Children are protected against all forms of discrimination in SOS Children’s Villages programmes, as outlined in various policies, e.g. on children with disabilities, children affected by HIV/AIDS and child protection. In addition, SOS Children’s Villages seeks to sway influence with authorities in cases where children are stigmatized or discriminated.

Best interests of a child (Article 3): The best interest of the child forms the basis of all decisions and actions of SOS Children’s Villages. The organization believes that the best place for a child to develop is in a caring family. SOS Children’s Villages therefore works to ensure that all children, both those who are at risk of losing family care and those who have lost it, have a caring family environment. Standards including the SOS Children’s Villages Manual and Child Protection Policy help to ensure that all national associations act in the best interest of

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the child. In our facilities and programmes we offer not only the care essential to the child’s well-being, but also guarantee against the use of violence, physical and emotional ill-treatment, and neglect (Art. 19), protection from economic exploitation (Art. 32) and from sexual abuse (Art. 34) Right to life, survival and development (Article 6): SOS Children’s Villages works to achieve the realization of children’s rights to survival and development through capacity building and direct services to children, their families and the community. SOS Children’s Villages actively works to achieve the realization of children’s rights to be protected from abuse and neglect (Art. 19), and respond to any case abuse, be it within or outside the SOS Families. We campaign for every child to have the best possible health provision, which begins even before birth with the mother’s prenatal care (Art. 24). Alongside the right to education, schooling and vocational training (Art. 28), our work also prioritizes the right to a school environment that fully develops a child’s personality, talents, and mental and physical abilities (Art. 29) Respect for the views of the child (Article 12): SOS Children’s Villages regards each individual child as a competent partner rather than a passive recipient of care and protection. It is recognized that children have a role to play in addressing their own development needs and standing for their rights. Children are informed and consulted in decision making processes affecting their lives, with due consideration being given to their expressed views. In the joint planning and implementation of our programme activities, every child is given the right to freedom of expression, and his or her opinion is considered according to age and maturity.

Each child that grows up in the care of an SOS family is actively involved in forming their own future through the individual Child Development Plan.

This plan is a tool for quality assurance in the Children’s Village, and helps caretakers and co-workers to support the development of each child, according to their abilities and potentials.

In our Family Strengthening Programmes, our programme workers will ensure the children have knowledge about their rights and responsibilities and will involvement children in all aspects of the design and implementation of their family development plans that directly relate to them.

UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children UNGLs (2009) Millions of children around the world are without, or at risk of losing, parental care and face significant challenges in their daily lives which often have long term implications well into adulthood. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child came to realize that many of these challenges were not adequately understood and therefore not taken into account in policy and

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practice. This inspired the Committee in 2005 to make a key recommendation to develop a set of international standards that would give expert guidance to states and other duty-bearers on the implementation of the UNCRC for children living without parental care. The resulting ‘Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children’ is an internationally recognized text which provides authoritative guidance to duty bearers in the implementation of their international obligations under the CRC. They outline the need for relevant policy and practice with respect to two basic principles, that broadly relate to resp. UNCRC Articles 18 and 20: Principle of Necessity: To the extent possible, children should be supported to remain with, and be cared for by, their own family. Removing any child from his/her family should be a measure of last resort, and before any such decision is taken, a rigorous participatory assessment is required.

Principle of Appropriateness: The UNGLs define a range of suitable alternative care options. Each child in need of alternative care has specific requirements with respect to, for example, short or long-term care or keeping siblings together. The care option chosen has to be tailored to the individual needs of the child. The suitability of the placement should be regularly reviewed to assess the continued necessity of providing alternative care, and the viability of potential reunification with the family.

Moving forward: Implementing the ‘Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children (2013) Since the approval of the Guidelines, however, the continuing challenge has been their implementation. ‘Moving Forward’ is a handbook developed

by SOS Children’s Villages International, and CELCIS, together with a team of child protection experts, governments, UN Agencies, and NGOs. It provides practical guidance on using the Guidelines to inspire reform of social welfare and alternative care systems. It highlights implications for policy-making, and provides links to what is already being effectively done on the ground and provides insight and encouragement to all professionals on what can feasibly be done in resource constrained contexts. It was presented in March 2013 at the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Quality4Children Standards SOS Children’s Villages International in collaboration with the International Foster Care Organization (IFCO) and the International Federation of Educative Communities (FICE) developed the Quality4Children Standards for Europe. They are to share ‘good practice’ and make available tools to improve conditions for children and young people living in alternative care, and to ensure that their rights and best interests are fulfilled. The Standards were launched at the European Parliament in June 2007 and are available in 27 languages.

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The impact on children of the loss of parental care Although cultural practices differ, clinical evidence is unequivocal in its analysis of the severe damage child abandonment can have on the physical and mental development of children. Depriving children of a loving family environment causes lasting damage to their intelligence, emotional wellbeing and even their physical stature. The younger children are, the greater the damage they experience.

Researchers found that children living in poor alternative care situations were stunted5, estimating that children can lose one month of growth for every three months spend in an orphanage6. Using EEG-scans to measure the strength of brain activity of children of three years old living in an orphanage, a study found that they had smaller brains, less powerful activity in all parts of their brains and larger parts of their brain that were completely inactive (compared to children who had grown up in a loving family environment)7.

3 YEAR OLD CHILDEREN BRAIN SIZE

BRAIN SIZE

Studies showed furthermore that these children were more likely to suffer from emotional and cognitive impairments. The absence of an attachment figure can lead to trauma and separation anxiety8. Later in life, these children are 3½ times more likely to develop serious health and mental problems9, with girls more prone to emotional problems and boys to behavioural disorders. They are also more likely to be unemployed and dependent on state benefits, to become addicted to drugs and to be involved in violent crimes.

There are strong indications for the existence of a childhood neglect cycle: parents who were neglected themselves as a child, are more likely to neglect their own children in a similar way.

