This month, GHR Foundation celebrated the International Day of the Girl Child, recognizing the power and potential of girls to create sustainable change and build a better world. The 1.1 billion girls worldwide are in a unique position to change the places in which they’re growing up—their resourceful creativity may address the persistent problems our generation is unable to solve.
 
In order to see the transformational impact of girls on the world, the global development community must do more to protect them in vulnerable situations. One of the most prominent threats to the healthy development of girls is child marriage. While communities and governments around the world have committed to ending child marriage, it remains a global crisis. One in three girls in the developing world, excluding China, are married before age 18, and one in nine under age 15. That means 47,000 girls are married each day, and 17.4 million girls per year.

Research by the Population Council shows programs educating girls and communities on the rights of women and teaching girls vocational skills have reduced the likelihood of child marriage by one third in Bangladesh. Interventions have been more scalable when incorporating community conversations around how to ensure the health and well-being of vulnerable girls.

GHR is working to end child marriage in vulnerable communities along Kenya's coast—where 22.9% of women aged 20-24 were married before age 18—by funding the Dialogue and Action Project (DAP). Catholic Relief Services is partnering with the Catholic Dioceses of Malindi and the Coast Interfaith Council of Clerics to promote girls’ right to education, raise awareness of the dangers of early marriage, improve systems for reporting child abuse and strengthening the economic status of vulnerable families through micro-lending programs.
 
A recent evaluation of DAP found particular projects, including peace clubs, Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) and inter-religious initiatives, effectively reduce rates of child marriage. These community groups help bridge barriers, allow community members to focus on ending the crisis and raise awareness on the dangers of early marriage. The study found: 

• 80% of the community considers child marriage a harmful practice, up from 67% at midterm
• Incidences of child marriage have reduced drastically since the project began intervening, according to key informants
• Awareness on the consequences of child marriages was as high as 96%
• 67% of community SILC participants reported having used loans to support girls’ education
• 70% of lending SILC members were engaged in actions preventing child marriages, and 52% reported having spoken out against child marriage in public

Child marriage is a human rights violation. By allowing it to continue, the world prevents girls from reaching their potential, and we risk wasting the immense creativity, talent and power of girls around the world. Declaring the practice illegal is not enough—community-level efforts to change norms and practices are the real fulcrum of change. To learn more about how GHR is partnering with organizations working to prevent child marriage in Kenya and around the world, contact us.

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are establishing a framework for advancing development priorities beyond 2015. The SDGs and the United Nation’s development agenda are tied closely to GHR’s funding goals and priorities, especially the Inter-Religious Action and Children In Families Initiatives.

A recent post on the United Nations Development Programme blog highlights the critical role foundations will play in the success of the SDGs. The post highlights insights from Ghana, Kenya, Colombia and Indonesia, where the United Nations is aiming to localize the SDGs by connecting local foundations with government and the private sector for policy discussions and development initiatives.

These countries, where economic development has resulted in increased donor engagement, have demonstrated the power of locally-driven philanthropy. They are better able to innovate, focus on outcomes, and provide insight to the complex barriers faced by the SDGs. By connecting with local philanthropy, governments and international organizations can maximize their impact.

We are excited by the growing focus on local partnerships, and look forward to seeing these local foundations drive change. To learn more about how GHR is working to advance global development priorities, contact us.

Recently, two of GHR’s current partners--Better Care Network and Global Social Service Workforce Alliance--released a new joint working paper under separate funding on the role of social service workforce development in care reform. 

The paper examines the critical role of social workers in caring for orphans and vulnerable children and highlights best practices in advancing the field.  By focusing on successes and challenges via case studies from Indonesia, Moldova and Rwanda, the report describes each country's reform processes and identify ways to strengthen and align the social service workforce based on the needs of the system, the scope of the issue and different care reform outcomes.

