Streer Children Initiative

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STREET CHILDREN INITIATIVE



The objective of the Street Children Initiative (SCI) is to help formulate more effective public and private policies and programs to help address problems facing children and adolescents in these transitional economies. Abandoned and homeless children are becoming a serious problem in this region according to recent UNDP and UNICEF surveys. Yet little data exists about the scope and reasons for this social ill, nor have sufficient actions been formulated to deal with it. The work of the SCI will be used to:

a) inform national strategies and programs to improve existing services and improve local capacity; b) develop effective awareness campaigns; and c) improve the Bank's knowledge base on the issue of street children.

In 1998 the SCI was a winner of an Innovation Marketplace award, an internal Bank competition which called for new ideas and progressive thinking in development assistance strategies. The same year, a program sponsored jointly by the King Baudouin Foundation (KBF) and the Soros Foundation, "Street Children/Children in the Streets" was set up in 10 countries in Eastern and Central Europe for a two-year period. Its aim was to support work on service for street children, foster coherency in national programs, build capacity, and raise awareness. In an effort to join and exchange expertise, the SCI partnered with KBF, its co-sponsors and affiliates, the Soros Foundation and Child Hope, UK to: undertake a systematic analysis of street child programs in 10 ECA countries; to produce new knowledge about the magnitude and characteristics of street children and programs to alleviate this problem; and to develop program ideas that the Bank and KBF/Soros could finance or promote to help c!
ountries and cities solve the problems of children in the street and children in other extraordinary circumstances. With support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the SC...