The recent Southern Africa Family Placement Conference in Livingstone, Zambia, marked a historic turning point for child welfare in the region. Seeking to move beyond discussion, the event created a powerful sense of momentum, positioning family-based care not just as an NGO initiative, but as a sustainable, government-led priority.
Empowering Governments to Reform Child Welfare
A defining feature of the conference was its ownership by the Zambian Ministry of Community Development and Social Services, in partnership with Care for Children. This collaboration sent a clear message: long-term reform is most effective when driven by national governments from the top down.
A closed ministerial roundtable provided a dedicated space for Ministers and Permanent Secretaries to engage directly with the conference’s core mission. This high-level dialogue ensured that senior leaders were active architects of the region’s child welfare future.
A Global Revolution for Families
Despite the high-level policy focus, the heart of the conference remained the individual child. Care for Children Trustee John Langlois concluded the first day of the conference with a poignant exercise, asking every delegate to hold in their mind one specific child they were there to help.
Leaders from across Southern Africa invoked the spirit of community, reminding the assembly that "it takes a village to raise a child." There was a profound collective agreement that, through the strength of African community structures, there should be "no true orphans in Africa", only children waiting to be embraced by their wider family and community.
Exploring Innovation in Family Placement
While leaders discussed strategy, practitioners engaged in hands-on learning. Workshops facilitated by experts from Zambia, China and Vietnam shared decades of practical experience. Covering topics such as innovative foster care recruitment strategies, efficient family assessment models, research-driven family support systems, placement support for children with complex needs and trauma-informed family placements.
Accelerating Family Based Care at Scale
As we look to the future of family placement in Southern Africa, the challenge is to move beyond dialogue to meaningful reform. In his keynote address, Dr Robert Glover challenged leaders to bridge the gap between policy and practice, saying, “The question is not 'is reform possible?' but rather, 'will we lead it?'”
This sentiment was echoed by Ministry of Community Development and Social Services Permanent Secretary Ms Beatrice Chilomo, who closed the conference with a call to action: "The discussions we have held over the past days must not end here. Let us return with renewed determination to turn these conversations into practical action."
Looking to the Future
The event concluded with a screening of the documentary Children of Shanghai, a poignant reminder of the lives transformed when institutional care is replaced by the love of a family.
The conference ended with a clear message: Southern Africa is leading the charge in child welfare. By accelerating innovative family-based care at scale, the region is driving a global revolution toward a future where every child belongs in a family.