But, if living conditions are improved early enough, these children can go through an astounding growth spurt and rebound from cognitive and emotional damage. Researchers believe this effect is down to the more attentive environment they experienced in a loving and caring (foster) family.

NORMAL

EXTREME NEGLECT

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Studies10 show that stable, positive, affective and reciprocal relationships are fundamental for a child’s developmental processes11. Children who are given love and affection from their mothers early in life, are smarter with a better ability to learn. The presence of at least one caring adult – most importantly a parent, but often also a mentor or substitute parent - is the most powerful protective factor in the life histories of resilient children.

Many aspects associated with family life can promote a child’s development: frequent affective and responsive contact with the same people, empathy, sensory stimulation, a positive emotional climate, the possibility to openly express feelings and impulses, a safe and supportive environment, shared and consistent structures and values. A child who has experienced comfort, encouragement, support and cooperation from parents develops a secure capacity to attachment and relationships12, seek proximity and comfort when under threat, and show resilience in times of adversity13. Secure attachment can protect children in situations of vulnerability and risk, e.g. chronic disease or poverty14, and lowers the impact of external stress factors15. These findings are confirmed in different cultural contexts16

5 Bucharest early intervention project, Tulane University, University of Maryland and Boston Children’s Hospital 6 Dana Johnson, professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota, 7 Joan L. Luby MD, professor of child psychiatry (2012) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Early Edition 8 Svanberg (1998)): Attachment, resilience and prevention.

Journal of Mental Health, 7(6), 543-578 9 Professor Allan Schore, University of California 10 The best known and biggest longitudinal study on resilience is the Kauai Study, conducted by Emmy Werner and Ruth Smith, which documents the lives of 505 men and women, who were born in 1955 on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, from peri-natal period through early adulthood. (Werner & Smith, 1992).

11 Flammer (2009) Entwicklungstheorien (4th ed.)

12 Bowlby (1973) Attachment and loss. Vol. 2: Separation: Anxiety and anger. (Vol. 2).

13 Masten & Coatsworth (1998) The development of competence in favorable and unfavorable environments. American Psychologist, 53(2), 205-220 14 Laucht et al. (2000); Risiko- und Schutzfaktoren in der Entwicklung von Kindern und Jugendlichen. Frühförderung interdisziplinär, 19(3), 97-108.

15 Patterson (2002) in: Bernhard van Leer Foundation (2009) 16 Zeitlin, M. F. et al (1995) Strengthening the family - Implications for international development

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Risk factors in losing parental care Vulnerability criteria vary from place to place, and are developed in consultation with community members.

Vulnerable families often include households headed by aged grandparents, terminally ill parents, single caregivers, as well as households headed by a child. The six most important reasons why children lose parental care are perhaps: 1 Death of parents/caregivers It is estimated that worldwide 140 million children (<18) are orphans17, of which almost 13.8 million have lost both parents18. But whilst orphans are still a target group of SOS Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Villages, they are not our only target group. Without war or such devastating diseases as HIV&AIDS, double orphanhood is rare (e.g. on a population of 17 million people, the Netherlands has 330 double orphans19 under the age of 18), and most children that have lost one parent, continue to live in the loving care of the surviving parent. Unfortunately, there are many more reasons than the death of their parents why children lose parental care.

CHILDREN ORPHANED DUE TO ALL CAUSES (THOUSANDS)20 Countries and areas Sub-Saharan Africa Middle East and North Africa South Asia East Asia and Pacific Latin America and Caribbean CEE/CIS World

estimate 2013 52.000 6.300 39.000 23.000 8.400 7.700 140.000

2 Debilitating disease of parents/caregivers Sometimes, parents are too ill, or too physically and/ or mentally challenged to take care of their children. In many situations, it is the children taking care of their parents, rather than the reverse. As long as the support structures around these families are strong enough, and the children in these families can get sufficient support themselves from family, neighbours and friends, it may be best for both parents and children to stay together.

But when the support structures are not strong enough, and the safety and development of the children are at risk, they should be offered temporary or permanent alternative care in another family, whilst appropriate support for the ailing parent(s) is organized. If their parents recover, these children often can go back to living with their own parents again.

3 Extreme poverty of parents/caregivers Sadly, extreme poverty is far too often a reason why children can no longer live with their parents. A person is classed as extremely poor when he or she has less than the equivalent of 1.25 USD per day to live on. This amount is not enough to ensure either survival or a dignified life.

17 UNICEF, State of the Worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Children 2015 18 SoWC 2015 does not give this specification, so data is extrapolated based on 2011 figures, source http://www.unicef.org/media/media_45279.html 19 By the end of 2011, there were 34 thousand underage children [in the Netherlands] who had lost one of their parents and 330 who had lost both parents. Each year, more than 6 thousand underage children are (semi-) orphaned. Children who have lost their mothers more often live in step families, foster families or on their own than children who have lost their fathers. Source: Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 2013 20 UNICEF, State of the Worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Children 2015

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Although this is the officially recognized definition of poverty, it does not do justice to the actual lives of the 1.4 billion people who currently live in extreme poverty.

Poverty is a complex issue with many sides to it. It can manifest itself in lack of income, hunger and malnutrition, poor health and illness, educational poverty, homelessness, degrading living conditions, an unsafe environment, social and cultural discrimination, exclusion and failure to participate in political decision making.

When parents cannot work for a living (e.g. because of disease or handicap), or do not earn sufficient income to sustain (all of) their children, their love for their children alone is not enough. Children need (and have the right to) food, clothing, shelter, health care and education as much as they need love.

When parents are consistently unable to provide for their children, these children deserve a place in another family environment, at least temporarily, until their parents can organize themselves differently in order to secure their access to life’s essential survival.

