About the project

Background and Aim

Orphans and children without parental care represent one of the most significant blind spots in global child health research. Millions of children in low- and middle-income countries grow up without a parent to care for them due to poverty, conflict, displacement, or bereavement — yet the evidence base to guide policy and action remains fragmented and incomplete.

This project generates the first comprehensive, cross-national evidence on orphans and children lacking parental care across 75+ LMICs, covering ages 0 to 17 across health, development, education, and well-being outcomes.

We take a deliberately expansive approach — redefining child vulnerability to include all children who lack parental care, not only orphans, and integrating multiple disciplines (epidemiology, sociology, psychology, education, law, and ethics) within a coherent rights-based framework. By combining large-scale quantitative analysis with qualitative and normative research and in-country perspectives, we produce evidence that is conceptually rigorous, methodologically innovative, and directly actionable.

Our aim is to equip researchers, policymakers, and practitioners with the scientific foundation needed to design, advocate for, and implement policies and services that reach the world's most overlooked children.