A formal system established and used to allow recipients of humanitarian action (and in some cases, other crisis-affected populations) to provide information on their experience with a humanitarian agency or the wider humanitarian system. Such information is then used for different purposes, in expectation of a variety of benefits, including taking corrective action to improve some element of the response. Feedback can also be provided informally. Feedback and reporting mechanisms should designed to be accessible to all children.

Situations where children are cared for in a household outside their family. Fostering is usually understood to be a temporary arrangement, and in most cases the birth parents retain their parental rights and responsibilities. The care arrangement is administered by a competent authority whereby a child is placed in the domestic environment of a family who have been selected, prepared and authorised to provide such care, and are supervised and may be financially and/or non-financially supported in doing so.

Traditional or informal fostering refers to situations in which the child lives with a family or other household that may or may not be related to the child’s family. No third party is involved in these arrangements, though they may be endorsed or supported by the local community and may involve well-understood obligations and entitlements.

Spontaneous fostering refers to a situation in which a family cares for a child without any prior arrangement. This is a frequent occurrence in humanitarian contexts and may involve a family from a different community than that of the child.

Arranged fostering refers to a situation in which a child is cared for by a family as part of an arrangement made by a third party. This arrangement may not be covered by formal legislation.