Public spending must be for the public good. We believe there is no more effective way of building more cohesive and resilient communities than investing in children and families, particularly the most vulnerable.

The conference will address important questions around public spending choices.

• What evidence is needed for good decision-making?

• How should evidence be used?

• How can we measure long-term social return on investment?

• How does this influence budget decisions?

• What is the role of the public and private sectors?

• How do we ensure accountability in service delivery, as well as efficiency and effectiveness?

• How can we meaningfully involve and empower the children and families we support?

Better Public Spending for Better Outcomes for Children & Families

Children First

Eurochild

11th Annual Conference

co-hosted by Hope and Homes for Children Romania

Bucharest, 26-28 November

2014

Conference Booklet

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INTRODUCTION

Jana Hainsworth Stefan Darabus

Wednesday 26 November 2014

09:00 -12:30 Eurochild Thematic Working Groups meetings (members only)

12:00 -15.00 Registration ( Lobby Atrium )

15:00 -18:30 INSPIRING - Opening Plenary Session ( Platinum )

19:30 -22.30 Welcome reception and dinner ( Iridium Grand Ballroom )

Thursday 27 November 2014

09.00 -13.00 DEEPENING – Plenary Session and Mini-Plenaries on cross-cutting themes

09.00 -10.30 Plenary Session on cross-cutting themes ( Platinum )

10:30 -11:00 Coffee Break ( Lobby Platinum)

11.00 -13.00 Mini-Plenaries on cross-cutting themes ( Platinum )

A. Evaluation methodologies ( Platinum Module 1 )

B. Social Return on Investment ( Platinum Module 2 )

C. Public-private partnerships ( Platinum Module 3 )

13.00 -14.00 Lunch ( Avalon&Benihana Restaurant )

14.00 -16:00 DEBATING & LEARNING ( Iridium Grand Ballroom& Lobby )

Study visits Focus Group Discussions / 13:30-16:00 Posters Sessions/ (external venues) Video Corner 4 14.00 -14.50 Session one 4 15.10 - 16.00 Session two

16:00 -16:30 Coffee Break ( Lobby Atrium )

16.30 -18.00 EXCHANGING - Workshops on Eurochild thematic priorities

A. Family and Parenting Support ( Iridium module 1 )

B. Children in Alternative Care ( Arizona )

C. Early Years Education and Care ( Iridium module 2 )

D. Child and Youth Participation ( Colorado )

19.00 - 22.30 CONFERENCE DINNER ( External venue )

Friday 28 November 2014

09:00 -11:00 BUILDING - Panel Debate on funding for civil society dialogue & advocacy ( Platinum )

11.00 -11:30 Coffee break ( Lobby Platinum )

11:30 -13.00 VISIONING - Closing Plenary Session ( Platinum )

For a more detailed programme visit our Conference website at http://bit.ly/Eurochild_AC2014

PROGRAMME OVERVIEW

Thank you for joining us at Eurochild’s 11th Annual Conference!

We chose ‘better public spending’ as this year’s theme because we firmly believe that realizing the rights of every child is not only a moral and legal imperative, it also makes economic sense.

Whilst the UNCRC provides our constant point of reference, we want to unpick a number of complex issues around public spending choices. We select-ed evaluation methodologies, social return on investment and public private partnership as three cross-cutting themes because they are part of a continuum of work (at different stages of de-velopment) within the Eurochild network.

Each of Eurochild’s thematic priorities will also be addressed through the lens of better public spend-ing: early years, family and parenting support, children in alternative care and child and youth participation. We’re delighted that different Euro-child working groups are taking the lead to organ-ise these workshops.

With a strong interest in promoting child-friend-ly justice, the Embassy of France in Romania has taken the opportunity of this conference to co-or-

ganise a side event addressing this issue from an economic perspective. ChildPact, the Regional Coalition for Child Protection, will also use the oc-casion of this event to celebrate its legal establish-ment and discuss child protection reforms in the Black Sea Region.

We are delighted to be hosted this year by Hope and Homes for Children Romania. We take partic-ular pride in the Opening Doors for Europe’s Chil-dren campaign jointly run by Eurochild and Hope and Homes www.openingdoors.eu. We hope this event will strengthen the evidence-base to sup-port our advocacy to end institutional care and strengthen families across Europe.

The event comes at a critical juncture in the EU’s history. We have a new set of leaders and we are at the start of a new round of 7-years of structural and investment funding. The EC’s Recommendation on Investing in Children provides welcome policy guidance but much work needs to be done if it is to make a difference to policy reform and use of EU funds in the coming months and years.

