Please join the Washington Network on Children and Armed Conflict for a discussion on the forthcoming report, “What Are We Learning About Community-Based Child Protection Mechanisms? An Inter-Agency Review of the Evidence From Humanitarian and Development Settings.”

As the first global review of its kind, this report aims to strengthen practice and policy by providing evidence of the effectiveness, cost, scalability and sustainability of externally initiated community-based child protection groups. Our guest speaker and the lead consultant of the report, Michael Wessells, will discuss the methodology and key findings of the report as well as recommendations for practitioners and donors.

Please join us Thursday, December 10th at Search for Common Ground as we host the lead consultant of the study, Michael Wessells for an eye-opening conversation on the development of the community-based child protection approach.

GUEST SPEAKER:
WNCAC Guest Speaker: Michael Wessells, PhD.
Lead Consultant for the Inter-Agency Report

Michael Wessells, PhD, is a professor at Columbia University in the Program on Forced Migration and Health as well as a professor of psychology at Randolph-Macon College. In these capacities, he has conducted extensive research on the impact of armed conflict and forced migration on children. In addition, he served as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Task Force on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings which developed the first consensus guidelines in the field. Dr. Wessells regularly advises UN agencies, donors, and governments on the situation of children in armed conflict and issues regarding child protection and well-being. In countries throughout Asia and Africa, Dr. Wessells helps to develop community-based, culturally grounded programs that assist children, families, and communities affected emergencies. For his contributions to the field, Dr. Wessells was awarded the 2009 American Psychological Association International Humanitarian Award.

Please send your RSVP to wncac@sfcg.org to attend this event.

These guidelines illustrate how microfinance can effectively support the elimination and prevention of child labour under certain circumstances, and they describe when the local context is not appropriate for microfinance. They provide guidance to organizations involved in eliminating child labour about how to utilize this tool so that households continue to have access to financial services after a donor-sponsored project has ended.

Some key findings include

• the importance of savings
• the importance of pricing loans in a sustainable way (not disguising grants as loans)
• the risks from targeting one group and excluding other members of the community from access to services
• the advantages of partnering with experienced financial services providers (NGOs, rural banks, credit unions, etc)
• the importance of considering other options when the conditions for microfinance are not right

In 2007, UNICEF and Save the Children UK convened a meeting entitled Advancing Policy Relevant Research Around Social Welfare Services. In response to the 2007 meeting, UNICEF Child Protection section commissioned three reviews examining the relationship between cash transfers and social welfare services.

In April 2009, social welfare and cash transfer experts gathered in Carmona, Spain to examine the results of the reviews. Meeting delegates explored the findings with a specific focus on integration of social welfare services and cash transfers in Ghana, Chile, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Kenya.

The reviews examined evidence which summarized the following:

• the efficacy of cash transfer initiatives on child outcomes including child protection outcomes;
• the potential contact opportunities within cash transfer programmes for linkages with social welfare services;
• common barriers and challenges faced by beneficiaries across a range of cash transfer programmes;
• the role of the education sector in providing social welfare services where school attendance is an explicit outcome objective in the provision of cash.

The participants determined that There is good evidence on the efficacy of cash transfers on child outcomes, yet it is clear that cash transfers are not enough on their own to respond to child poverty. This and other findings were compiled into a joint communiqué issued by the meeting participants, which can be downloaded by following the link below.

The systematic reviews, alongside advocacy briefs on what the findings mean for policy, practice and future research, will be published in a special issue of the Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies journal later this year.

Project HOPE’s orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) program, implemented in Mozambique and Namibia, uses a low literacy “Parenting Map” comprised of measurable child-specific indicators across all domains of critical needs for OVC. This map is designed to be used at the household level by project staff and volunteers as a road map for showing a quick but comprehensive snapshot of each child’s well-being, which identifies service needs and provides immediate feedback to caregivers.

The parenting map form comprises 30 separate indicators grouped into 6 domains of service:

• health
• nutrition
• shelter/care
• education
• protection
• psycho-social

Each indicator represents a commonly desired measurable outcome for children (e.g. attending school). Each indicator is scored by the caregiver as either being completed (scored as a 3), not completed (scored as a 1), or unsure of status (scored as a 2). A map is completed on each child in the household and is designed to be left with the caregiver.

Click on the link below to download the Parenting Map, as well as a summary of the data collected between July and October 2008. The comparative results from Namibia are presented, showing the Map’s effectiveness for assessing program impact, targeting most at-risk subgroups, and guiding responses to OVC priorities, and in achieving improvements in child well-being.

