After our previous international Seminar of 2013 that took place in Guanajuato, Mexico, it was necessary to have a new meeting space in order to evaluate the progresses and challenges that are still to be faced in the region. This was the fifth international seminar organised by RELAF and included the participation of key actors from 17 countries of the region: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela. In addition to this broad representation, several government delegations, UNICEF representatives and members of civil society organisations and academicians joined the Seminar and provided their valuable contributions and visions.

The situation of institutionalised children in Latin America and the Caribbean

It is estimated that 8 million children are currently living in orphanages all around the world. 240.000 of them are from Latin America and the Caribbean. Since they are deprived of the protection and care that only a family can give to them, they are more vulnerable and more exposed to having their rights violated.

Deinstitutionalisation experiences: learnings and projections

Two sessions, each consisting of three simultaneous workshops, took place during the Seminar. In the first session, work focused on different experiences and initiatives to achieve the deinstitutionalisation of children in Latin American and Caribbean countries. Diverse methodologies and results were exposed, which allowed for the identification of accomplishments and challenges in the region.

These initiatives have been carried out by both governments and civil society organisations. Some presentations showed a decrease in the number of institutions and institutionalised children. Poverty was identified to be the main issue: in spite of the advances in legislations and of the UN Guidelines, children are still unnecessarily and illegally separated from their families due to poverty-related issues.

The still greatly unachieved task of the region regarding the eradication of the institutionalisation of children under the age of three was strongly emphasised. It was also concluded that, in order to accomplish the objective, it is necessary to train and/or strengthen the organisations that provide support to families, and that it is necessary to build a comprehensive inter-sectorial strategy for the prevention of separations and abandonment.

From the analysis of the presentations, it became clear that deinstitutionalisation in Latin America is a much more complex process than simply deinstitutionalising children and shutting down institutions. It is to be implemented within the framework of the creation of comprehensive rights protection systems, with the necessary aid provided by the adequacy of public policies and of practices to a human rights approach that responds to the situation of each child according to their best interest and considering the several actors involved and their different levels of decision and responsibility. The experiences exposed showed that continuous advances are obtained only when applying the principles of “necessity” and “suitability” stated in the UN Guidelines for the alternative care of children.

Gatekeeping came up as a much needed action. For this reason, the participants arrived to the conclusion that it is necessary to develop, implement and strengthen policies and services to prevent abandonment and unnecessary separations, creating and promoting administrative and legal mechanisms that make alternative care be used only when necessary.

The adequacy of alternative care through the multiplication and consolidation of foster care as the most suitable option for the majority of children that require alternative care was considered to be crucial. The promotion of the development of specialised residential care for those children that need it, eradicating the right violating practices, was also found to be essential.

Care of young children. Model for the prevention of abandonment and institutionalisation

Providing care to and preventing the abandonment and separation of young children (under 3 years of age) is an issue that must be considered a priority, since institutionalisation in such early stages of life causes irreversible psychological and physical harm.

Regional advances in prevention practices

In our region, several small-scale advances are currently undergoing and have already showed positive results. In this sense, within the Seminar, it was concluded that it is necessary to replicate these experiences in the entire continent as a way to keep moving forward and to broaden the path we chose.

For this purpose, several encouraging experiences were presented. Among many other speakers, the Integral Childhood Attention Centres of the Dominican Republic and Buckner Family Hope Centres of Peru shared with the participants the results of their programme evaluations. The highlight of these presentations was the benefits of these kinds of programmes that aim to involve and support families. The qualitative outcomes exposed showed an important number of mechanisms and practices related with the results of the improvement of the well-being of children and families. These results include:

1. Capacity to establish a warm, cosy, inclusive and service-oriented environment

2. An effective interdisciplinary, professional team that bases its work in collaboration and mutual support

3. A respectful, friendly, trustworthy and supportive relationship between staff and families

4.High levels of parental commitment and participation

Developing and supporting families implies a positive development of family functionality, improving the way in which parents fulfil their responsibilities, and increasing knowledge and resources (Daly, Bray, Bruckauf, Margaria, Pec’nik, & Samms-Vaughan1, 2015; UNESCO, 20142, UNICEF, 2006) 3.