We hope you enjoy the event and take with you new knowledge, contacts and most of all inspira-tion for your on-going work!

Children First: Better public spending for better outcomes for children and families

SIDE EVENTS

14:00 - 18:00

“Building the economic case for child-friendly justice” ( Florida )Workshop co-financed by the Embassy of France in Romania

16:30 - 18:00

“ChildPact: Regional coopera-tion for child protection.”Panel organised by ChildPact ( Kansas )

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CONFERENCE ROOMS MAP LEVEL 1

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Inspiring Inspiring

Jana Hainsworth - Eurochild Secretary General

Jana Hainsworth joined Eurochild as Secretary General in January 2006. She is responsible for the day-to-day running of the network. Jana previously worked in a Brussels-based communications consultancy where she man-aged communications on the EU’s Community Action Programme to com-bat discrimination. Jana also managed a network of organisations promot-ing long-term voluntary service in the youth field and has worked for several years in research and consultancy. She has a Masters degree in environment, development and policy from Sussex University and an Honours degree in Natural Sciences from Durham University in the UK.

Ivan Tancabel - Young Person, Member of the Children’s City Council Opati-ja in Croatia

Ivan Tancabel is an active member of the Children’s City Council Opatija since 2007. He has represented the work and projects of Children’s City Council to policy makers in Croatia, as well as in the meetings of child-friendly cities and municipalities. Ivan was a member of the Network of Young Advisors of Office of the Croatian Ombudsman for Children and has participated in several na-tional and European meetings on children’s rights.

Rovana Plumb - Minister of Labour, Family, Social Protection and the Elderly of Romania

Prior to being Minister of Labour, Family, Social Protection and the Elderly, she was Minister of Environment and Climate Change in Romania. She was a Member of the European Parliament from 2007 to 2012, following her term as Deputy in the Romanian Parliament since 2005. She was State Secretary at the National Agency for Consumers’ Protection between 2001 and 2004. She has a PhD in Management of Industrial Systems, awarded by the Polytechnic University of Bucharest in 2004. She graduated from the Polytechnic University in Bucharest in 1984, with a Bacehelor’s in Engineering.

Stefan Darabus - Country Director of Hope and Homes for Children Romania

Stefan Darabus is Country Director for Hope and Homes for Children in Romania. He has 17 years of experience in developing childcare system reform and innovat-ing social services. His career is focused on changing the paradigm of child protec-tion from institutional to family-like care. His organisation’s mission is to be a cata-lyst for the eradication of child institutionalisation in Romania first, then globally. A graduate of humanities and a Ph.D., Stefan Darabus finalised his MBA studies a few years ago, applying organisational, strategic and change management to child protection and social systems reform processes. Having managed deinstitutional-isation and child rights policy programmes in Romania and abroad, he is currently involved in developing child protection system reform in European countries.

OPENING PLENARY SPEAKERS (Wednesday, 26 November, 15:00 – 18:30, Platinum)

Frank Vandenbroucke - Former Minister of Social Affairs Belgium and Professor in Leuven and Amsterdam

Prof. Frank Vandenbroucke studied economics in Leuven and Cambridge, UK, and received his D.Phil. in Oxford. He was Minister for Social Security, Health In-surance, Pensions and Employment in the Belgian Federal Government (1999-2004) and Minister for Education and Employment in the Flemish Regional Government (2004-2009). He was appointed “Minister van Staat” (an honorary title) in December 2009. He is now a full time professor at the KU Leuven. He also teaches at the Universities of Antwerp (UA), where he holds the “Herman Deleeck” chair, and the University of Amsterdam (UvA), where he holds the “Joop den Uyl” chair. His research focuses on the impact of the EU on the development of social and employment policy in the EU Member States. His list of publications can be found at www.econ.kuleuven.be/frankvandenbroucke.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS(Wednesday, 26 November, 15:00 – 18:30, Platinum)

Jorge Cardona Llorens - Member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and Rapporteur for the upcoming General Comment on Public Spending to Realize Children’s Rights

Jorge Cardona Lloréns is Professor of Public International Law and International Relations at the University of Valencia. Special Graduation Award (1980) and Spe-cial PhD Award at the University of Valencia (1984). Teacher of Public International Law at the Universities of Valencia (1980-1984; 1985-95; and since 2008), Alican-te (1984-85) and Jaume I in Castellón (1995-2008). UNESCO Special Advisor on: “Works of the Spirit as Common Heritage of Humankind” (1999-2000). Agent for the Kingdom of Spain before the International Court of Justice in the case of the Declaration of Independence of Kosovo. Legal adviser to diverse States on various international affairs and decisions.

