Explaining the Cross-National Pattern of Policy Shift toward Childcare Deinstitutionalization

Figures & data

Table A1. Ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Country	UN CRC, year of ratification/accession/ succession
Armenia	1993
Azerbaijan	1992
Belarus	1990
Estonia	1991
Georgia	1994
Kazakhstan	1994
Kyrgyzstan	1994
Latvia	1992
Lithuania	1992
Moldova	1993
Russia	1990
Tajikistan	1993
Turkmenistan	1993
Ukraine	1991
Uzbekistan	1994

Source: compiled by author from UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner website.

Table A2. ‘Ties to Europe’ index.

Country	Member of the Council of Europe	EU Member or Neighborhood country?	EU memberships aspirations, ever	Political dialogue with the EU	Code, 1 point for each ‘yes’/ ‘high’ value
Armenia	Yes	Yes	No	High	3
Azerbaijan	Yes	Yes	No	Low	2
Belarus	No	Yes	No	Low	1
Estonia	Yes	Yes	Yes	High	4
Georgia	Yes	Yes	Yes	High	4
Kazakhstan	No	No	No	High	1
Kyrgyzstan	No	Yes	No	High	2
Latvia	Yes	Yes	Yes	High	4
Lithuania	Yes	Yes	Yes	High	4
Moldova	Yes	Yes	Yes	High	4
Russia	Yes	No	No	Low	1
Tajikistan	No	No	No	Low	0
Turkmenistan	No	No	No	Low	0
Ukraine	Yes	Yes	Yes	High	4
Uzbekistan	No	No	No	Low	0

Source: compiled by author on the basis of EEAS EU External Action Country Factsheets.

Table A3. The year of DI policy turn, by country, with supporting evidence.