These programmes promote the creation and strengthening of social safety nets and contribute to family well-being. The special characteristic of these actions is that they benefit children in communities with high rates of poverty and violence and in with children have serious risk of experiencing deficiencies in their educational growth. 4.

Among many other experiences shared with the participants, we would like to highlight the implementation in Argentina of our Model for the prevention of the abandonment and institutionalisation. We shared the progresses made in the technical cooperation project that RELAF is undertaking along with UNICEF Argentina in the provinces of Tucumán and Corrientes with the cooperation and commitment of authorities and institutions from the provincial.

Comprehensive protection measures, taken at the right time and with the appropriate follow-up, allow for children not to be separated from their family environments. These measures tend to strengthen and support families by providing guidance and assistance to the parents so that they can provide appropriate care to their children within their family contexts. Another mechanism is the inclusion of vulnerable families in programmes that provide family strengthening and support.

RELAF’s and UNICEF’s project in these provinces is currently producing and developing locally applicable instruments (protocols), and aims to enhance the capabilities of the local actors involved in the prevention of the abandonment and institutionalisation of young children. It also aims to use these experiences as references that allow for a better analysis and adaptation of the “Model for the prevention” in different locations of the country and the region 5.

2 Daly, M., Bray, R., Bruckauf, Z., Byrne, J., Margaria, A., Pec'nik, N., & Samms-Vaughan, M. (2015). Family and parenting support: Policy and provision in a global context. Innocenti Insight. Florence. UNICEF Office of Research.

3 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) (2014). Holistic early childhood development index (HECDI) framework: A technical guide. Paris, France.

4 United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) (2006). Programming experiences in early child development. New York, NY. Early Childhood Development Unit.

5 The information previously exposed is based on the abstract of the presentation "Strengthening Families and Developing Resilience: lessons learnt in the Programme Evaluation in Peru and in the Dominican Republic", by Dr. Henry Parada and Ana Leticia Ibarra from Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada.

The practice of foster care and the experiences in the creation of new programmes: lessons learnt, critical issues, and results

Global actions and strategies for the implementation of the UN Guidelines for the alternative care of children

These activities included the participation of important authorities, activists and academicians from intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations such as universities and institutes that carry out global actions.These institutions were Hope & Homes for Children, International Social Service, Better Care Network, Plataforma Educativa, SOS Children's Villages, FICE Internacional, The University of Nottingham, University of Oxford, and the UN Special Rapporteurship on Violence against Children, among others.

The presentations made it clear that children all over the world continue to be institutionalised. This keeps happening in spite of the wide acknowledgement that institutional care is related with irreversible psychological and physical harm. According to the UN Guidelines for the alternative care of children, the 193 States Party of the CRC should adopt a "Goal of and strategy for deinstitutionalisation", particularly for children under the age of 3, who are at serious risk of being harmed.

Several successful cases of implementation of alternative care in accordance with the Guidelines were also presented. These cases had very positive results, such as shutting down large institutions and raising more funding for family strengthening programmes instead of allocating said funding to maintaining residential care institutions.

However, several challenges were found in the same places where these improvements were taking place. These challenges include the improvement of living conditions of the children that live in vulnerable homes and the establishment of therapeutic communities that help children and their families overcome traumatic experiences. Another very discussed issue was the eradication of violence against children, as well as the global actions to be taken and the global challenges to overcome in order to allow for the implementation of alternative care in alignment with the UN Guidelines and the CRC. In this sense, the participants presented empirical evidence that showed how institutional care is prejudicial to children and families.

Emphasis was also placed on the need to create better family-based care options. These options offer better results for children and families, and also improve the cost-benefit relation in the long run. Nevertheless, the extended confinement of children in orphanages still persists at a global level due to it still be seen as a "cheaper" and "easier" political option. The financial revenue generated in orphanages also creates a strong resistance against the adoption of alternative care. Socially vulnerable groups are overrepresented in orphanages. The best interest of the child is disregarded in favour of the interest of the system.

