The Effectiveness of Abolishing Institutional Care for Orphaned and Vulnerable Children in Zimbabwe from 2015-2020

Abstract

Internationally‚ there has been a movement towards family care as the preferred place for orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs) to be raised‚ and although Zimbabwe's national and international child protection policies institutionalised the commitment to deinstitutionalisation‚ it is unclear how well deinstitutionalisation is being realised at the implementation level․ The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Government of Zimbabwe's (GoZ) strategy of intending to close all institutions for (OVCs) between 2015 and 2020 in Gweru District․ The study was guided by interpretivist model and exploratory qualitative research design․ Six OVCs‚ four community members‚ four social workers and two GoZ Ministry of Public Service and Labour and Social Welfare staff were interviewed․ Data from semi-structured interviews were thematically analyzed․ This included social stigma‚ family separation‚ institutional resistance‚ and government's insufficient capacity․ Although there is now considerably more political engagement with family-based care‚ many contextual and governance difficulties remain and continue to block deinstitutionalisation reform․ The findings highlight that reforms of family-based care in Zimbabwe depend not only on policy direction‚ but also on quality family support services‚ community acceptance and ownership‚ and institutional coordination and practice around family-based care․ The study offers insights into the current state of deinstitutionalisation in Zimbabwe‚ and provides practice recommendations for alternative care․ Instead of abrupt closure‚ institutional care should be safely phased out through a careful‚ evidence-based process and supported by investments in family and community-based services․