Peer-reviewed article
From administrative data to action: Why Ecuador needs an economic burden assessment on child maltreatment
Fiorella Quiroz-Cárdenas, Doris Quiroz-Cárdenas, José Francisco López‐Gil ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This paper uses March 2026 administrative records from Ecuador's Ministry of Human Development to estimate yearly government spending on Special Protection Services. These services are institutional care, foster care and family support, and they serve 3,588 registered children. The projected spending is about USD 25.4 million per year, or about USD 7,087 per registered child. The authors stress that this is not a national economic-burden estimate of child maltreatment. They argue that linked data across the protection, health and education sectors, plus nationally representative prevalence measurement, are needed for a full estimate.
Key points
- Economic-burden evidence on child maltreatment from Latin America remains scarce.
- The base projection of government spending on three Special Protection Services modalities is about USD 25.4 million per year.
- This equals about USD 7,087 per registered user, across 3,588 registered children.
- The figure covers institutional programme expenditure only, and the services address multiple protection needs, not only maltreatment.
- Linked administrative data across protection, health and education sectors and nationally representative prevalence measurement are needed.
Limitations
The figure covers only institutional programme spending and leaves out health, education, justice, family and productivity costs, as well as children outside the formal system. It is not an estimate of the national economic burden of child maltreatment, and it cannot tell us how effective the services are.
Abstract
Child maltreatment is a major public health problem with lasting health and socioeconomic consequences, yet economic-burden evidence from Latin America remains scarce. Using March 2026 administrative records from Ecuador's Ministry of Human Development, we annualized projected governmental expenditure across three Special Protection Services modalities, institutional care, foster care, and family support, serving 3,588 registered children. The base projection was approximately US dollars (USD) 25.4 million per year (about USD 7,087 per registered user). This figure captures institutional programme expenditure only and is not a national economic-burden estimate of child maltreatment, because services address multiple protection needs and exclude health, education, justice, family, and productivity costs, as well as children outside the formal system. We argue that linked administrative data across protection, health, and education sectors, together with nationally representative prevalence measurement, are required to estimate the economic burden of child maltreatment in Ecuador and to inform evidence-based policy.