POPULATION BELOW INTERNATIONAL POVERTY LINE21 OF US$1.25 PER DAY (%) Countries and areas

2009-2012

Sub-Saharan Africa Middle East and North Africa South Asia East Asia and Pacific Latin America and Caribbean CEE/CIS

47 33 12 4 1

World

21

21 UNICEF, State of the World’s Children 2015 22 While some violence against children is perpetrated by strangers, the vast majority of violent acts are perpetrated by people who are part of the child victim’s immediate environment: parents and the wider family, boyfriends or girlfriends, spouses and partners, teachers, schoolmates, and employers. Source: World Report on Violence against Children, 2006

4 Failure of parents/caregivers to protect children against violence, abuse and neglect An extremely complex group of reasons why children are placed in alternative care is violence, abuse and neglect.

Whereas death, disease and poverty are often largely outside the span of control of the parents, violence, abuse and neglect in the family is fully within the parents control22. The impact of this breach of confidence of children that their parents will protect them from harm and provide for their most essential needs is absolutely devastating.

Parents inflicting harm on their children is often rooted in a history of being badly parented themselves. In many societies, children are considered to be the ‘property’ of the parents, with whom parents can do as they please.

The concept of children having rights is alien to many parents; the possibility to positively engage with children might never have crossed their mind. Parents that never experienced positive forms of disciplining themselves are likely to repeat the violent practices they grew up with.

Many cultural child rearing practices are nowadays considered unwanted, and many harmful practices have been explicitly outlawed. Whether it is (severe) corporal punishment, genital cutting, childhood marriages; most countries have outlawed them. But culturally directed behavior is hard to change, and many children continue to suffer the denial of their rights.

Also child labour can be a form of abuse. Whilst children may be expected to support their family in the way it earns its living, this cannot interfere with the child’s right to education, health or the right to play and leisure. No child should be exposed to forms of labour that endanger its health and development. Despite international regulations, millions of children work in factories, in mines, on plantations, are send out to beg or hawk on the streets or forced to work in the sex industry.

Millions of children are taken away from their families for this purpose. They are the lucrative merchandise for a clandestine international industry of child traffickers.

Many parents are not even aware of what they are doing to their children; they genuinely believe they are offering their children a good chance to education and work.

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Sexual abuse, of both girls and boys, although also prevalent in other settings such as in the community, the school and the workplace, most often happens inside the (extended) family.

Sometimes, bad parenting goes beyond a lack of exposure to positive parenting skills. Millions of children are neglected, denied food, shelter and education â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but also love, physical and mental closeness and safety.

Fathers that neglect their families are a serious problem to the healthy development of millions of children. In addition, many children are living in neglect because their parents are substance abusers.

Although it cuts deeply in the private lives of parents and their prerogative to parent their children in the way they deem appropriate, in extreme cases of violence, abuse and neglect where the state (or the community) consider the situation to be damaging to the child, they can be taken into the custody of alternative care providers.

Statistical data on the incidence of the various forms violence and abuse against and the neglect of children, as well as on the impact it has on their lives is available in the publication: HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT.23 5 Children separated from parents/caregivers due to war and conflict By end-2013, 51.2 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or human rights violations. Some 16.7 million persons were refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) constituted 33.3 million people, and 1.2 million people were registered as asylum-seekers. Of all refugees and displaced people, children below 18 years constituted 50% (although for the countries from which data is available, these rates ranged from 78% in Uganda to 19% in Yemen). Some 25,300 asylum-seekers in 77 countries were unaccompanied or separated children (UASC), the highest number on record.

REFUGEES, ASYLUM-SEEKERS, IDPS), STATELESS PERSONS, AND OTHERS OF CONCERN TO UNHCR AND UNRWA24 Africa Asia Europe Latin America and the Caribbean Northern America Oceania

13.547.264 25.074.613 2.667.827 5.996.263 530.502 60.113

Total

47.876.582

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Whether they are refugees, internally displaced, asylum-seekers or stateless, children are at a greater risk of abuse, neglect, violence, exploitation, trafficking or forced military recruitment. They may also have witnessed or experienced violent acts and/or been separated from their families.

Over one million forcibly displaced children were either orphaned, or permanently separated from their parents and caregivers.

6 Children with severe disability with needs beyond those of parent/caregiver care capacity The estimated number of children with disabilities between 0 and 18 years ranges between 93 million and 150 million, depending on the source25. The reported figures vary significantly from one country to another. Specialists, however, agree on a working approximation giving a minimum benchmark of 2.5% of all children aged 0-14 with self-evident moderate-to-severe levels of sensory, physical and intellectual impairments; and an additional 8% of children in the same age-range can be expected to have learning or behavioural difficulties or both26.

Despite an increasingly strong international normative framework for children with disabilities, national legislation, policy and funding mechanisms remain weak the world over. The rights of children with disabilities are grossly violated all over the world. Children with disabilities are four times more likely to be neglected and physically abused and over three times more likely to be emotionally abused than other children. Often their lives are not treated as of equal value with others27.

Children with disabilities are disproportionately likely to live in poverty. The majority of children with disabilities have no access to health care and rehabilitation services and 98% of children with disabilities receive no formal education in developing countries28. Multiple discrimination is a reality for a range of children with disabilities. Girls with disabilities are often discriminated against both in terms of their gender and their disabilities.

Children with disabilities are at high risk of living without adequate parental care. They are often hidden from view or forced to live in unsuitable institutional care. Families of children with disabilities often lack information, support, and training to cope with their specific situation. They are often confronted with rejection by the extended family and the community; and the overall stress on the entire family.

23 HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT. A statistical analysis of violence against children, Unicef, 2014 24 UNHCR Global Trends Report (2013) speaks of 51.2 million forcibly displaced people, of which 47.9 million are of concern to UNHCR and UNRWA 25 World Health Organization (2011) World Report on Disability 26 Unicef Innocenti Research Centre (2007) 27 Lansdown, G. (2001) It is our world too!

