Over 60 million children have lost one or both parents throughout the world due to different causes. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is adding significantly to this number.
We know that children need and have a right to be cared for by their parents and to grow up in a family environment as much as possible. This has been recognized through years of experience and research as well as formally recognized under national and international laws. In many countries, however, few or no mechanisms exist to ensure the most appropriate placements, encourage and support guardianship and adoption arrangements, and provide support and monitoring for foster families. Much needs to be done to prevent separation by supporting families and to develop better care alternatives when separation is inevitable. National and international actors need to establish and enforce appropriate legal standards to ensure the safety, well-being, and healthy development of children placed in care, including continued efforts towards reunification and permanency.
Establishment and Expansion of the Better Care Network
Recognizing the urgent need for concerted action, UNICEF, the Displaced Children and Orphans Fund (DCOF) and the Africa Bureau for Sustainable Development of USAID, and Save the Children UK, came together to form the Better Care Network (BCN) in 2003. This decision was influenced by the Stockholm Conference on Residential Care in May 2003 and the position paper presented there by the Save the Children Alliance, "A Last Resort: The Growing Concern About Children in Residential Care," and by workshops on better care issues in Africa and the United States. During its first two years, BCN existed as a loose affiliation of organizations exchanging information through a growing listserve. As the listserve grew, and more information was shared via the network, the organizations mentioned above, together with CARE and the Hope for African Children Initiative (HACI), agreed that BCN served a vital role, and should expand its scope through the creation of a formal secretariat to support its work. Each organization agreed to contribute resources to strengthen BCN and to serve on its steering committee. In August 2005, BCN's secretariat was established. The secretariat is based at UNICEF headquarters and operates with the guidance and direction of the steering committee, which meets once a year.