Norah Gibbons - Chairperson, Child and Family Agency, Ireland

Norah worked for many years in social work in both the State and NGO sectors in England and Ireland. She was appointed as a member of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse 2000-2009 and while there she chaired the Confiden-tial Committee of the Commission from 2000 to 2005. She was the Director of Advocacy of Barnardos from 2005 to 2012. . She was a member of the Task-force on the establishment of the Child and Family Agency which reported in June 2012. Norah was appointed first Chairperson of the Child and Family agency in January 2014. She is currently a member of Acknowledgement Fo-rum of Historical Abuse Inquiry in Northern Ireland.

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Deepening Deepening

Why did we choose the theme?At a time when resources are limited, Eurochild acknowledges that services and interventions need to demonstrate their effectiveness in ad-dressing social challenges. It is important that policies and practice build on what works and on what has proven effectiveness. However, given the increased emphasis at EU level towards social innovation and social policy experimentation, it is crucial to broaden our understanding of what is meant by ‘evidence-based’ practice and explore some of the risks and consequences that arise from narrowly defining what counts as evidence in the evaluation of social interventions. Euro-child’s thematic working group on family and par-enting support has been working on these issues for the last four years to unpick the rhetoric of ev-idence base. We expect this event will drill down further into these issues and offer an opportuni-ty to debate our policy position on evidence and evaluation methodology. Whilst the topic has

grown out of Eurochild’s work in the field of family and parenting support, it is relevant for all areas of children’s services such as early years’ education and care and child protection reforms.

What are the parameters of the theme?Under this cross-cutting theme we will explore the purpose of evaluation, and how choices are made about different approaches to evidence and methodology. Rather than discussing the merits or drawbacks of individual evaluation methodologies, the session will offer an opportu-nity to think more broadly about what evidence is needed, when and for what purpose.

What are the questions that we want to address?The discussions around this theme will help us to explore what are the different aims of evaluation in children and family services, what methodolo-gies are most ‘fit for purpose’, how can and should they be used.

CROSS-CUTTING THEME OF EVALUATION METHODOLOGIES

RESOURCE PERSONS SPEAKING IN THE PLENARY ON CROSS-CUTTING THEMES(Thursday, 27 November, 09:00 – 10:30, Platinum)

Pat Dolan - UNESCO Chair and Director, UNESCO Child and Family Re-search Centre, NUI Galway, Ireland

Pat Dolan is joint founder and Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Re-search Centre and an Academic Director of the M.A. in Family Support Stud-ies. He also contributes to the wider undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes of the School of Political Science and Sociology as well as su-pervising Ph.D. candidates and Masters Dissertations in Family Support, So-cial Work and Community Development. He holds the prestigious UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement, the first to be awarded in the Republic of Ireland. His major research interests are Civic Engagement in Children and Youth, Family Support, Reflective Practice and Service Develop-ment, Youth Mentoring Models, Adolescents Resilience and Social Networks.

John Canavan - Associate Director, UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, NUI Galway, Ireland

John Canavan is joint founder and Associate Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre. He has extensive experience in researching and evaluating social intervention programmes in the areas of child and family care, educational disadvantage, and community and local development. He received his PhD from Queens University, Belfast in 2006 and holds an MA in Community Development from NUI, Galway.

EXPERT SPEAKERS IN THE MINI-PLENARY ON EVALUATION METHODOLOGIES (Thursday, 27 November, 11:00 – 13:00, Platinum Module 1)

Tom A. van Yperen - Social Scientist and Professor at Netherlands Youth Institute / Utrecht University / Groningen University

Tom van Yperen is a social scientist. His activities at the Netherlands Youth Institute are aimed at improving the quality of child and family services, es-pecially the effectiveness of interventions. He participates in many research projects advises local and national authorities on the reorganization of the child and youth care system in the Netherlands. Tom van Yperen is also special professor at the State University of Groningen. His research and education focuses on ways to set up monitoring of the effectiveness of child and youth care to make professionals view monitoring as a non-bureaucratic and even stimulating tool for improving practice.

Jean Gordon - Universal Education Foundation, Member of the Learning for Well-being Consortium

Jean Gordon is an international consultant specialised in education and train-ing policy and strategies for lifelong/life-wide learning having retired at the end of 2013 from her position as Director of the European Institute of Educa-tion and Social Policy. Jean has over 25 years’ experience in the comparison and analysis of education policies and systems, and in contributing to lifelong learning opportunities and personal development through improving access to learning and its recognition, individualising pathways and increasing trans-parency of learning and qualifications in Europe. Since 2005 she has been working with UEF and is a member of the Learning for Well-being Community.

