An independent voice for ethical adoption
An Open Letter to Congress on the Families for Orphans Act
On Friday, February 4, 2010, Ethica sent the following letter to the leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee:
Dear Senator/Representative,
We are writing to urge the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations/House Committee on Foreign Affairs to reject the Families for Orphans Act, S. 1458/H.R. 3070. This Act will sacrifice established child welfare best practice principles by favoring international adoption over local solutions as well as undermine existing federal programs for global orphan care. Ethica expresses deep concern over these risks and the proposed financial incentives for countries to send their children abroad for adoption, especially given the proponents’ financial conflicts of interests.
Support for the Bill is largely driven by a strong adoption agency lobby that has a vested interest in recovering its adoption revenue stream that has been hit hard by the economy, Hague Convention requirements, and the closure of international adoption from several countries prompted by adoption fraud and corruption. The recent crisis in Haiti underscores precisely why the Families for Orphans Act does not need to be enacted. Within days after the earthquake, the U.S. federal government worked quickly to issue approximately 900 visas to pre-idenitified orphans eligible for adoption, three times the typical number of visas issued annually to children for adoption from Haiti. Conservatively estimating adoption fees per child to be $10,000, the same lobby urging passage of the Bill earned $9 million in fees in the wake of the crisis.
The same lobby that stands to financially profit from passage of the Bill is now urging that global community best practices and protections be ignored by expanding the definition of “orphan” to include many more children who already have strong ties to loving families and support networks. FFOA would simply legalize and create more scenarios like the situation in which 10 Baptist missionaries are alleged to have procured children for eventual adoption – children who already have families but who are struggling to care for them. FFOA puts global families and their children at risk, on American terms and for American needs.
The Haitian crisis has demonstrated the need for awareness of not only the plight of orphans but also their remaining families and communities. In these past few weeks, U.S. federal agencies and child welfare organizations, including adoption organizations, have worked endlessly, cooperatively, and successfully to provide immediate assistance with a focus on family reunification. This incredible precedent of collaboration and family preservation needs to be sustained with the opposition to the FFOA.
At the same time, inter-country adoption remains one viable option for orphaned and vulnerable children, and there are certainly instances when inter-country adoption is the most appropriate solution for a child in a precarious situation. The recent instance in Haiti demonstrated the efficient existing relationship between federal government agencies and adoption service providers; FFOA would not confer any additional expediency in the process of adopting children in similar situations.
Instead of single-mindedly targeting children for international adoption, the United States must provide greater support towards efforts that more broadly assist families in disaster-stricken regions to have access to medical care, food, water and other basic necessities so that these families may remain together and build capacity so that child welfare initiatives may be self-sustaining, in addition to supporting inter-country adoption as one option for children who have no other possibilities. To that end, USAID has a strong legislative mandate, PL 109-95, Assistance for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in Developing Countries Act of 2005, to address permanency issues within the broader framework of assisting highly vulnerable children around the world. Ethica believes the Families for Orphans Act needlessly duplicates the Orphans Assistance Act in some areas and conflicts with the mandate in others to the detriment of children and their families.
Overlapping Areas of Families for Orphans Act with the Orphans Assistance Act (PL 109-95)
The purpose of the Orphans Assistance Act is to devise a single, comprehensive strategy for addressing critical needs among the developing world’s collective of highly vulnerable children. In enacting the Orphans Assistance Act, Congress made the express finding that “assistance for orphans and other vulnerable children can best be provided by a comprehensive approach of the United States Government that ensures that federal agencies and private sector coordinate efforts to prevent and eliminate duplication of efforts and waste in the provision of assistance, and to the maximum extent possible focuses on community-based programs that allow orphans and other vulnerable children to remain connected to the traditions and rituals of their families and communities.”
Contrary to this Congressional finding, the Families for Orphans Act duplicates ongoing efforts of USAID and other USG agencies to assist highly vulnerable children in multiple ways. Examples include:
- Developing a comprehensive, global strategy for orphans
| The Families for Orphans Act would create an office within the Department of State that would advise its Secretary in the development of a comprehensive, global strategy to promote the preservation and reunification of families and the provision of permanent parental care for orphans. |
The purpose of the Orphans Assistance Act is to devise a single, comprehensive strategy for addressing critical needs among the developing world’s highly vulnerable children.
