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Articles authored by Bourdillon, Michael

Articles

Introduction: development, children, and protection

This paper introduces the special issue. It first places the protection of children in the context of development studies. It goes on to outline current international trends in the protection of children and raises questions about them. Finally, it introduces the papers in the issue and highlights how they speak to the questions raised.

The full article is available here:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09614524.2012.672962

Concluding reflections: how might we really protect children?

The articles contained in this issue present a panorama of good protective intentions gone awry. International or national policies presumed to benefit children appeared in field research to be ineffective or counterproductive for the children. Depending on the situation, the problem could primarily be one of poor interpretation or implementation of a child protection policy. This is a management issue, which can be resolved by competent governance. National governments and international development programmes know how to handle such issues; the question is one of will and priority.