Country	Year of DI policy turn	Basis for dating DI policy turn
Armenia	2002	UN CRC report 2003 (the original report in Russian is dated 2002): a relatively long section on alternative care, with explicit references to the need to provide a family environment and reduce institutionalization. E.g., ‘… will make it possible to curb the rise in the number of children in institutions and help to eradicate this social scourge and return children to their families.’ UN CRC 2003 about disabled children (Article 219): ‘If they agree, such children can study in general schools. The State establishes special children’s homes and residential accommodation for such children, and takes steps of a social and economic nature which will lead to a reduction in their numbers.’ ‘333. In cooperation with various international and local voluntary associations (WB, SIDA, UNICEF, etc.), the Ministry is implementing a programme of reform in boarding schools. The programme has two main elements: (a) Upgrading the level of education and living conditions in boarding schools; (b) Development of a system of social support for children who need special educational facilities, in order to halt the flow of children into boarding schools.’ (UN CRC 2003)
Azerbaijan	2005	Response to the List of Issues, 2005: ‘…with the participation of directors of children’s homes and specialists from the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, seminars and conferences are being conducted, meetings with parents of living children are being held and public awareness efforts are being made with a view to implementing measures to place children in their own or foster families. Also in cooperation with UNICEF, alternative children’s centers are engaged in preparatory work for the provision of social assistance services to families and for the placement of children in families.’ (page 25)
Belarus	1993	UN CRC report, 1993: ‘In January 1992 there were 12,700 orphans and children left without parental care in the Republic of Belarus, of whom 6,700 were being raised in children’s homes and boarding schools. The State is pursuing a deliberate policy of placing such children with families. … Article 25 of the Rights of the Child Act provides that "… State child-welfare authorities shall take all possible measures to ensure that a child left without parental care is placed in an adoptive family, in a foster home or in a family-type children’s home". … Provisions concerning fosterage and family-type children’s homes have been drafted. In February 1991 the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus passed a decree defining the material support to be provided for children being brought up in a family after being deprived of parental care.’’
Estonia	2001	UN CRC report 2001: ‘Children whose ability to cope cannot be guaranteed by the provision of other social services or assistance are sent to a children’s home (Social Welfare Act, arts. 15, 16). If possible, placement in a family is preferred. … The organization of life in children’s homes has been transformed to resemble life in a family. Children in a children’s home live in groups or families. One family consists of 8 to 10 children.’ (UN CRC report 2001, p. 41-42)
Georgia	1999	Deinstitutionalization working group set up, also: The Orphans and Neglected Children (Adoption Procedure) Act, adopted in 1999. ‘The purpose of the act is to safeguard the preeminent right of the child to be raised in a family environment, to bring down the levels of abandonment of children, to help build the character of children and to promote their socialization and adaptation to community life.’ (from UN CRC report 2001) UN CRC report 2001: ‘The Georgian Ministry of Education is currently continuing work on the implementation of a project begun in 1999 on the welfare of children and families, designed to promote alternative forms of childcare for abandoned or orphaned children. The project has as its priorities: first, support (returning the child to its biological family); second, prevention (reducing the risk that the child will be placed in the children’s home); and, third, placement in a foster family.’
Kazakhstan	2001	‘The measures listed above testify to the fact that the State is doing everything possible to address the problem of the decline in the number of children sent to boarding establishments, and to restore a family environment for them.’ (UN CRC report 2001: 42)
Kyrgyzstan	1999	CRC report 1999: ‘Adoption and guardianship remain the priority means of providing for children deprived of parental care. There has been some development of family-type children's homes in which from 5 to 10 orphans are brought up. An advantage of these forms of care for children deprived of parental support is that they are raised in a family environment with excellent social adaptation to the community and to work. At present, however, family-type children's homes, being on the budget of the local State administrations, are experiencing considerable financial difficulties.’ UN CRC 2^nd report, 2002: ‘With financial and technical support from the European Children’s Fund, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection has, since 1999, been implementing a pilot family support project in Osh. The project provides preventive social services for children and for families as risk of breaking up.’
Latvia	1997	Ministry of Welfare, 1997. Social report 1997, p.62-63, 70-71 http://www.lm.gov.lv/eng/publications/social-report/social-report-about-year-1997
Lithuania	1998	‘In 1998, the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania passed the Law on Child Guardianship on the basis of which the bylaws on children guardianship were adopted. In adopting the above legislation and implementing the provisions of the United Nations Convention on Children’s Rights, attempts were made to promote guardianship of children in families and at the same time reduce institutional guardianship of children deprived of parental care.’ (Ministry of Social Security and Labor, Republic of Lithuania. Social report 1999. Vilnuis. p.15) https://socmin.lrv.lt/en/about/social-report