28 Unicef (2013) fact sheet on children and young people with disabilities

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What we do

SOS Kinderdorpen Child at risk of losing parental care

Advocacy for creating family- friendly laws and policies

Preventing children from losing parental care

Child without parental care

Short-term alternative care

Long-term alternative care

Family of origin

SOS family / Foster family / Custodians

Supporting families

Creating families

Who we help

Place where child is supported

Level of intervention

Advocacy for promoting family-based alternative care solutions

SOS program

In its size and range of work, SOS Children’s Villages is a unique organization, uniting social welfare work for children without parental care with developmental work at family and community level and with advocacy for the rights of children at national and international levels. SOS Children’s Villages interventions are guided by four principles, believing that children’s development is best realized: • • • •

in a caring family environment when supported by strong social networks when decisions and actions are based on the best interest of the child when children are involved in finding solutions to the challenges they face in their lives

Through the years, our reputation is based on the family care we offer children in one of our SOS Children’s Villages. However, this is just one part of our commitment. Increasingly, SOS Children’s Villages engages in preventive “family strengthening”. This involves providing support for families and communities whose future is under threat, through preventive measures which help to ensure their safety and guarantee their health, education and awareness of their rights.

Working with the affected children and their families, the community and other partners, we look for solutions to problems of health, poverty and parenting.

Mission SOS Children’s Villages International empowers families by supporting parents who find themselves in crisis situations or who have troubled lives and therefor are not capable of giving their children the adequate and loving care they need. By providing support –material, childcare, education, counselling; whatever is needed- we work to make sure that families can care for their children and become self-sufficient. In this way children are not abandoned or neglected, but grow with security, dignity, opportunities and love, in their own families.

For children who lost the care of their families we provide temporary or long-term family based care so that they can develop into resilient, independent adults responsible for their own deeds and those of others.

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1 Family strengthening SOS Children’s Villages wholeheartedly adheres to the first of the UN Guidelines’ ‘key principles’ which states that alternative care should only be provided when it is absolutely necessary that a child be taken from its family environment. First, all needs to be done to prevent a child losing parental care. SOS Children’s Villages’ family strengthening programmes help families stay together.

We build the capacity of communities to support their most vulnerable families, and parents’ capacities to care for their children in such a way that they are able to take control of their own lives again. In our work with vulnerable families and their communities, we adjust our work and the role we take according to local conditions and requirements.

1.1 Community empowerment SOS Children’s Villages has limited resources and is able to work with only a certain number of children, families and communities at any given time. However, recognizing the community as a primary duty bearer and key actor in addressing the challenges faced by its most vulnerable and marginalized members, and understanding that responses that can be sustained by community-based structures/organizations are more likely to reach children and families not directly participating in the programme, we include community empowerment as a key strategy in our family strengthening programmes. We rely strongly on voluntary and community work to develop strong social networks over time.

This community empowerment process involves the development of knowledge, skills, confidence and other resources required by communities to support families to effectively protect and care for children. Community members and decision-makers are involved in all strategic programme interventions, and routinely carry out the needs analyses to determine which families need to be included in our family empowerment programme.

1.2 Family empowerment Poverty and difficult life situations mean that many parents cannot care for their children adequately. Perhaps they cannot manage to earn enough to live on, or they do not have the knowledge or means to safeguard their children’s health. However, the vicious circles of poverty and neglect can be broken with the right help.

SOS Children’s Villages supports hundreds of thousands of parents and (kinship/network) caregivers through material support, training, education, counseling and more in building their capacities to care for their children.

School money, seeds or one warm meal a day... Often, very little is needed to ease misery and immediately ensure that a child can survive, a family can

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stay together, and healthy development can resume. Nutrition, medical care and access to education are deciding factors for children when it comes to their prospects for the future. This is why SOS Children’s Villages helps disadvantaged families provide for the basic needs of their children and claim their rights to education and health care. We also support them with information and confidence to seek help and claim their rights from authorities.

Through a structured process, each participating family’s situation, priorities, resources, capacities and potential to achieve self-reliance are carefully considered, but only if the family itself is also willing to make a contribution towards this end. The process places families at the centre of their own development and builds on what they can do to solve their own challenges. Through family development plans we aim to build self-reliance in three critical areas: • Access to essential services for the children in their basic survival needs (including nutrition, housing, health care, access to safe water and sanitation, age-appropriate child care and education, psycho-social support if so needed, space for play and leisure, life skills training and information on sexual and reproductive health rights), and to identity papers for the children & their caregiver.

• Ability of parents/care-givers to provide childcare (they have the required childcare knowledge and skills, address their own health needs, and have planned for the long-term care of their children) • Sufficient family resources (the family has stable source(s) of resources, with which it can provide for the basic survival needs, care and education of its children, the skills required to effectively manage these resources and understands the rights with respect to property & inheritance and the importance of written will(s) clearly indicating inheritance) Through step-by-step documentation of incremental progress made toward each development goal, their successes are made visible and parental confidence is built in the process. The family development progress documentation also helps our staff and other key implementation partners to coordinate our mutual efforts in supporting these vulnerable families.

Many parents use the opportunity, through SOS Children’s Villages’ family strengthening programmes, to make a new start through job training or micro-credits. They get helpful advice and share newly-found strength with others, becoming stronger both for their children and for themselves.

However, some families are unlikely to ever become completely self-reliant. This includes child-headed households, as well as many of those with elderly, frail or chronically-ill care-givers. In these cases, ongoing support shall be required, until the children have grown into adulthood.

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2 Supporting and providing family-based care If all has been tried to keep a family together, but the family situation has still not developed such that children can safely and securely grow up loving family environment, we don’t let these children down. In the spirit of the second key principle of the UN Guidelines and in cooperation with the relevant authorities, an alternative care solution is sought that best fits their personal situation.

