Reforming Care, Preventing Family Separation: Nigeria's Experience and the African Conversation on Alternative Care for Children
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Most children living in institutional care worldwide are not orphans. They have at least one living parent, and many were placed in care because of poverty, disability, or family stress. This evidence has reframed alternative care around two priorities: preventing unnecessary family separation and building systems that keep children connected to family wherever possible.
Africa has been part of this conversation for more than a decade, anchored by the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the 2009 UN-Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children. Nigeria carries weight in this conversation, with the 2025 launch of its National Guidelines on Alternative Care consolidating state and federal momentum.
This session brings the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development into dialogue with SOS Children's Villages Nigeria on where Nigeria sits in Africa's care reform conversation, and the way forward for the continent.
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Speakers
The first speaker will be a representative of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, sponsored by SOS Children's Villages Nigeria, our close partner in alternative care and family strengthening programmes. The Ministry-approved name is awaited. The speaker will address the Federal Government's work on care systems reform, situating it within the global shift toward deinstitutionalisation, and will highlight how legislative and policy reforms are shaping Nigeria's care landscape, particularly in preventing unnecessary family separation.
The second speaker is Mr. Ayodeji Adelopo, Chief Programme Officer, SOS Children's Villages Nigeria. He will speak to SOS CVN's 53-year footprint in Nigeria and its contribution to care reform through systems strengthening and community-based family interventions. He will also reflect on the policy landscape behind Nigeria's National Guidelines on Alternative Care and the state-level reform pathways that have followed, and on SOS CVN's ongoing advocacy for the endorsement of the Global Charter on Children's Care Reform within the Sub-Committee on Alternative Care of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development.
The third speaker is being finalised between two options: Mr. Leno Kingsley Hunohashi, Senior Child Protection Technical Advisor at Save the Children International (SCI) Nigeria, who brings deep technical expertise and years of frontline experience advancing child protection programming and policy engagement across Nigeria; and an international child protection expert whose participation is still being coordinated. Final confirmation will follow.
The session will be moderated by Ritarilla Barick, Policy and Advocacy Coordinator at SOS Children's Villages Nigeria, who brings extensive experience in child protection, policy reform and analysis, governance, and multi-stakeholder collaboration.
Session Aims
- Position Nigeria as a reform leader in Africa's care conversation, anchored in the 2025 National Guidelines on Alternative Care and the country's 2024 Bogotá pledges.
- Translate evidence into transferable practice, drawing on SOS CVN's documented 73 per cent reintegration rate to surface what works in preventing family separation at scale.
- Catalyse Africa-led peer learning that contributes directly to the Global Charter on Children's Care Reform, rather than receives from it.
Session Format
A 60-minute interactive session built for depth rather than breadth, structured to bring three voices into focused exchange and to give the audience a deliberately substantial participation segment.
Opening (4 minutes). A pre-recorded reflection from a care-experienced young person, drawn from SOS CVN's youth empowerment programme, followed by a brief moderator framing that locates Nigeria within Africa's care reform conversation.
Panellist openings (15 minutes). Five minutes each from the government panellist on Nigeria's policy direction, the SOS CVN panellist on the organisation's 53-year programmatic and policy contribution, and the regional panellist on the African context.
Moderated dialogue (15 minutes). Direct exchange between the three panellists on a small number of sharp questions, with deliberate space for nuance and disagreement.
Live audience interventions (22 minutes). Live polling on implementation priorities, small-group reflections at tables on transferable lessons across African contexts, and open floor questions and contributions.
Synthesis and call to action (4 minutes). The moderator closes by drawing out the session's contribution to the continental conversation and the concrete next steps participants can take forward.