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ecommendations
universities. Advocacy and development in
the interests of increased child protection
can be strengthened through collaboration;
indeed, unless such linkages are part of
project planning, NGO actions may harm
independent grassroots initiatives that
contribute to social capital. 6
Child and youth participation
• Partner with children to support them in
understanding and influencing their peers.
Recognise, nurture and build on the
resilience that children often display in
extreme situations, which can be an asset
to other children, families and community.
Consider children’s own capacity and
potential to advocate, which may be
present even when others fear to raise
their voices.
• Invest to better understand factors that
contribute to resilience as well as risk –
and how these can be promoted to assist
others and engage all children – not only
those experiencing difficulty – more fully as
part of the solution.
• At the same time, seek to strengthen
institutions of education and health that build
children’s capacity to protect themselves
and those around them, and to recover from
trauma or injuries they have experienced as a
result of abuse or exploitation.
• Support community-based associations of
children or young people as vehicles for
promoting greater community awareness
and ownership of issues that hinder child
protection or limit children’s options.
Promote safe gathering places for children
as part of project designs. The World Bank
has noted the value of linking with youth
networks in promoting healthy behaviour.
• Encourage families, communities and
community leaders to support child
participation, which has been shown to
increase child protection through increasing
awareness of issues, standards and avenues
of response.
• Support children to work with
community leaders in defining avenues
for action on the increasing concerns that
are prompted by child participation.
• Ensure a strong link with schools as a
strategy to increase child participation, in
education and beyond.
• Recognise the importance of the
psychological and spiritual well-being of
children; cooperate with local initiatives
that are addressing these in appropriate
ways, including those that are faith-based.
Hope of children, although a less tangible
indicator, is a particularly valuable one,
since hope brings energy for change; it is an
investment in both today and tomorrow.
• Give greater attention to researching,
documenting, translating and distributing
child-to-child approaches and material as
part of both program design and national
child protection strategies.
• Integrate specific measures, such as
rehabilitation for children with disabilities,
into broader community development
approaches, to ensure attention to children
who are at a high risk of neglect.
Advocacy/partnerships
• Recognise the structural or social
dimensions contributing to children being
at risk, and seek to support change; for
example, improved law enforcement is one
important measure to protect children
from abuse, exploitation and neglect.
• Actively promote justice. Positive change
is achieved through initiatives where this is
a principal aim, not only a guiding principle.
It may be more effective for children for an
agency to choose not to implement a
specific program, opting instead for a
strategic partnership, for example with
human rights groups.
• At the community level, work in
partnerships to promote local investment
and local accountability for child protection.
• Develop country-specific training, which
defines child exploitation and outlines
avenues of response for NGOs and
community members.
6 Fisher, J, 1998
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