2.1 - foster care Foster care is a service for children who cannot live with their custodial parent(s) or guardian(s) for some period of time. When intended to be short-term, its focus is on returning children home as soon as possible or providing them with permanent alternative care. At the same time, a foster family can also offer permanent alternative care.

SOS Children’s Villages’ contribution to foster care can take various forms. A programme may take complete responsibility for children, or it can participate in foster care by providing training of foster parents or by sharing in the costs of the programme. Or it can focus solely on capacity building of foster care systems, for instance by transferring knowledge gained in family-based care in SOS families.

2.2 - providing family-based care When no foster care option is available, when children need special support in overcoming previous traumatic situations, or when there is a desire to keep siblings together, we can offer children temporary or long-term care in one of our SOS Families.

SOS Children’s Villages is the largest family-based alternative care provider in the world. We know all of the tens of thousands of children child in our care by name, and we have personal development plans for each individual child. With the SOS Children’s Village concept, our organization pioneered a family approach to the long term care of orphaned and abandoned children, based on four pillars: • The Mother - Each child has a caring parent The SOS mother builds a close relationship with every child entrusted to her, and provides the security, love

and stability that each child needs. As a child-care professional, she lives together with her children, guides their development, and runs her household independently. She recognizes and respects each child’s family background, cultural roots and religion.

• Brothers and Sisters - Family ties grow naturally Girls and boys of different ages live together as brothers and sisters, with natural brothers and sisters staying within the same SOS family (or in our youth homes). These children and their SOS mother build emotional ties that last a lifetime.

• The House - Each family creates its own home The house is the family’s home, with its own unique feeling, rhythm and routine. Under its roof, children enjoy a real sense of security and belonging. Children grow and learn together, sharing responsibilities and all the joys and sorrows of daily life.

• The Village - The SOS family is a part of the community SOS families live in an SOS Children’s Village or as integrated and contributing members of the local community. SOS families share experiences, offer one another a helping hand, and form a supportive environment where children can enjoy a happy childhood.

Through his or her family, village and community, each child learns to participate actively in society.

2.3 - Facilitating family reunification Even when children are in alternative care, the reunion with their family of origin remains an ultimate goal. If considered safe, children who are in the care of SOS Children’s Villages maintain in close contact with their biological family, visiting them several times per year if possible. Regular checks are conducted by the case worker for that particular family to assess whether the home situation has improved sufficiently for the child(ren) to safely return home. If it is decided safe to return, the return process is carefully supervised. In addition, the situation of the children is followed for some in the period thereafter to ensure that the children are happy, safe and prospering in their home environment.

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3 Advocacy SOS Children’s Villages recognizes the government as the primary duty bearer which has the responsibility to ensure fulfilment of the rights of all children, and to provide appropriate assistance to parents and legal guardians (Art. 18, UNCRC). As advocates for children, we raise awareness on the rights of the children in our target group, and influence politicians with the objective to bringing about changes in laws, policies and practices.

Our interventions are in accordance with national development goals and priorities, including poverty reduction strategies and national development strategies, and we work together with governments, local authorities and other stakeholders to support them in meeting their obligations in providing strong social support systems and comprehensive safety nets for children and their families to: • help create optimal support to family life and prevent child neglect and abandonment; • advocate against violence against and abuse of children, and; • promote family based/family like alternatives, rather than institutional care solutions for children.

4 Disaster preparedness, relief and reconstruction Around the world the frequency and severity of emergencies are rising dramatically and, increasingly, emergencies result from a combination of causes. They occur against the background of the global economic crisis and the planet’s continuous environmental degradation and climate change. Particularly in developing countries, rapid population growth and urbanization are often coupled with limited resources, poor physical infrastructure and weak social systems. This complexity exacerbates the effects of disasters on the lives of children and on the livelihoods of their families, reduces the resilience of families and communities, and increases the vulnerability of entire populations.

The UNCRC articulates children’s rights to survival, development, participation and protection in all circumstances. During emergencies, the risk of violation of these

rights increases; children are particularly vulnerable to the loss of parental care and protection in the time when they need it most. Unaccompanied or separated children are at greater risk of being sexually abused, trafficked, or recruited into armed groups. Children’s rights to health and psychological well-being are threatened, and access to education is often denied. Furthermore, children from ethnic or religious minorities, girls, children with disabilities, and children affected by HIV and AIDS face further risks of discrimination, violence and abandonment. The emotional impact of disasters has the potential to jeopardize children’s psychosocial recovery and long-term development.

Girls and women are particularly vulnerable in emergency situations. The UN Security Resolution on Women, Peace and Security addresses the disproportionate impact of armed conflict on girls and women. It also recognizes their rights to protection from violence and to participate in all peace and security processes. Due to inequalities in their social and economic position, girls and women face a number of rights violations and experience higher mortality rates in all types of disasters than do boys and men.

Also the UN Guidelines on Alternative Care stresses the risks of highly inappropriate responses to the situation of children without parental care in situations of natural or man-made disaster. In post-disaster efforts, invariably personnel not normally confronted with child protection issues or decision-making, frequently subject to minimal authority, supervision and guidance are involved in matters directly involving children in the most vulnerable of circumstances. The provisions in the Guidelines attempt to assist all concerned regarding child protection in emergencies.

SOS Children’s Villages builds on more than 65 years of experience in the care and support of children and their families. As signatory of the Code of Conduct for The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief, SOS Children’s Villages has agreed to comply with the 10 principles of the Code.

Our vision of humanitarian aid is based on International

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developing, and create ‘child-friendly spaces’ that give children a sense of belonging and normality. Our emergency response is rooted in the programme work of SOS Children’s Villages so that as emergency situations stabilize, long-term individual child and youth development can be sustained. We work with partners to reduce the effect disasters have on children, and to move towards recovery and development as quickly as possible. This is for a limited period of time and in partnership with other specialist organizations.