Based on the workforce strengthening strategies identified in the case studies, the paper concludes with lessons and recommendations, including the need to:

• Engage a diverse set of actors in the change process
  
• Reform policy and build the evidence base for care reform and workforce development
  
• Develop and strengthen strategies and approaches in practice
  
• Plan, develop and support the workforce
  
• Shift human and financial resources in care reform
  

GHR Foundation's Children in Families funding supports child protection interventions that strengthen families, respond to children without family care and drive further evidence of innovative, pro-family approaches. We know global development challenges are complex, but the full range of our partners’ work is extremely valuable in establishing and sharing the knowledge needed to create effective change. If you are interested in learning more, please contact us.

An important part of the United Nations’ development agenda is the transition from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will establish a framework for advancing development priorities beyond 2015. Some key differences between the two sets of goals include:



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• Focus of goals: The SDGs are designed to be more universal, comprehensive and inclusive bring new focuses such as human rights and good governance, income inequality within countries and participatory decision-making processes.
• Zero-goals: Unlike the MDGs, which were designed to get us halfway, the SDGs are intended to bring hunger, poverty, preventable child deaths and other goals to a statistical zero.
• Funding: As opposed to MDG aid flows, which did not materialize as envisioned, SDGs rely on sustainable economic development within countries to address social challenges.
• Peace-building: The SDGs are broadening the scope to include peace-building, which is now seen as linked closely to eradicating extreme poverty.
• Data: Where the MGDs did not address monitoring, evaluation or accountability, the SDGs aim to collect quality nation-specific data in a number of categories by 2020.
• Education: By focusing on quality education instead of quantity, the SDGs aim to increase participation and efficacy, especially for young people.

The SDGs and the UN’s development agenda are tied closely to GHR’s funding goals and priorities, especially the Inter-Religious Action and Children In Families Initiatives. To learn more about how GHR is working towards the Sustainable Development Goals, contact us.

GHR Foundation's Children in Families Initiative supports child protection interventions that strengthen families, deinstitutionalize children and drive further evidence of innovative, pro-family approaches. One important area for family strengthening is the growth of formal care and adoption. Adoption is an immensely complicated process, and represents often represents a barrier to creating families around the world. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) titled, “At Home or in a Home: Formal Care and Adoption of Children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia,” (PDF) noted these significant changes in the field:

• More children are becoming separated from their families
• The rate of children in formal care is increasing
• Poverty is not the only cause of separation, but an important one
• Dropping birth rates hides the increase of residential care in most countries
• Institutionalization of infants and young children is still too common
• Children with disabilities represent a large proportion of all children in residential care
• Some non-state actors in the development of residential care only downscale existing systems
• Transfers between institutions skew out-flow data from residential care
• The development of family-based alternative care has been slow
• Adoption is an option, but only for some

GHR has supported family development work in Nepal, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Vietnam and Guatemala that has informed our approach to systems change in key countries. Our current Children in Families geographic focus is Zambia. Contact us if you are interested in learning more.

GHR Foundation’s Children in Families Initiative is focused on promoting stable, positive, long-term family or family-like environments for children. We fund projects that provide children the best chance to have a secure and promising future. 

In charting the landscape when it comes to care options for orphans and vulnerable children, the Faith to Action Initiative’s research overview is an important resource. While not funded by GHR, this guide has supported GHR’s efforts to demonstrate scope and benchmarks care options from a faith-based perspective. The report notes that:

"Many churches have established or funded orphanages as a way to serve children in need. For children in emergency situations and with no other means of support, high-quality residential care can provide
transitional, rehabilitative or interim special-needs care. As a primary or long-term solution, however, orphanages cannot replace the loving care of a family and too often fail to meet the social, emotional, cognitive and developmental needs of children and youth. Global discussions, research and policy demonstrate that although higher quality residential care is a recognized option … the benefits of family care must be more widely recognized and supported."

GHR Foundation is collaborating with other donors, in-country  partners and global experts to strengthen and support family care  options for orphans and vulnerable children. Contact us to learn more or to partner on approaches that improve the lives of children and communities.