Alternative Care in Emergencies Toolkit

The Alternative Care in Emergencies (ACE) Toolkit is designed to facilitate interagency planning and implementation of alternative care and related services for children separated from or unable to live with their families during and after an emergency.

There is no single type of care placement that will meet the needs of all children. Each emergency will have its own set of protection risks. Different societies will have their own unique norms for how children are looked after. Each family and community will have different levels of requirements and resources and, most importantly, each child will have individual needs, concerns and preferences. It is the responsibility of those implementing care and protection programmes to assess carefully what is appropriate and feasible, given the context, and to develop placement options that are rooted in community norms and that meet a minimum level of quality standards.

This Toolkit was developed to provide practical interagency guidance based on previous learning that can be quickly adapted in an emergency.