Resources Database

In 2004, STOP AIDS NOW!, a partnership between Aids Fonds, ICCO, Cordaid, Hivos, and Oxfam Novib, was looking for ways to more effectively address the needs of orphans and other vulnerable children in South Africa. To do this, the five Dutch STOP AIDS NOW! Partners as well as two other Dutch organisations – the World Population Fund and Save the Children Netherlands – identified ten South African organisations and asked them to form their own partnership to work on this issue.

This publication seeks to increase understanding of the need for, and the process of, conducting outcome evaluations of parenting programs in low- and middle-income countries. The result of a collaboration between the University of Cape Town, WHO, UNICEF, and the WHO-led Violence Prevention Alliance, the guidance is aimed at policy-makers; program planners and developers; high-level practitioners in government ministries; representatives of nongovernmental and community-based organizations; and donors working in the area of violence prevention.

This document is the final report from the conference “A Better Way to Protect ALL Children: The theory and practice of child protection systems” that was held in India in November 2012. The conference built on the recent conceptual and practical work to better understand and reform child protection systems in both developed and developing countries. A child protection system was defined as certain structures, functions and capacities – or components – that have been assembled to prevent and respond to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of children.

This discussion paper puts forward a set of lessons learned and recommendations for referral mechanisms and case management for vulnerable children in the Eastern and Southern Africa region (ESAR). This paper concludes a regional study that reviewed regional knowledge, understandings and practice with respect to referral mechanisms and case management – exploring what they mean and do at present and what their future potential may be in responding to the multiple risks and needs of vulnerable children.

Learning About Children in Urban Slums: A Rapid Ethnographic Study in Two Urban Slums of Mombasa of Community-based Child Protection Mechanisms and their Linkage with the Kenyan National Child Protection System presents outcomes of a research study to learn about community-based child protection processes and mechanisms in two urban slums in Mombasa, Kenya. This research is part of a wider, inter-agency learning initiative that aims to contribute to strengthening the national child protection system in Kenya.

This is a Save the Children publication focusing on quality childcare standards for children. It documents the learning and experiences of participating agencies implementing quality childcare standards in four countries in East and Central Africa. Each of the agencies utilized the standards set out in Raising the Standards, published by Save the Children in February 2005. Applying the Standards aims to help childcare agencies, managers and practitioners implement the quality standards, regardless of the nature of the childcare provided.

The Rapid Retention Survey Toolkit is intended to allow human resources managers to determine health professionals’ motivational preferences for accepting and remaining in posts.

This report discusses the findings of a study that explored factors that influence retention in social work in Ireland, particularly in the area of child protection and welfare. The study provides important insights into the levels of stress and burnout experienced by social workers and also the psychological coping factors which social workers use to deal with their workplace challenges.

This paper presents findings from a study commissioned by the Inter Agency Task Team on Children affected by HIV and AIDS. The study identifies practical ways in which child protection and HIV sectors can combine their comparative expertise, to strengthen child protection systems that meet the needs of all children at risk of abuse, violence, exploitation and neglect, whilst also meeting the unique needs of HIV-affected and infected children, and those at increased risk of HIV infection and protection abuses.

As part of the UNAIDS Best Practice Collection, this document looks at strategies to lessen the risk of carer burnout. It briefly reviews the approach developed and used by one faith-based organization to care for its staff and volunteers who work as carers in the community and also with the families of those living with HIV.

This study assessed health worker motivation as part of the baseline assessment for a health system strengthening intervention in three rural districts in Zambia by examining underlying issues grouped around relevant outcome constructs such as job satisfaction, general motivation, burnout, organization commitment, conscientiousness and timeliness that collectively measure overall levels of motivation.

This paper has a two-fold objective: i) to give the reader an overview of the magnitude of unequal health workforce distribution in developing countries, provide a summary of the evidence to date on the factors that contribute to these imbalances, and present a systematic set of policy interventions that are being implemented around the world to address the problem of recruitment and retention of health workers in rural and remote regions of the developing countries; and ii) to introduce the reader to the potential application of the DCE to elicit health workers’ preferences and determine t

This comparative analysis report presents learning from a participatory research process with children and adults representing community-based child protection mechanisms (CBCPMs), child groups, civil society organizations, government departments and Plan offices. This analysis aims to inform further actions to sustain standing mechanisms at the community level that will contribute towards the strengthening of comprehensive national child protection systems. This analysis also helps managers recognize and scale up emerging good practices, ideally for replication in other communities.

The purpose of this training series of workbooks is to increase child and family service agencies' effectiveness in developing and retaining their staff by applying information from research and best retention practices to their work.

Recognizing that greater clarity on the evidence for improving CHW performance could enhance LMIC government and partner policy making and programming, as well as identify important gaps in the global knowledge base, the U.S. Government, under the leadership of USAID, organized a year‐long evidence review process (April 2011‐May 2012). This process culminated in a two‐day “Evidence Summit” event (May 31‐June 1, 2012). This document highlights the main findings from that event.

The report from the Investing in Those Who Care for Children: Social Welfare Workforce Strengthening Conference includes the agenda, highlights from the conference, session summaries and other information related to the conference.  The conference was held in Cape Town in November 2010 and served as a catalyst for many subsequent country-level and global workforce strengthening initiatives.

This document outlines a set of objectives to meet aspirations for social justice and social development. It was developed by the leadership of the three international organizations, including the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) and the International Council on Social Welfare (ICSW) with input from thousands of social work practitioners, educators and development workers.

This policy briefing provides background and rationale for the recommendations that governments, donors, and international institutions should include costs and strategies for the remuneration of caregivers in budgets, program plans, and technical guidance related to their role in the response to HIV. It also recommends that compensation for primary caregivers should take the form of social protection and remuneration for secondary caregivers should take the form of salaries.

This document lays out a short-term human resource development plan to ensure adequate, appropriate, well-trained Human Resources at all levels of the health and social welfare system.

This report presents research that ascertains the nature of scarce and critical social work skills in South Africa. The report quantifies the shortage of social workers, presents information on qualitative issues that impact this shortage and makes recommendations regarding the training, recruitment and retention of social workers.