About BCN

History of the Better Care Network

Children need and have a right to be cared for by
their parents and to grow up in a family environment. This has been recognized
through years of experience and research as well as formally recognized under
national and international laws, including the United Nations Convention of the
Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Yet millions of children live in residential
institutions; no one knows just how many. Around the world, over one million
children have been orphaned or separated due to armed conflict, and 15 million
children under the age of 15 years of age have lost one or both parents to AIDS.
In many countries, institutions remain a major response to poverty or family
breakdown. In many more, few or no mechanisms exist to ensure the most
appropriate placements, encourage and support guardianship and adoption
arrangements, and to provide support and monitoring for foster families. Much
needs to be done to prevent unnecessary family separation by supporting families
and communities and to develop better care alternatives when separation is
inevitable.

Recognizing the urgent need for concerted action,
Displaced Children and Orphans Fund (DCOF) and the Africa Bureau for Sustainable
Development of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID),
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and Save the Children UK, came together
to form the Better Care Network (BCN) in 2003. Initially, the BCN functioned as
a loose affiliation of organizations and individuals exchanging information
through a newsletter. As the listserv grew, and more
information was exchanged via the Network, it became clear that the BCN served a
vital role and a more formal, full-time structure was required.

In response, in 2005, the organizations mentioned
above, together with Cooperative Relief and Assistance Everywhere (CARE USA),
agreed to form and serve on the BCN
Steering Committee and establish BCN
Secretariat, housed at the UNICEF Headquarters office in New
York.

In June 2006 BCN launched the Better Care Network
website, in partnership with the Child Rights Information Network
(CRIN).

Mission Statement

The mission of the BCN is to facilitate active information exchange and
collaboration on the issue of children without adequate family care and advocate
for technically sound policy and programmatic action on global, regional, and
national levels in order to:

• Reduce instances of separation and abandonment of children;
  
• Reunite children outside family care with their families, wherever possible
  and appropriate; 
  
• Increase, strengthen, and support family and community-based care options
  for children; 
  
• Establish international and national standards for all forms of care for
  children without adequate family care and mechanisms for ensuring compliance;
  and
  
• Ensure that residential institutions are used in a very limited manner and
  only when appropriate.

The BCN is guided by the UNCRC; the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of
Children (welcomed by the UN General Assembly in 2009) and the 2003 Stockholm
Declaration on Children and Residential Care. The BCN is not a legal entity but
an interagency network.

Through our Steering Committee,
Secretariat, and Advisory Group, the BCN
strives to reach the above mentioned objectives.