Humanitarian Law and the Humanitarian Imperative, and our conduct in all aspects of emergencies is guided by the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence. Our activities in emergency situations benefit from our local presence in the countries and locations affected. SOS Children’s Villages has an established cooperation with local authorities, proven infrastructure and logistics, local cultural knowledge, and trust and recognition as a reliable partner. These strengths enable us to effectively support and influence humanitarian agencies and state governments and to advocate the prioritizing of children’s rights and their well-being in emergencies.

Emergency response When children in the communities we support are exposed to emergencies, be it as a result of war or natural catastrophe, SOS Children’s Villages takes action to bring them as quickly as possible from the emergency situation into a caring family environment where their development as individuals is supported. We achieve this by: • We make sure children are in a caring family environment. The key objective of our emergency response is to enable children to grow and develop within a caring family environment. We therefore implement measures to reunite unaccompanied children with their families, to prevent family separation and to strengthen families to care for and protect their children. Listening to the child and considering his or her best interests form the basis for any decision we take regarding their care and well-being.

• We make sure children are secure, protected and able to continue developing amidst emergency situations.

During emergencies, our immediate response is to provide security and meet the basic needs of the children in our target group. Our emergency activities provide nutrition and other basic services for children and their families. We work in communities where we already have existing SOS Children’s Villages or in locations where our work can reasonably be carried out. We work to help restore the everyday rhythm of life in spite of the emergency situation so that children can continue

• We support children and communities to prepare for and to respond to emergencies. Preparedness is crucial for children, families and for SOS Children’s Villages to be able to respond to an emergency situation and to mitigate its effects. Before emergencies take place, we make sure our co-workers in high-risk countries are prepared to respond to emergencies by assuring they receive proper training. We use our expertise to strengthen the resilience of children, families and their communities to respond and cope if and when emergencies occur.

• We make a quick, focused and effective emergency response. Based on our local presence and international support network, our emergency activities are quickly coordinated, based on needs identified in the field. We make sure that the correct staff, funds, communications systems and monitoring activities are in place to deliver an effective response. We manage our emergency activities in a professional and transparent manner and in accordance with existing organizational policies, guidelines and external frameworks. We end our intervention properly with the implementation of an exit strategy.

• We maximize our impact through cooperation with partners.We are a reliable and committed partner, and our existing infrastructure and logistics allow us to tailor our services to the needs of our target group. We recognize that an emergency can only be confronted in partnership with state governments and other stakeholders. We make our specialized contribution as part of a broader emergency response.

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Quality management Our quality management consists of a broad variety of tools, organizational processes and standards for monitoring, evaluation and organizational learning. It allows us to actively manage performance, strengthen co-workers and develop strategies for development. As part of the introduction of a broader global results-based management (RBM) system, SOS Children’s Villages International is developing a clear approach to programme monitoring and social impact assessment.

In order to ensure our programmes are and remain relevant to our target group, are effective in achieving the desired results, and efficient in the way we operate, we continuously monitor our work in the ‘plan-do-check-act monitoring cycle. While implementing

CARE

Plan We plan our programmes following defined procedures based on the needs of our target group and according to our policies and quality standards.

Act We learn from our monitoring and evaluation results and use this learning for the next planning phase.

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HEALTH

Do EDUCATION We support the child’s development through direct essential services, capacity building & advocacy, addressing the child’s rights to survival and development in the areas of care, education and health.

Check We continuously monitor and evaluate the development of the childeren and families we support, the performance of our co-workers, and our programmes.

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our programmes, we continuously monitor progress made on activity- and output levels. Should outputs take much longer than expected, or stay away all together, our intervention model is evaluated to see how we can improve in a next planning phase.

In this evaluation we are currently piloting a global ‘change matrix’. This tool supports data collection on result levels regarding those sustainable changes that the SOS Children’s Villages organization is aiming to achieve in the long run. The change matrix also makes it easy for programmes to analyze their interventions, document them and make the results accessible and useable for further planning.

Transparency and Accountability Acting “in the best interest of the child” commits us to maintain and continuously improve the quality of our services and interventions. Accountability is a fundamental part of our organization, underpinning ‘Who we are’.

Our “Anti-fraud and Anti-corruption Guidelines” aim to support all SOS Children’s Village member associations, board members and employees in developing good governance practices, and preventing and handling issues of fraud and corruption. Our “Good Management and Accountability Quality Standards” set the quality standards in the area of management and transparency, the integrity of the organization and the protection of assets.

These quality standards apply to all member associations, which are required to take on specific obligations to meet their accountability towards their children, local communities, government and donors.

Other accountabilities regarding the quality of child care, advocacy, fundraising ethics and governance can be found in the relevant quality standards, such as the National Association Manual, SOS Children’s Village and Fundraising Manuals, and also in basic policy documents such as the international statutes and the brand book. Tools such as the code of conduct for all co-workers also form an important part accountability framework.

Each Member Association publishes its own audited Annual Report, whilst the International Annual Report of SOS Children’s Villages reports on the programmes, organization, income, expenditures, partners and global impact of our organization.

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Contribution to international development agenda The Millennium Development Goals 2000-2015 The MDGs are the most successful global anti-poverty push in history. They are especially important for the well-being of children, who comprise the majority of the estimated billion people who live below the poverty line. Even though success is not always easy to track, studies reveal that the MDGs have already played a key role in increasing the enrolment of children in primary education; in saving the lives of mothers; in reducing children’s vulnerability to preventive diseases such as HIV/AIDS; and in creating the preconditions for a cleaner and safer environment29. The core programme work of SOS Children’s Villages is designed to contribute to the achievement of the MDGs; the examples below illustrate how:

29 UN, The Millenium Development Goals Report, 2015

GOAL 1 | Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger • providing protective environments for children without parental care in SOS Children’s Villages families, as well as children in vulnerable families, through family strengthening programmes; • supporting families by developing their capacity to become materially and financially self-sufficient, • with a focus on providing skills for income generating activities; • establishing and strengthening local safety nets for children and their families, such as community childcare centers, schools, and basic social services to help them overcome poverty; • maintaining feeding programmes in emergency situations.

