Roundtable on social orphanhood prevention held in Riga

Visibility data before family separation

Policymakers and civil-society partners met in Riga for a roundtable on how child visibility data can strengthen prevention of social orphanhood. Discussion centred on intervening while families are still intact, rather than only after children enter formal care.

Participants compared national approaches to identifying children who are administratively invisible — known to schools or health services but missing from social-protection follow-up. The Child Visibility Index was examined as a shared reference for spotting those gaps earlier and aligning municipal responses.

• Cross-agency referral delays as a visibility risk

• Using aggregated scores in local prevention plans

• Roles for civil society in monitoring system blind spots

A short synthesis of the Riga discussion will be shared with partner networks to support follow-up pilots later this year.