A Systems Approach to Child Protection: Does Theory Reflect Reality in Protracted Refugee Situations?

Abstract

All over the world, refugee children are confronted with various challenges and multiple risks often for many years because durable solutions are not applicable. As countries of asylum have rarely included refugee children in their national child protection systems, humanitarian aid agencies have stepped in to fill the protection and support gaps often through several singular projects. This chapter discusses refugee children’s multiple challenges and risks with a focus on protracted situations in developing countries in the Global South. It argues that the systems approach to child protection offers a suitable way forward because instead of tackling isolated problems, it adopts holistic protection frameworks based on children’s rights. Although this can offer improved ways of assisting and protecting refugee children, particularly in protracted situations, the systems approach also reveals systemic challenges in humanitarian and development aid.