However, and considering all the difficulties, very positive results based on family care have been achieved with the appropriate support services. These results allowed for improvements in the psychological, educational and health conditions of children and for the creation of protection environments in which children can grow and develop. In this sense, concrete cases of a significant decrease in the number of institutionalised children were presented. These cases spanned from different countries such as Romania (the number of 100.000 institutionalised children dropped to under 9.000) and Rwanda (where the number of institutionalised children was reduced by 50%) 6.

These results were achieved and are being upheld due to the following reasons:

1. Continuous political will

2. Evidence and know-how”

3. A strong element represented by social workers

4. Financing and funding

Accomplishing deinstitutionalisation faces several obstacles at a global level, but is one of the Sustainable Development Objectives for 2030 that were recently agreed on. In addition to this, many legally binding conventions support deinstitutionalisation and there are many practical examples that help convince actors of the necessity to change the paradigm.

At the civil society level, several work groups that bring together different organisations and entities that work towards the fulfilment of the right to family and community life are being strengthened. In this sense, it is worth mentioning the recent global conference Building on the Momentum that took place in October, 2016, in Geneva, Switzerland, and that was a milestone achieved by the global foster care movement of which we are part.

At the scene. Travelling along the path towards an alternative care model in the region

The last day of our Seminar was carried out in the facilities o Ciudad del Niño, 7 an important and symbolic site as it is a macroinstitution. We wanted for the last day of the Seminar to be at the scene.

In Ciudad del Niño, Fortunato Peiroten (Director of Ciudad del Niño) and Idian Reiss, also known as Sor Lourdes (Director of Casa Hogar Malambo), shared words with the participants. Mr. Peiroten’s and Sor Lourdes’s organisations are part of RELAF’s and UNICEF’s technical cooperation agreement in Panama for the development of programmes for the deinstitutionalisation of the children residing in these organisations and for achieving an institutional reconversion so that these organisations can help strengthen families and develop and manage alternative care programmes.

In the case of Hogar Malambo, we would like to highlight the collection of concrete results of the deinstitutionalisation and reconversion processes. As of August, 2015, 140 children of all ages resided in this institution. We proposed to strengthen incidence to accelerate the resolution of their cases, with the aim of reducing the number of children living there by 25% (particularly children from 0 to 5 years of age). As of September, 2016, 40 children were deinstitutionalised, and 100 remained living in the institution. The initial goal was surpassed, as 29% of the children were deinstitutionalised. This includes children of ages spanning from 0 to 17, and some presented some kind of disability.

Promoting the participation of children in the transformation of the systems: interactions and conclusions

A participatory workshop was carried out during RELAF Seminar 2016. It was an important activity for the children who live in Ciudad del Niño, Hogar Malambo and SOS Children's Villages Colón and who are undergoing deinstitutionalisation processes 8

Networking and building of a regional roadmap

“There is no abandoned child without an abandoned family"
Antonio Carlos Gomes Da Costa 9

During the closure of the Seminar, a networking space involving all participants present took place. Luis Pedernera, from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Childs 10 , was in charge of introducing the activity. RELAF Seminar was found to have been a space that allowed for a deep understanding of the regional situation and, particularly, of each country's situation, of the experiences, and of the challenges that is necessary to overcome in order to fulfil all children's rights, particularly the right to family and community life.

Three main elements that allow for the building of a regional roadmap were identified from the exchanges that took place in the three days of the Seminar:

1.While acceptance of the CRC11 is unanimous in the Latin American and Caribbean countries (as shown by their unanimous ratification of the CRC), countries’ legislations are still in the process of adapting to it. It is also necessary to move forward in the implementation of child protection policies.

2.Within the adaptation process mentioned in the previous point, institutions in charge of implementing child care policies have made several changes, which can be seen in a naming and discursive change but cannot be seen in a change of paradigm. Operators resist change due to a lack of technical preparation that can be reflected in practice. Families are still considered responsible of all problems. The State-community-family corresponsibility, which is one of the bases of the CRC, is ignored and replaced with a tutelary approach.