GOAL 2 | Achieve universal primary Education • providing early, primary, and secondary education and vocational training for more than 130,000 children in 186 Hermann Gmeiner Schools and 58 vocational training centers worldwide; • facilitating and supporting access to education for children and young people in educational facilities provided by other service providers; • investing early in quality child care and development programmes in 230 kindergartens; • supporting local governments and school management to raise the quality of education in public • schools and vocational training centers; • providing educational opportunities for vulnerable children with special needs, such as disabled children and children orphaned by HIV / AIDS; • ensuring equal access to primary and secondary education for girls; • safeguarding the right to education in emergencies

GOAL 3 | Promote gender equality and empower women • building the capacities of women and girls, for example through skills training, education on women’s rights and domestic violence, personal development, and non-formal education; • recognizing the increased vulnerability of women and girls to HIV / AIDS and providing them with access to youth-friendly, gender-sensitive health services, including voluntary, confidential HIV testing and counselling.

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GOAL 4 | Reduce child mortality • establishing and supporting mother and child centers to promote improved neonatal health and reduce the number of infant deaths; • employing health care workers and social workers to support better parenting, assist in disease • prevention, and help families manage childhood illnesses; • supporting community health programmes with capacity building and resources, including human resources and necessary materials; • providing health care in 74 medical centers, to serve communities that lack public medical services.

GOAL 7 | Ensure environmental sustainability • implementing green practices in programmes and daily living routines; • organizing educational workshops and training on green practices and leading by good practices, such as by introducing solar energy and water purification systems; • investing in infrastructure to provide safe drinking water and water treatment programmes, especially in times of emergency.

GOAL 6 | Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases • providing support programmes (including schooling, health services, and psychosocial support) for children and families affected by HIV / AIDS; • providing access to voluntary testing, counselling, retro-viral drugs, and treatment; • carrying out information campaigns on the risk of infection and on discrimination against people with AIDS; • improving the quality of life of chronically ill parents through welfare management and positive living; • empowering children and young people to make informed decisions, especially regarding safe sex.

GOAL 5 | Improve maternal health • providing mobile medical services and skilled birth attendants through family strengthening programmes; • operating mother and child clinics, which offer pre- and post-natal care, as well as childbirth facilities; for example, approximately 25,000 people are being treated by SOS Children’s Villages’ • medical staff across southern Somalia, where SOS Children’s Villages is reported to be the only remaining international aid organization.

GOAL 8 | develop a global partnership for development • advocating - alone or as a member of networks - sustainable development that considers human rights and targets the most vulnerable children and families affected by poverty; • working in partnership with UN agencies, governments, NGOs, the corporate sector, and private donors to leverage resources and build capacity; • engaging and supporting the communities where SOS Children’s Villages are active so that they can develop their own support services.

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Post-2015 global agenda for sustainable development The MDG efforts have made unprecedented progress in addressing some of the world’s most pressing problems. But not all MDG’s will be achieved, and not all major problems are being addressed. The UN-SG commissioned a ‘High Level Panel (HLP) of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda’ to evaluate the MDGs and make recommendations for the future. In May 2013 the HLP shared its report27. Amongst others, they conclude that the MDGs were insufficiently geared towards reaching the poorest and most-excluded people. They found the biggest omission of the Millennium Declaration and the MDGs the lack of a vision on the sustainable integration of economic and social development and a healthy natural environment. They advised the UN-SG to let the post-2015 development agenda to be driven by five ‘transformative shifts’: • Leave no-one behind (which the UN-SG since translated as ‘Getting to Zero (people living in extreme poverty (<USD 1.25/day))’ • Put sustainable development at the core • Transform economies for jobs and inclusive growth • Build peace and effective, open and accountable institutions for all • Forge a new global partnership (not just for, but with the poorest and most excluded people, and together with corporate, academic and philanthropic partners) SOS Children’s Villages responded to the HLP report by stating that despite major achievements, inequality increased significantly and that the recommendations of the HLP still don’t have the wellbeing of children, young adults and families as departure points for the development agenda.

SOS Children’s Villages mobilized its members and partner organizations across the globe to influence the set of goals of the next development agenda – the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It produced think-pieces on such subjects as health, education, social protection and employment, and a vision document on the post-2015 development agenda. In New York, Brussels and Geneva it is part of working groups working with and influencing national governments to adopt a pro-poor, pro-child development agenda, in which the position of children without (or at risk of losing) parental care gets special attention. In the INGO working groups in New York, SOS Children’s Villages is an actively engaged in influencing the list of indicators which will later be used to measure the impact of the SDGs in improving the wellbeing of people at the bottom of the pyramid.

30 UN, A new global partnership, 2015

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Policies, research and publications

POLICIES AND GUIDELINES These binding policies and guidelines define how we work with children, families, communities and partners.

REPORT AND BROCHURES Annual Reports, Facts & Figures, and other information about SOS Children’s Villages International.

SOS Children’s Villages is one of the world’s largest child care and child development organizations, and has a vast library with open-access information, which can easily be accessed at our website.

Here you will find:

POSITION PAPERS SOS Children’s Villages International’s positions on the issues and development challenges of our time.

Click here to visit the site

RESEARCH Findings from our work in child development, family strengthening and community capacity building.

PUBLICATION FOR KIDS Posters and booklets to help children and young people learn about their rights and how to claim them.

THINK PIECES Facts, contexts and perspectives on child rights and development issues to help decisionmakers.

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Important Partner Relations SOS Children’s Villages is a member of:

On NGO quality management

The International Civil Society Centre; a not-for-profit organisation fully owned by the organisations it serves, working to develop strategies for successfully navigating change and thus help the world’s leading ICSOs maximise their impact for a sustainable and more equitable world.