Allyn Fives - Lecturer, UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, School of Political Science and Sociology, NUI Galway, Ireland

Allyn Fives is a Lecturer in the School of Political Science and Sociology at NUI Galway, has worked on numerous research projects as part of the UN-ESCO Child and Family Research Centre, and holds a PhD in political theory from the University of Edinburgh. His research interests are in the areas of normative political theory, ethics, and applied social science. Recent work in normative political theory and ethics has examined the moral and political status of children, morality and the public sphere, issues in research ethics, and the work of John Rawls and Alasdair MacIntyre. His applied social sci-ence research has involved experimental and quasi-experimental studies, and focused on methodological issues in RCTs, children’s self-beliefs, and the effectiveness of reading programmes and parenting programmes.

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Deepening Deepening

Why did we choose the theme?We will zoom in on the pressure, in times of austerity, to demonstrate returns on investment in children’s rights and well-being. The human rights argument for the transition from an institutional care system, to a system of family care and community based ser-vices, is clear. Yet, even though institutionalisation has clearly been demonstrated to give rise to grave violations of children’s rights, levels of institutionali-sation remain high in many European countries, and are increasing in some. Despite the evidence show-ing that prevention and alternative family care are more cost-effective in the long term, vested inter-ests and short-sighted financial considerations often tend to prevail. In order to promote a systemic tran-sition, the economic argument for deinstitutionali-sation and for strengthening the capacity of parents and families to care needs to be better understood. This is why Eurochild has accepted the challenge to complement its expertise on deinstititutionalisation, built through the Children in Alternative Care work-ing group, and the Opening Doors campaign, with new economic research. During a two year study, funded by OAK foundation, we aim to develop a framework that will allow policy makers to calcu-late the broader and long term social return on in-vestment in family care, community based services, and closure of institutions. We expect this event to help frame the terms of reference for the researchers. Whilst the topic has grown out of Eurochild’s work on deinstitutionalisation, it is relevant to all preven-

tive services for children and young people and, in turn, we will draw inspiration from the broader field of social return on investment in children’s services.

What are the parameters of the theme?While there are plenty of cost-effectiveness studies calculating the economic value of specific interven-tions for children in specific contexts, there are far few-er studies which calculate the broader social return on investing in systemic changes towards child-centered policies. During this mini-plenary we turn the focus away from cost-comparisons between different types of care services, and from evaluations of the cost-effec-tiveness of particular interventions and programmes, towards broader, long term, social returns on invest-ment of systemic deinstitutionalisation reforms.

What are the questions that we want to address?The discussion will address what the added val-ue of social return on investment arguments in achieving reform towards prevention services for children and families and high quality alternative care options. How can we maximize the power of social return on investment arguments? How can we build on existing costing and cost-effective-ness studies? What are our knowledge gaps? How do we best quantify long term outcomes related to investment in children’s services? And what have been the success factors and barriers for existing social return on investment studies?

CROSS-CUTTING THEME OF SOCIAL RETURN ON INVESTMENT

RESOURCE PERSON SPEAKING IN THE PLENARY ON CROSS-CUTTING THEMES(Thursday, 27 November, 09:00 – 10:30, Platinum)

Nicholas Rees - Policy Analysis Specialist, Division of Policy and Strategy, UNICEF New York

As an advocate for children’s rights, Nicholas Rees has been working with UNICEF for the past six years to help develop and promote evidence-based policies for children. Nicholas has a wide-ranging understanding of the means to measure broader social impact when investing in children and the shaping of social pol-icies. Nicholas received his undergraduate degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies, and his masters degree from the London School of Econom-ics. He has co-authored a variety of publications including Right in Principle and Practice: A review of the economic and social returns to investing in children; Child Outlook; and UNICEF’s Advocacy Toolkit.

EXPERT SPEAKERS IN THE MINI-PLENARY ON SOCIAL RETURN ON INVESTMENT (Thursday, 27 November, 11:00 – 13:00, Platinum Module 2)

Claire Milligan - Strategic Violence Against Children Advisor, Save the Children, UK

Claire Milligan is an experienced senior level practitioner in international child protection programme management. She has recently joined Save the Children UK’s child protection team as their Strategic Violence Against Chil-dren Advisor. Claire’s previous positions include Head of Child Protection at ARK and Chief of Party for Christian Aid’s flagship USAID funded programme for community-based care for orphans and vulnerable children in Zambia, Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria. Claire has a Masters Degree in Development Studies and speaks fluent French.

