01
Accessibility
Child protection systems step in only after a problem becomes visible. By then, families may have faced pressure for months or even years.
Concept
Child Visibility
Seeing children before a crisis becomes visible.
A child's separation from family care is rarely sudden. It is the outcome of accumulated vulnerability left unseen.
Child Visibility is a way of understanding how prepared public systems are to notice a family's situation early — instead of only after it becomes a crisis.
The Child Visibility Concept has a clear goal:
Shifting from a Reactive to a Proactive Approach in Three Dimensions
Pregnancy / Antenatal care
Facility delivery / Birth registration
Postnatal care / First immunisation
Early
childhood
childhood
Pre-primary
education
education
Early school years
Teenage
years
years
02
Recognition
Child visibility is measured through the system's ability to identify early “red flags”, establish safe contact with children and caregivers, and maintain support over time.
03
Continuity
Information about a child (or adolescent) is scattered across various institutions, creating “cracks” in the system.
What Visibility Means
Visibility Describes How Systems Work, not the Children Themselves
What it means
Visibility is the ability to recognise vulnerability, reach children and families, and sustain support. It describes whether public systems can identify early vulnerability, establish safe contact with children and caregivers, and maintain support over time.
How data is used
CVI does not collect data about individual children. It uses existing data to understand where recognition, access and continuity break down, and where earlier support could become possible.
How children are approached
The focus is on system capacity: whether services create safe, trusted pathways for children and caregivers to be recognised and supported.
Visibility is not About Seeing More Children. It is About Helping Systems Recognise Opportunities to Support Children Earlier.
How the Concept is Used
Helping Systems Turn Data into Action
Child Visibility Index
Measures selected dimensions of visibility across countries.
Country Diagnostics
Explores where visibility gaps occur within national systems.
System Analysis
Examines pathways, coordination, accountability and opportunities for earlier recognition.
System Development
Identifies the next realistic opportunities to strengthen prevention, continuity of support and system performance.
Accessibility
Recognition
Continuity
Index Pillars
Connection to the Index
The Child Visibility Index Translates the Concept into a Diagnostic Framework
The Index focuses on selected checkpoints where public systems can recognise, reach and continue support for children and caregivers before before a crisis becomes visible.