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ecommendations
• Advocate to every level of government for
policy development in the best interests of
children; for decisions and policies that
support, not suppress, important
grassroots initiatives for child protection.
• Consider the potential of government
bodies, NGOs, the media, and cultural or
faith-based groups to be partners in
changing attitudes and reducing risks to
children. As one example, education
systems could incorporate the CRC into
curriculum as a key mechanism for child
development, and also into staff training.
• Develop and strengthen inter-agency
networking, cooperation and partnerships,
in order to bring out and extend the
strengths of each agency’s approach; address
local child protection issues in ways that are
not possible for a single agency to achieve;
and build civil society. Experience shows the
benefit of active coalitions working to
address an issue of shared concern.
• Invest in research and development for
the valuable return of new partnerships,
products and skills.
• Engage the corporate sector to promote
and pursue the application of child-friendly
practices in a range of areas. To the degree
that their presence and investment is valued
by governments, foreign corporations can
be an important influence on country policy
and practice. Many corporations have ample
resources to implement effective measures.
• Participate wherever possible in national
working groups, in order to ensure that
concerns emerging from field work are
represented; ideally, have staff positions
dedicated to promoting structural change
and advocating from experience.
• Support in-country structures that are
effective in linking NGOs with government
and other actors on child protection, to
promote further collaboration.
• Increase collaboration with universities,
and national and regional coalitions (such as
the Regional Working Group on Child
Labour) to avoid duplication of research
and address gaps in child protection.
• Bridge the gap between project-level
responses and advocacy that impacts on
lives locally, and responses and advocacy at
the international level. 7 This may mean
engaging in advocacy targeted at donors
such as the World Bank and Asian
Development Bank, or UN agencies such
as UNICEF, UNESCO or the ILO.
• Get important messages, whether of good
practice or emerging problems, into the
public arena. One aspect of globalisation is
the increased availability, speed and influence
of information. Initiatives that work well to
address child protection in one setting can,
if communicated in a timely and accessible
way, influence program designs in other
districts, countries and regions.
Human capacity development
Organisations active in development have a
key role (and responsibility) in promoting child
protection in their areas of operation and
influence. To this end, capacity building for staff
and partners on child development, protection
and responses has been an expressed need
across the countries of this study.
• Invest in capacity building of staff,
counterparts, community members and
children. All are important.
• Implement training in core competencies
for staff and counterparts on child
development, child protection and
local/international laws/mechanisms that
protect children. Ensure the thorough
implementation of organisational child
protection policies through adequate
financial and human resource allocation.
• Provide training and resources to equip
program staff to analyse information
from projects and use this to effectively
advocate through national, regional or
international forums on issues of child
protection. Increased localisation, scale of
operational area and increased reporting
requirements from donors warrant
systematised training resources that are
responsive to local contexts and needs.
7
Every Girl Counts, World Vision, 2001
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