Vulnerable children and families are entitled to efficient, comprehensive and respectful assistance on multiple fronts set out in national and global policies,1 but are often faced with piecemeal, inadequate and intrusive services, or are neglected altogether. Integrating Case Management for Vulnerable Children: A process guide for assessing and developing an integrated case management system in Eastern and Southern Africa Highlighting the gaps in knowledge and interventions that need to be addressed to ensure a stronger coordinated and multisectoral response to realise children’s rights to care and protection.Discussing VAC in various forms of alternative care in Africa, as well as VAC after care, to inform and instigate strategic action to address it.Presenting the evidence from Africa about VAC in the family to highlight how violence is a key contributing factor to family separation and placement of children in alternative care.

VAC and care programs “work independently of each other…they are distinctly labelled as such, and there has been little merging of approaches to date.”15 This discussion paper explores the interlinkages between VAC and children’s care in the African context, including in legal and policy frameworks, data collection and use for decision making, service delivery, and public awareness to ensure families can be supported and empowered to provide protective, stable, and appropriate care for children. Consequently, family strengthening interventions are often lacking coordination and missing important areas of synergies. To date, initiatives to address VAC and to reform alternative care systems have not been explicitly or directly linked in policy and programming. The best way for governments in Africa to ensure a safer, healthier life for children is to prevent the causes of family separation, and, when that is unavoidable, to ensure the standards for alternative care are the highest possible.

While at least 50% of children between the ages of 2 and 17 years experienced one or more forms of violence across Africa in the past year, removing children from family care often fails to end their experience of violence. Violence Against Children and Care in Africa: A Discussion Paper

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