Nearly half of the population in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) is under the age of 18, [i] representing 46%, with an estimated 274 million children living in the region in 2023. [ii] ESA is one of the most dynamic migration and displacement contexts globally. Children account for approximately 54% of the displaced population in the region, and globally an estimated 35.5 million children live outside their country of birth. [iii]
ESA functions simultaneously as a place of origin, transit and destination. In early 2025, [iv] 188,900 movements were tracked across Eastern and Southern migration routes in the region, with children comprising significant proportions of these flows and many travelling unaccompanied. [v] Seven of the ESA countries [vi] are among the ten African nations hosting the most refugees and Asylum seekers, while nine [vii] rank among the top 20 for new displacements due to conflict and crisis.
While movement can create opportunities, it also exposes children to heightened risks of trafficking, exploitation, violence, family separation, exclusion from essential services and immigration detention further compounded by lack of documentation. [viii] Children in transit without legal identity are particularly vulnerable to extortion, exploitation and arbitrary detention: returnee children often face stigma, homelessness and re-integration pressure. [ix] Yet despite these risks, Children on the move are not consistently embedded within national child protection systems. Responses frequently remain fragmented, migration status driven, or donor-dependent rather than grounded in a unified vulnerability-based framework. Children on the move represent one of the most vulnerable yet often least systematically protected groups within national child protection systems and are often invisible within both migration and child protection systems, with their unique needs insufficiently reflected in policies and service design. [x] This invisibility increases their exposure to protection risks and undermines continuum of care. [xi]
Why integrated case management matters
A strong child protection system comprises a legal and policy framework, governance and coordination mechanisms, a continuum of services, standards and oversight, a competent workforce, community engagement and data systems. Within this system, integrated child protection case management (ICM) is the operational backbone that ensures that individual children receive coordinated, sustained and holistic support. Integrated case management moves beyond siloed sectoral responses. It links social welfare, justice, health, education and community actors under shared procedures, referral pathways and accountability standards. For children on the move – whose needs frequently span borders and systems – this integration is essential. It enables structured assessment, Best Interests Determination, safe referral, family tracing and follow-up, including cross border handover where necessary.
The 2024 regional assessment [xii] commissioned by UNICEF ESARO confirms growing recognition across ESA that children on the move must be systematically included within national child protection systems rather than addressed through parallel humanitarian mechanisms.
Emerging Regional progress
Governments in ESA have ratified key international and regional instruments, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter and Welfare of the Child, and the Global Compacts on Refugees and Migration, all of which affirm equal protection for migrant and displaced children. Promising regional and national efforts are emerging:
- IGAD’s [xiii] Child Policy Framework (2024) advances cross-border coordination and operational standard procedures for handling children crossing borders.
- Zambia’s National Referral Mechanisms institutionalises bilateral case transfer and cross-border Best Interests Determination processes.
- Uganda’s Child Wellbeing Information Management System (IMS) seeks to integrate data across sectors – linking helplines, social welfare databases and refugee response mechanisms to strengthen continuity of care.
- Several countries have adapted CPIMS+ to improve case tracking, referral coordination and offline functionality in humanitarian and mixed migration context.
Despite progress, systemic weaknesses remain:
- Limited cross-border interoperability of case management systems
- Inconsistent definitions and handling of children on the move
- Weak integration of migration-affected children in national legal frameworks
- Underdeveloped information management systems that cannot reliably identify or track cross-border cases
- Insufficient harmonisation of SOPs and data sharing protocols across Regional Economic communities.
A route-based, System Strengthening Approach
The regional assessment identified some promising emerging practices including a route-based approach, which prioritises the protection of children on the move from origin through transit to destination. This requires coordinated, multi-country case management anchored in national child protection systems, rather than ad hoc humanitarian projects. Integrated case management systems – grounded in strong legal frameworks, coordinated governance, trained social service workforce and interoperable digital platforms – offer the most viable pathway to ensure every child, regardless of migration status, receives timely, holistic and sustained protection. Strengthening these systems is a long-term investment in social cohesion, stability and child wellbeing across one of the world’s youngest and fastest growing regions.
| Figure 1: A Routes based approach. Six pillars to guide effective, targeted interventions. Source: UNHCR 2024: https://www.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/2024-10/explainer_unhcr_route_based_approach.pdf |
| END NOTES [i] UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Overview. The Situation of Children and Families in 2024: UNICEF’s Response. p.17: https://www.unicef.org/esa/what-we-do [ii] Ibid, p.5. [iii] International Data Alliance for Children on the Move, 9 Facts about Children on the Move: 2024 update, United Nations Children’s Fund, New York, 2024. [iv] Tracked between January and April 2025. [v] Routes route tracking data; IOM (2025) Global Overview of Migration. [vi] South Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Burundi and Kenya. [vii] Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, S. Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Mozambique, Tanzania. [viii] Prioritizing the rights of children on the move. A call to action on International Migrants Day (A joint statement by IOM, Save the Children, UNHCR and UNICEF), 18 December 2024. https://www.unicef.org/esa/press-releases/prioritizing-rights-children-move-call-action-international-migrants-day; United Nations Children’s Fund, ‘Global Programme Framework for COTM’, UNICEF, New York, November 2017 https://www.unicef.org/media/83571/file/Global-Programme-Framework-on-Children-on-the-Move.pdf, accessed on 03 March 2025. [ix] UN Network on Migration, 2021 [x] UNICEF (2020), An unsettled past, an uncertain future Pilot Study: Children on the Move using the Southern Route in Eastern and Southern Africa.[xi] UNICEF Global Programme Framework on Children on the Move (See p.10. for UNICEF’s Continuum of care) [xi] In 2024 UNICEF ESARO commissioned Maestral to undertake an assessment of child protection case management IMS in the region. [xii] Intergovernmental Authority on Development |