Since 2012, SOS Children’s Villages is a signatory of the International Non-Governmental Organizations Commitment to Accountability Charter, which outlines our common commitment to excellence, transparency and accountability. SOS Children’s Villages reports every year to this Accountability Charter in a separate annual report.

InsideNGO a global membership association of peers from more than 300 international relief and development organizations who share operational expertise, insights and leading practices to strengthen their operational and management capacity through effective collaboration, practical solutions, professional development, and advocacy.

NetHope Enables humanitarian organizations to better serve the developing world through smarter use of technology. We help our member organizations collaborate, innovate, and leverage the full potential of information and communications technology. Its mission is to act as a catalyst for collaboration, bringing together the knowledge and power of 43 leading international humanitarian organizations so that the best information communication technology and practices can be used to serve people in the developing world.

On emergency relief and reconstruction SOS Children’s Villages holds a Framework Partnership Agreement with ECHO, and is a signatory to the Code of Conduct of the RCRC and NGOs in Disaster Relief

SOS Children’s Villages is a member of Voluntary Organisations in Cooperation in Emergencies”; a network representing non-governmental organisations (NGOs) based in 19 European countries, who are active in humanitarian aid worldwide. VOICE is the main NGO interlocutor with the European Union on emergency aid and disaster risk reduction, promotings the values of humanitarian NGOs and the quality and effectiveness of humanitarian action

The Global Protection Cluster, led by UNHCR, coordinates and provides global level inter-agency policy advice and guidance on the implementation of protection in complex and natural disaster humanitarian emergencies, in particular with regard to the protection of internally displaced persons. SOS Children’s Villages is a member of the Child Protection Working group that drafted the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action.

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On Child Protection

On alternative care

The CYCC Network uses knowledge mobilization (KMb) strategies to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children and youth living in challenging contexts

SOS Children’s Villages is a member of the interagency Better Care Network. The BCN is guided by the UNCRC; the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children and the Stockholm Declaration on Children and Residential Care. Its mission is to facilitate active information exchange and collaboration on the issue of children without adequate family care and advocate for technically sound policy and programmatic action on global, regional, and national levels.

SOS Children’s Villages is a member of: Keeping Children Safe is a membership network of organisations working together to increase safeguards offered to children. Keeping Children Safe strives to ensure children globally are safeguarded and protected from all forms of violence, abuse and exploitation.

SOS Children’s Villages is a member of the International Foster Care Organization (IFCO). Based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Guidelines on Alternative Care for Children, IFCO is an international network dedicated to promoting family-based solutions for out-of-home children across the world.

SOS Children’s Villages works together with: The International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN); a multidisciplinary international organization committed to increasing public awareness of all forms of violence against children, developing activities to prevent such violence, and promoting the rights of children to prevent cruelty in every nation, in every form. It brings together a worldwide cross-section of committed professionals to work toward the prevention and treatment of child abuse, neglect and exploitation globally.

SOS Children’s Villages is a member of the Fédération Internationale des Communautés Educatives. FICE-International’s vision is to create networks across continents worldwide to support actions and all those working with at-risk children, children with special needs and children and young people in out-of-home care.

All activities aim to respect the personality, interests and needs of the child or the young person.

The Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children aims to act as a catalyst to encourage more action and progress towards ending all corporal punishment in all continents

Family for Every Child, a global alliance of local civil society organisations bringing together practices and research from local and national contexts to our global alliance, adapting and sharing these ideas to create a range of solutions to the crisis of children living without families.

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On Advocacy

SOS Children’s Villages is a member of:

Formerly the NGO Group on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Child Rights Connect is one of the largest international networks for child rights. Based in Geneva, it has a unique working relationship with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and ECOSOC consultative status. SOS Children’s Villages chairs the NGO working group on children without parental care, under which guidance the UN Guidelines on Alternative Care of Children were developed, and whose main aim currently is to promote and contribute to the dissemination and implementation of Guidelines.

The Advisory Group of the he NGO Committee on UNICEF; a New York-based coalition of non-governmental organizations, which advocates for the promotion and protection of children’s rights, in partnership with UNICEF. SOS Children’s Villages chairs the NGOCU working group on children without parental care.

SOS Children’s Villages is also a member of: • the Child Rights Action Group (CRAG) an informal partnership of international NGOs working to protect and promote children’s rights on the follow-up and implementation of the European Commission Communication – ‘Towards an EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child;

Eurochild is a network of organisations and individuals working in and across Europe to promote the rights and wellbeing of children and young people, whose mission is to promote the rights and well-being of children in policy and practice through advocacy, membership exchange and research.

The EU Alliance for Investing in Children brings together over 20 European networks sharing a commitment to end child poverty and to promote child well-being across Europe. Its mission is to promote child-centred, quality and comprehensive policies to tackle child poverty and promote child well-being, by providing expert support in the development of EU and national policies, legislation and funding programmes.

Concord is the European confederation of relief and development NGOs. It is made up of national associations and networks representing over 2600 NGOs, supported by millions of European citizens. Concord is the main interlocutor with the European Union institutions on development policies.

• the Child Rights International Network (CRIN) a global research, policy and advocacy organisation, which uses the UN-CRC to bring children’s rights to the top of the international agenda, puts pressure on national governments to promote and protect children’s rights, empowers local people to campaign for children’s rights and promotes the use of the law as a powerful advocacy tool.

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is an international alliance of members and partners dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society throughout the world. It is an advocate for citizen participation as an essential component of governance and democracy worldwide. It constitutes an influential network of organisations at the local, national, regional and international levels, and spans the spectrum of civil society.

Amongst others, SOS Children’s Villages also: • holds a participatory status with the Council of Europe; • holds a special consultative status with ECOSOC; • has been granted association with the UN Department of Public Information; • NGO-observer with the Africa Commission on Human Rights.

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