Working toward a world in which all children thrive within protective, loving families, free from deprivation, violence, and danger.

Working toward a world in which all children thrive within protective, loving families, free from deprivation, violence, and danger.

Overview

APCCA guides a whole of government approach to investing in the development, care, dignity, and safety of the world’s most-vulnerable children and their families, fostering collaboration and coordination, and maximizing results across departments and agencies.

Through the USG’s foreign assistance, over 28 million children received services in FY 2021 to promote healthy development within safe and protective families. These combined measures across USG Departments and Agencies provide a sense of the scale and scope of programming under the APCCA Strategy and demonstrate the breadth of efforts to provide services for vulnerable children and their families and, where possible, highlight the outcomes achieved by USG-funded programs.

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Beneficiaries Receiving U.S. Government-Supported Services under APCCA
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Parents or Caregivers Receiving U.S. Government-Supported Services
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Service Providers Trained to Deliver Quality Services to Vulnerable Children and Their Families
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Instances of Strengthened Capacity of Government and Non-Governmental Organizations

Our Strategy builds on three evidence-based objectives:

Objective 1

BUILD STRONG BEGINNINGS

BUILD STRONG BEGINNINGS

The U.S. Government will promote nurturing care for the most-vulnerable newborns and young children, starting before birth, by funding and supporting comprehensive and integrated programming in early-childhood development to provide for children’s health, nutrition, safety and security, responsive caregiving for social and emotional well-being, and opportunities for early learning.

Objective 2

PUT FAMILY FIRST

PUT FAMILY FIRST

The U.S. Government will support those most vulnerable children who are, or are at risk of, living outside of family care by promoting, funding, and supporting nur turing, loving, protective, and permanent family care.

Objective 3

PROTECT CHILDREN FROM VIOLENCE

PROTECT CHILDREN FROM VIOLENCE

The U.S. Government will promote, fund, and support the protection of children from violence, exploitation, abuse, and neglect by investing in preventative and responsive programming.

The U.S. Government is committed to achieving these strategic objectives by adhering to a set of guiding principles that underscore each objective and are critical to their success.

ADAPT APPROACHES

The U.S. Government will adapt programs and policies to a child’s age, life stage, and gender, with attention to disabilities, to increase the effectiveness of the interventions it funds.

STRENGTHEN SYSTEMS

The U.S. Government will assist governments and civil society in partner countries to build and strengthen their capacities to support, manage, and finance their social-service and child-protection systems fully.
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GENERATE AND USE EVIDENCE-BASED INFORMATION

The U.S. Government will use the best available data for decision-making and employ research, implementation science, and programmatic learning to design evidence-based and evidence-informed policies, programs, and practices and adapt them according to the findings.
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CREATE SYNERGIES

The U.S. Government will work across Departments and Agencies to promote the best possible outcomes for children and families around the world by fostering synergies across sectors and breaking down silos where they exist.

PROMOTE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS

The U.S. Government will engage and mobilize a broad range of resources and stakeholders, including governments, civil society, faith-based organizations, and donors to increase the scale and effectiveness of the U.S. Government’s international efforts.

We apply these principles when funding and supporting programs internationally to support children and adolescents in adversity.

Why It Matters:

    • Each year, an estimated 5.4 million children globally die before their fifth birthday, 2.7 million of whom die from malnutrition;
    • In low- and middle-income countries, at least 250 million children under age five risk not reaching their full physical or cognitive potential because of stunting and extreme poverty;
    • Globally, one billion children under age 18 experience physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, including bullying;
    • 152 million children and adolescents are engaged in child labor worldwide, of whom 73 million are in hazardous work;
    • An estimated 357 million children, or one in six, live in conflict zones; of the 15 countries with the highest neonatal mortality rate in the world, 11 have experienced recent humanitarian crises;
    • Children raised in residential care settings have, on average, an IQ 20 points lower than their peers who live in foster care;
    • The total number of children who are living outside of family care in residential care settings or on the streets is unknown, but estimates are in the tens of millions, and significant gaps in the data and services for children who are living outside of family care has rendered this population invisible.
Recognizing and addressing the threats children and adolescents face can both prevent adverse childhood experiences and build resilience so they can thrive even under difficult conditions. Enabling children to reach their full potential will require common understanding, shared commit­ment, united action, and love.
This is our primary purpose.