3.Children participation in protection policies must be enforced as an autonomy principle in order to replace the tutelary paradigm with a participatory paradigm that aims to fulfil all children's rights.

Regional roadmap

The building of a regional roadmap for deinstitutionalisation in Latin America and the Caribbean and for the promotion and defence of the children's right to family and community life took place during the networking space of the Seminar. This was a very important opportunity to analyse and reflect on the information presented and shared during the Seminar and to propose new lines of action.

The first issue addressed by the participants was the problematisation of institutionalisation. Considering that institutionalisation is a widely entrenched practice in the region, the participants reflected on the actions that are to be taken in order to discourage its implementation, and evaluated the institutional reconversion processes that are necessary to change the view on the harms caused by full-time institutions on the physical and psychological development of children. In this sense, we would like to highlight the following points:

• Experiences of a decrease in residential care, such as that of San Luis province in Argentina. It is necessary to make this kind of experiences a reference to move forward in this matter.

• The need to discourage admission of children to institutions.

• Three crucial actions to be part of the regional roadmap were proposed:

  1) Stopping institutionalisation
  2) Stopping the admission of children to institutions, by creating regulations to this end.
  3) Reconverting institutions into family and community strengthening centres, while creating foster care mechanisms.

Tied to the above, the issue of breaking cultural barriers in order to change the current paradigm of institutionalisation was discussed. The following considerations were made:

• The networking currently implemented in the countries and the need to keep on promoting this kind of actions on a regional level were pondered. It was also deemed as necessary to mobilise national and local actors, creating networks in countries that have none. These networks are to be spaces for incidence, implementation of change, creation of adequacy conditions, and are to involve all actors and sectors of society in order to change the positive view community has on residential care institutions.

• Criminalisation and victimisation of poverty were identified as two aspects of the same process that stigmatises poverty and leads to the belief that institutionalising children is in the children’s best interest.

• The community’s general lack of knowledge of the harm caused on children by them losing the care provided by their family and residing in institutions was problematized.

• The generation of awareness campaigns that include scientific evidence on the matter, and of foster care sensitisation and promotion campaigns was discussed.

Another issue addressed was that of the political will, both the one currently existent and the one that is still to be generated. Several opinions came up regarding the way to express this will, from the creation of regulations to the financial decision of providing funding for their implementation. It was agreed that:

• There is a general agreement regarding the lack of concrete regulations to promote deinstitutionalisation, and promoting the creation of said regulations as part of the regional actions to be taken was deemed necessary.

• It is important to turn the most advanced processes into a form of incidence on the most backward countries of the region. In this sense, beside the local Argentine experience (San Luis province), it was agreed that Cuba, Paraguay and Uruguay were the countries to show actions and will to accomplish this.

• Incidence strategies aimed at governments were proposed.

Regarding the importance of having reports on each country’s situation, the following was proposed:

• Implementing the baseline and monitoring tool in order to create a regional baseline that can be spread, enhancing the gathering of statistics available in the region, such as those developed by UNICEF and RELAF.

• With regards to the lack of official information, urging governments to generate it and disseminate it as part of the need to systematise global information in order to allow for a better orientation of public policies on childhood.

• Disseminating the local experiences throughout the region.

• Gathering all experiences in the CEN and turning it into a reference for the training of teams and operators that must implement the adequacies.

• Organising meetings for reflection by sub-areas.

Removing cultural obstacles was deemed as crucial in order to carry out deinstitutionalisation processes and to prevent institutionalisation. In this sense, the dissemination and sensitisation campaigns on the matter were discussed as part of the regional roadmap.

The guidelines for family strengthening were found to be strategic to work for the prevention of abandonment. In order to do this, two flaws were identified: the lack of training of the people working in the protection systems, including both alternative and institutional care, and the lack in the provision of information and resources to families so that they can take proper care of their children. In this sense, training spaces for the staff of the protection systems of each country were proposed to be included in the regional roadmap.

Finally, actions to generate and strengthen foster care systems in each country were deemed as key, by providing early support to foster families. This implies the creation of a registry of foster families, which was proposed for the roadmap.

List of participants