|
- Targeting preservation and reunification of families and permanency for orphans
| The stated purpose of the Families for Orphans Act is to promote the preservation and reunification of families and the provision of permanent parental care for orphans. | The Orphans Assistance Act supports the same goals. The implementation strategy required by the Act includes “the preference for family/household care rather than institutional care.” In fulfilling this parameter, the Special Advisor’s policy is: “When feasible, assistance programs are designed to enable vulnerable children to remain in a family situation where they can form bonds with consistent, loving caretakers. For this reason, the USG views family reunification or placement within the extended family as the first option to consider. Alternative family-based options, such as adoption (preferably domestic, but also including inter-country), are an appropriate permanency option for children who cannot be reunited with kin, while temporary institutional care is considered only when other family-based options have failed.” One of the Special Advisor’s 4 priorities for the 2009 fiscal year is to achieve significant USG interagency coordination related to the strengthening of child and family welfare capacity at the country-level. |
- Providing financial assistance
| The Families for Orphans Act would authorize assistance to foreign countries that meet certain minimum standards, including allowing international adoption. | The Orphans Assistance Act authorizes assistance to provide basic care and services to orphans for a broad range of purposes. |
- Advising on orphan care
| The Families for Orphans Act would create an office headed by a Coordinator for Orphan Policy Diplomacy and Development who would serve as the primary adviser to the Secretary of State and President in all matters related to family preservation and permanent care of orphans. | The Orphans Assistance Act mandated the appointment of a Special Advisor for Assistance to Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children to oversee the implementation of the Orphans Assistance Act.
|
- Creating interagency working committee
| The Families for Orphans Act would establish an interagency policy coordinating committee consisting of the Secretary of State, the Administrator of USAID, the Attorney General, the Secretary of HHS, the Secretary of Homeland Security and any other government official to monitor and support international efforts in family preservation and permanent parental care of orphans. | USAID has established an Interagency Committee for Highly Vulnerable Children composed of representatives of USG agencies, international organizations and NGOs that meets at least quarterly. |
- Collecting data
| The Families for Orphans Act would require the office to collect a biennial census of all children without permanent parental care, collect data on the capacity of foreign governments to provide permanent parental care and would require the Secretary of State to initiate a study on global best practices for family preservation and permanent parental care for orphans. | The Orphans Assistance Act requires the Special Adviser to disseminate a collection of best practices to field missions of USAID to guide the development and implementation of programs to assist orphans and vulnerable children. USAID’s Displaced Children and Orphans Fund played a leading role in forming the Better Care Network, a resource for information and technical support on children without adequate family care that has become the single best source for information and support globally on how to address effectively the needs of such children. |
- Organizing conferences
| The Families for Orphans Act would require the Secretary of State to conduct biennial conferences on the family preservation and permanent parental care for orphans. | The convening authority of the Special Adviser led to a 2008 meeting of international participants co-sponsored by HHS/NMH and USAID/OHA to discuss current orphans and vulnerable children. |
- Communicating
| The Families for Orphans Act would require the office to maintain a website that would include research, reports, annual reports and a description of its projects. | The Orphans Assistance Act’s strategy for 2009 includes the development of a “one-stop shop” web page with information on highly vulnerable children and best practices. |
- Reporting annually to Congress
| The Families for Orphans Act would require an annual report to Congress on its activities and challenges relating to family preservation and permanent parental care for orphans. | The Orphans Assistance Act mandates the Special Adviser to prepare a similar annual report to Congress. The theme of the 2009 annual report will be strengthening of child protection/child welfare capacity. |
.
Differences between the Families for Orphans Act and the Orphans Assistance Act
Although there is significant overlap between the proposed Families for Orphans Act and the activities coordinated by the Special Advisor under the Orphans Assistance Act, there are also significant differences. These differences will serve to not only undercut the delivery of services by the Special Adviser, but also will result in elevating international adoption as the preferred solution to assisting highly vulnerable children contrary to existing USG and international best practice principles.