In 2005 and 2006 UNICEF arranged for children and young people who had been trafficked while under 18 years of age to be interviewed in their home countries: Albania, Kosovo, Republic of Moldova and Romania. Based on these interviws, the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, prepared this report to stimulate thinking and action.

The study:

• Illustrates, through concrete examples, the complexity and dynamics of child trafficking.
• Provides insight into how the children and young people perceived the assistance they were offered
• Identifies the extent to which the participating children and young people, at the time they received assistance, had been questioned about their views and given the opportunity to participate in decisions regarding their situation.
• Provides an understanding of the importance of listening to children and young people and involving them in the design and implementation of actions to prevent and address child trafficking.

This paper, written from a health/HIV practitioner perspective, analyzes strategies for addressing the economic strengthening of orphans and vulnerable children in countries with a low prevalence of HIV/AIDS. It makes program and policy recommendations, filling an important gap in our understanding of programming for children affected by HIV/AIDS in South Asia and by inference, in other regions of low prevalence.

The study’s hypothesis is that:

• Economic strengthening (ES) of children affected by HIV/AIDS and families is more effective if it is community based (rather than just household or individual based)
  
• Examples of ES with children affected by HIV/AIDS in low prevalence countries may be different to those found in high prevalence countries
  
• Examples of ES in Asia involving communities are many, home grown and not necessarily in the HIV portfolio, with many lessons learned from the poverty alleviation sector
  
• Whatever the examples and interventions, ES is critical as it directly affects children’s access to services – education, health, nutrition and psycho-social

The study used a case study method to test this hypothesis, identifying four programs of ES and children affected by HIV/AIDS in three countries of Asia – India, Bangladesh and Cambodia. The projects are representative of the diversity and scope of the study and were selected using a child lens – which projects address children who are most affected and vulnerable to HIV?

How do economic shocks, in particular the current economic downturn, affect the wellbeing of children? What can be done to mitigate harm? This paper explores these questions, presents a framework for analysing the impact of shocks on children in different contexts and suggests initial policy implications.

Given experience from previous crises, all countries need to consider the impacts on children. Increases in child mortality and morbidity, child labour, child exploitation, violence against children and women and other forms of abuse, alongside declines in school attendance and the quality of education, nurture, care and emotional wellbeing, can all be traced to times of economic crisis.

National governments, broadly speaking, have four clusters of policy choices available to them through which to tackle rising levels of poverty and vulnerability: fiscal stimulus, social protection and investment, labour and aid policies. In order to address the specific nature of child vulnerabilities, it is critical that the various policy instruments that governments and donors select from among these broad categories are approached through a gender- and child-sensitive lens.

From March 2-31, USAID invites organizations to submit applications to World Learning for projects to improve the safety, well being, and development of highly vulnerable children. World Learning will award subgrants for this activity on behalf of USAID’s Displaced Children and Orphans Fund.

It is anticipated that three to five grants will be awarded under this RFA and that each sub-grant will be for up to $2,500,000 for a three year (August 2009 – July 2012 approximately) project. Applicants may submit one application for either the “Strengthening Systems of Child Protection” Strategy or the “Improving Family-Level Assets and Income Generation Opportunities Through Economic Strengthening Activities” Strategy.

Further details can be found in the document below. Organizations interested in responding to this RFA may retrieve it here starting March 2, 2009.

The report presents the findings of a two-week field assessment that reviewed livelihood programs targeting returning internally displaced persons in the Midwest region of Nepal and Bhutanese refugees living in seven refugee camps in the southeast of the country. The report details some of the more creative interventions being implemented for both populations by international and local non-governmental organizations – such as relief substitution projects in the refugee camps and value chain interventions with forest users groups and off-season vegetable cooperatives. The report also highlights some of the opportunities that are being over-looked such as capitalizing on the existing in-camp economies and ensuring that vocational training programs are market driven.

Creating awareness of the importance of education and the difference between acceptable work for children and exploitative child labour can help break the cycle of child labour and poverty. This manual aims to provide best practice advice derived from evaluations of 100 projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, as part of Winrock international’s Community-based Innovations to Reduce Child Labour through Education (CIRCLE) project.

Split into two sections, the manual attempts to provide a holistic overview of child labour, lessons learnt and best practices. Section one provides background information on the interrelated issues of child labour and education including the causes and consequences of child labour, and the existing legislative framework. It also takes a look at project design guidelines aimed at combating child labour through education interventions.

Section two outlines the practical learning from a range of projects under the CIRCLE umbrella including the principal design elements and components critical to ensuring the effective and sustainable outcomes. Pre-empting or overcoming challenges have been organised under the following topics:

• Awareness raising
• Advocacy
• Education
• Vocational education and skills training
• Peer education
• Child labour monitoring
• Data collection