Child Welfare: Connecting Research, Policy, and Practice

29. Child Welfare Challenges for Developing Nations

29 Child Welfare Challenges for Developing Nations Myrna McNitt This chapter explores the child welfare challenges in developing nations by considering some of the major systemic factors that relate to the practice of child welfare and child protection. The overarching challenge is that of developing humane policies and programs in ways that do not replicate models of colonialism. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child provides a framework for the discussion that follows, and evidence from research is used to understand and explore policy and practice in developing questions. The goal of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which was ratified November 20, 1989, is to set international standards for health care, education, as well as legal, civil, and social services. The CRC’s basic premise, as stated in its preamble, is that children are individuals with rights, but who “by reason of his (sic) physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth”(as quoted from the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child (1959) in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 1989). The CRC states that children have the right to survival, full development, protection from harm and exploitation, and participation in family and social life. Cantwell (2005) identifies those principles that apply to children without parental care: • Family-based solutions are generally preferable to institutional placements. • National (domestic) solutions are generally preferable to those involving another country. 423 • Permanent solutions are generally preferable to inherently temporary ones. • Alternative care should have a range of options. (p. 4) Despite the 30-year history of the Convention, children in developing nations are vulnerable to a wide range of conditions that limit their rights and prevent healthy growth and development. Child Maltreatment and Neglect Children are abused and neglected worldwide. In India, a two-year study commissioned by the Ministry of Women and Child Development found that 53% of the 2,200 surveyed children between the ages of 5 and 12 reported one or more forms of sexual abuse, with two out of three children physically abused (Pandey, 2008). The International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN), with UNICEF, sampled 72 nations for their perception of child maltreatment . Daro (2006), in this work for ISPCAN and UNICEF, found that the most common definition of maltreatment was neglect or abuse (physical and sexual) by a parent or caretaker. However, other forms included“forcing a child to beg, child infanticide, and abuse within a school or detention facility”(p. 13). Neglect is the most common form of child maltreatment. Extreme neglect is defined as having a history of sensory deprivation in one or more domains of development (e.g., minimal exposure to language, touch, and social interactions ) (Perry, 2001). Extreme neglect leads to disorganization of the brain’s functioning at particularly sensitive times of development for the child, and thus a lag in social, emotional, and cognitive development (Perry, 2001; Rutter & English and Romanian Adoptees Study Team,1998).In all forms of abuse or neglect , the child’s development is derailed when the significant adult fails to meet the child’s needs. Neglect and abuse interfere with academic progress, social relationships and competence, self-concept, and emotional and behavioural functioning (Cicchetti & Toth,2000;Appleyard,Egeland,van Dulmen,& Stroufe, 2005; Thrane,Hoyt,Whitbeck,&Yoder,2006;Windsor,Glaze,Koga,& Bucharest Early Intervention Project Core Group, 2007). Substance misuse increases the risk for physical, emotional, and sexual abuse (Vungkhanching, Sher, Jackson, & Parra, 2004). It is also important to understand child maltreatment by looking through a wider lens at abuse in institutionalized systems of care outside the family. Institutional abuse of children occurs in many forms. Educators in many parts of the world use harsh physical discipline to manage children in school. Child care workers in orphanages may use unacceptable discipline or sexually exploit MCNITT 424 children. Children may be subjected to multiple forms of extreme neglect by being restrained, or denied food or access to bathrooms. Under these conditions the very young and disabled are at highest risk. The risk of abuse and neglect for children in developing countries is further exacerbated by systemic issues. Systemic Challenges within Developing Countries The conditions that erode children’s rights and weaken the fabric of family life in developing countries include chronic poverty...