Ethiopia

Abstract Research exploring the state of care leaving in the Global South is only just beginning to emerge, contrary to the fact that there has been a large proportion of out-of-home care facilities for children without parental care in the region. Ethiopia is the second largest African country, home to over five million orphan children. Though institutional childcare service is considered a last resort due to its detrimental outcome on care leavers’ holistic development, it has become the dominant model of care, and it is provided in private and government-run institutional childcare centers. In Ethiopia, young people need to leave care at the age of eighteen. Aging out of care in Ethiopia happens suddenly, and the care leaving population faces the challenges of navigating life after care without support mechanisms. However, the country has yet to formulate and implement its independent care leaving policy to address the multifaceted needs of its growing care leaving population. Ethiopia’s care leaving population is expected to rise because of recurring famine, civil war, and the death of parents due to HIV/AIDS, among other factors. The chapter employs critical discourse analysis to uncover the current state of care leaving in Ethiopia. This chapter argues for the need to provide care leavers with skills of meaningful belonging to mainstream society and help them become productive citizens of the country.