Moldova	2001	UN CRC report 2001: ‘Reform of the system of child rights protection, initiated by the Government of the Republic of Moldova at the beginning of 1999, is based on the following principles: … Favoring family-type alternatives for the residential protection of children in difficulty.’ ‘Currently, the National Strategic Plan for the Salvation of the Young Generation is being drafted. It contains several subprogrammes: … deinstitutionalization of orphan children; … 265. It is necessary to develop a complex system of prevention of placement of children in institutions and of encouraging alternatives: family consolidation, temporary or long-term placement in other families or adoption, etc. 266. Within the governmental strategy in the field of child rights protection, a major objective is the restructuring and diversifying of child protection institutions, by turning existing institutions into family-type institutions and by creating maternal centers, day centers and social, medical and educational protection centers for children with deficiencies, for the purpose of maintaining them within their biological family.’ (UN CRC report 2001: p.46)
Russia	1995	Decree of the President of the Russian Federation from 14.09.1995 № 942 On approval of Main directions of state social policy for improving the situation of children in Russian Federation until 2020 (National plan of actions in the interests of children)
Tajikistan	2003	National Plan of Action (NPA) for the protection of the rights and interests of the child for 2003-2010 (Resolution No. 309 of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan dated 4 July 2003). ‘The NPA provides for: … - setting up a children and family support service under district social protection departments (2004-2007); - development of an up-to-date family-oriented guardianship system; - protection of the rights and interests of children left without parental care by developing strategies and educational measures aimed to decrease and prevent cases of child abandonment.’ (from State Committee for Statistics of The Republic of Tajikistan (2006), ‘System, in support of children without parental care in Tajikistan’. Dushanbe: State Committee for Statistics. Country Analytical Report prepared for the MONEE Project, UNICEF IRC) Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, Resolution ‘About approving the National Action Plan on Protection of Rights and Interests of Children for the years 2003-2010’, 4 July 2003 № 309, Dushanbe: «Placing children in boarding institutions is currently the only solution for children left without parental care, disabled children and children in conflict with the law. The Government of the Republic of Tajikistan began reforming the policy of social conditions for developing alternative options of care for children in need of special protection. … The Commission and its expert groups are developing the initial draft of the national policy and programme of de-institutionalization of children, providing services, which would be more oriented toward supporting the family, vulnerable children and children deprived of parental care.» (Translated by author from Russian)
Turkmenistan	2000	CRC report 2005: 124. The first family-type children’s homes, a progressive innovation as regards the placement of orphans and children without parental care, were inaugurated in Turkmenistan in 1994. In order to improve State assistance to orphans and children without parental care and provide them with a more varied mix of community, collective and family forms of upbringing, the Turkmen President promulgated a decision on family-type children’s homes on 3 October 1994. The living conditions at such establishments approximate as closely as possible to those in a family home and aim to reproduce the healthy moral and psychological atmosphere of a family. By law, children cared for in family-type children’s homes or foster families receive a living allowance. The amount received by each child corresponds to the cost of maintaining a child entirely at the expense of the State. … 159. In cooperation with the UNICEF office in Turkmenistan, the Turkmen Government implemented the project “Children in need of special protection” in 2000-2004. This project was aimed at children deprived of parental care and orphans. During the implementation phase, the Ministry of Social Welfare and UNICEF reviewed the situation and made arrangements to support vulnerable families, thus preventing the full-time placement of children in special institutions and raising the standard of living of foster families. Later commitments to DI: In 2012, the Turkmen delegation at the ministerial conference in Bulgaria made a statement committing the Government toward prevention of institutionalization of 0-3 year olds: ‘VISION: Progressively decrease the number of children under three in institutions and introduce family-based care.’ (Ending the placement of children under three in institutions: Support nurturing families for all young children. Report from the international ministerial conference, Sofia, 21–22 November 2012, p. 49)
Ukraine	2005	Law of 13 January 2005 N 2342-IV «On securing organizational-legal conditions for social protection of orphans and children deprived of parental care»
Uzbekistan	2005	UN CRC report 2005: ‘it is the policy of government authorities and voluntary agencies in Uzbekistan, particularly the Oila Center for applied research, to ensure that orphans are, to the extent possible, returned to families in which they can develop both intellectually and physically under normal conditions, or can live with at least one of their parents.’

Table A4. Thresholds.

	Threshold
Date of DI policy adoption	1999
Annual rate of Deinstitutionalization	1.7
GDP per capita	9100
Contraceptive preference for pill	10.0
Ties to Europe	2
Government Effectiveness	−0.27
Conference participation	7.5
IO connection index	8.5
Children in care in year of policy adoption	792
Economic system	3

Table A5. QCA truth table.

CaseID	Date of DI adoption	Annual rate of deinstitut-ionalization	Economic system	Children in care in year of policy turn	Government Effectiveness	GDP per capita	IO connection	Conference participation	Ties to Europe	Preference for pill
Armenia	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
Azerbaijan	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	0
Belarus	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Estonia	1	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1
Georgia	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
Kazakhstan	1	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
Kyrgyzstan	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
Latvia	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1
Lithuania	0	1	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	0
Moldova	1	1	1	1	0	0	1	1	1	0
Russia	0	0	0	1	0	1	1	1	0	0
Tajikistan	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Turkmenistan	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Ukraine	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	1	1	1
Uzbekistan	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0