Examples of differing provisions of the Families for Orphans Act and the Orphans Assistance Act that will negatively impact providing assistance to highly vulnerable children include:
- Department of State vs. USAID authority
| The Families for Orphans Act would establish the Office for Orphan Policy Diplomacy and Development to be headed by the Coordinator for Orphan Policy Diplomacy and Development. The Coordinator would have diplomatic representation on matters relating to family preservation and permanent parental care. | A Congressional finding of the Orphans Assistance Act was that USAID should be the primary USG agency responsible for identifying and assisting orphans and other vulnerable children. However, the Orphans Assistance Act establishes no office and the Special Adviser has limited authority despite its broad responsibilities. |
- Myopic vs. holistic approach to assisting children
| Under the Families for Orphans Act, the data collected, “permanency indicators,” the “minimum standards” countries must meet for assistance, permissible uses of technical assistance, grants and other assistance are all narrowly focused on finding permanent parental care without addressing the larger context of what makes vulnerable children vulnerable. | The Orphans Assistance Act authorizes assistance for a broad variety of purposes in order to provide care for orphans and other vulnerable children. USAID recognizes that programs directed towards highly vulnerable children must be undertaken with a larger development strategy that addresses the broader concerns of the community. In this vein, USAID adheres to the strategy of strengthening “the capacity of families to protect and care for highly vulnerable children by prolonging the lives of parents and providing economic, culturally appropriate psychosocial and other support.” |
- Unilateral vs. cooperative philosophy of assistance
| The Families for Orphans Act sets forth minimum standards (for example, that a country must permit international adoption) and criteria (for example, a country must publicly acknowledge the need for family preservation, reunification and permanent parental care for orphans, all as defined by the United States in the Act, in order to receive foreign assistance). A country’s cultural norms are taken into account in developing policy only to the extent consistent with the overall purposes of the Act. | The 2006 Strategy for Implementation of the Orphans Assistance Act outlined several parameters for programming assistance for highly vulnerable children with an emphasis on cooperation and collaboration with global partners including: (1) focus on stressed communities, (2) reliance on local institutions or communities to determine the most vulnerable children and to determine the most needed services, (3) strengthening partnerships and knowledge exchange between implementing organizations that are primarily child centered and those that focus on economic empowerment, and (4) taking gender into consideration. |
- Outcomes of financial assistance
| Financial assistance provided by the Families for Orphans Act combined with financial assistance provided by private U.S. adoption agencies will create a built-in incentive for countries to favor international adoption over local solutions and will exacerbate adoption fraud and corruption on a larger global scale. | Another parameter for implementation of the Orphans Assistance Act is the preference for a developmental approach that creates ownership in local communities and limits dependency. |
- Funding disparity
| The Families for Orphans Act would appropriate $3 million for operations, $5 million for assistance to foreign governments, $5 million for grants to NGOs and $3 million for pilot programs, all for 2010 and such amounts as necessary for subsequent years. The Act contains no provisions on the accountability and transparency of earmarks. These earmarks are likely to be reallocated from other foreign aid spending. | The Orphans Assistance Act is an unfunded mandate. Lack of funding naturally presents challenges to implementing the goals of the Orphans Assistance Act. |
- Defining children in need of assistance
| For purposes of the Act, the Families for Orphans Act would codify definitions such as “orphan,” “family preservation,” “permanent parental care,” “family at risk of dissolution,” “reunification,” “legal guardianship,” and “legal kinship.” The definition of “orphan” inflates the number of children truly in need of international adoption placement. | USAID recognizes that because the development status and other characteristics of each country vary, there is no simple measure to determine which children are “highly vulnerable.” Communities themselves are generally the best sources for identifying the children in most need. In addition, the Special Advisor identifies that differing reporting and monitoring requirements and differing operational definitions used by different USG agencies presents a challenge to improved interagency cooperation. |
p
Oppose the Families for Orphans Act and Support Strengthening the Orphans Assistance Act
U.S. foreign aid legislation for orphans has been criticized as often containing “conflicting mandates and overlapping responsibilities for different government agencies. The result is an incoherent jumble of legislative directives.”[1] The passage of the Families for Orphans Act will harm children because it will add one more piece to conflicting and overlapping foreign aid legislation for orphans.
Instead of passing the Families for Orphans Act as drafted, Congress should augment the Orphans Assistance Act by addressing some of the challenges identified by the Special Advisor in programming and improved USG interagency cooperation, particularly funding.
If the Families for Orphans Act is enacted, the result will be a highly funded mandate that will result primarily in the promotion of international adoption and an unfunded mandate that supports global child initiatives where international adoption is appropriately only one component of a broad, unified strategy to assist highly vulnerable children.
Ethica urges your opposition to the bill. Thank you for your commitment to children and families.
Sincerely,
Rachel Wegner, MSW, MS
On behalf of the Board of Directors of Ethica
[1] “U.S. Foreign Assistance Legislation: Orphans”, OxFam America issue paper, December 2008, available at http://www.oxfamamerica.org/files/case-study-orphans-dec2008.pdf
Follow Us