Hanna Heinonen - Programme Director, Central Union for Child Welfare, Finland

Hanna Heinonen is the Programme Director for the Central Union for Child Welfare in Finland. She has a background in Social Work and Child Welfare Ser-vices. She concentrates on child participation issues. Hanna Heinonen holds a degree in Social Sciences from the University of Helsinki. She has been a member of the Board of Eurochild since 2012. Her special interest are: the quality of child welfare services, preventive work and making the voice of the child more clearly heard in society.

Tiia Hipp - Senior Advisor, Central Union for Child Welfare, Finland

Tiia Hipp is the senior advisor for the Central Union for Child Welfare in Fin-land. She has a background in Social Work and Child Welfare Services. Tiia Hipp holds a master in Social Sciences from the University of Tampere.

Stefan DarabusCountry Director of Hope and Homes for Children Romania

Stefan Darabus is Country Director for Hope and Homes for Children in Roma-nia. He has 17 years of experience in developing childcare system reform and innovating social services. His career is focused on changing the paradigm of child protection from institutional to family-like care. His organisation’s mis-sion is to be a catalyst for the eradication of child institutionalisation in Roma-nia first, then globally. A graduate of humanities and a Ph.D., Stefan Darabus finalised his MBA studies a few years ago, applying organisational, strategic and change management to child protection and social systems reform pro-cesses. Having managed deinstitutionalisation and child rights policy pro-grammes in Romania and abroad, he is currently involved in developing child protection system reform in European countries.

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Deepening Deepening

Why did we choose the theme?Promotion of children’s rights and well-being is a common responsibility across all sectors of society and the necessity to work together across the public, private and voluntary sectors is widely understood. The role of businesses and private sector finance is subject to much debate, particularly in the current context of shrinking public expenditures. Eurochild aims to contribute to this debate by bringing clarity on the roles and responsibilities of the public and private sectors and highlighting the different motiva-tions behind their respective engagement.

What are the parameters of the theme?The theme takes account of the growing impor-tance of social innovation, social economy and so-cial enterprise. Commonly understood definitions are offered below as a starting point for the debate. The discussions are expected to focus on the role of the private investment, challenging the stereo-type of the private sector as a counterpart rather than a potential partner in the social sphere. None-theless we also aim to demonstrate that public-pri-vate partnerships cannot replace statutory service provision by exploring the State’s responsibility in ensuring accountability, quality and sustainability of services – particularly in light of their obligations under the UNCRC and the EU Lisbon Treaty. Final-ly we want to explore the specific role of the vol-untary or non-profit sector, looking at public pro-curement models and how they support or hinder capacity development and improvement in the quality of services for children and families.

• Social innovations are innovations that are social in both their ends and their means. They are new ideas (products, services and models) that simulta-neously meet social needs (more effectively than alternatives) and create new social relationships or collaborations. In other words they are innovations that are not only good for society but also enhance society’s capacity to act.

• Social economy includes organisations such as co-operatives, mutual societies, associations and foundations as well as other types of enterprises that are distinguished from capital-based compa-nies by specific features linked to shared charac-teristics, such as the primacy of the individual and the social objective over capital.

• A social enterprise is an operator in the social economy. It is an enterprise (business entity) whose main objective is to have a social impact rather than make a profit for its owners or shareholders.

What are the questions that we want to address?Invited experts come from very different perspec-tives. They are invited to give their experience and insights around three key questions: 1) The impor-tance and the limitations of private investment in their efforts to improve the lives of children and young people; 2) The role of the State and im-provements in service procurement, provision and monitoring; 3) The capacity of voluntary and civil society sectors to meet the needs of disadvan-taged children and families and how public and private sectors can support capacity development.

CROSS-CUTTING THEME OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

RESOURCE PERSON SPEAKING IN THE PLENARY SESSION ON CROSS-CUTTING THEMES (Thursday, 27 November, 09:00 – 10:30, Platinum)

Valentina Caimi - Policy and Advocacy Adviser, Social Platform

Valentina Caimi is Policy and Advocacy Advisor at Social Platform. She is respon-sible for the policy and advocacy work on services of general interest, in particu-lar social, health and financial services, the EU Budget, social economy and social enterprises, social innovation, minimum wage and the impact of state aid, pro-curement and trade agreements’ rules on services. Valentina previously worked for thirteen years in EU social policies and project management in Italy, in NGOs, social cooperatives, local authorities and vocational training institutions.

Kathy Evans - Chief Executive of Children England

Kathy became CEO of Children England in April 2013, having been its Depu-ty CEO since May 2010. Founded in 1942 by a group of the major children’s charities operating at the time, Children England is the membership body for children’s charities, voluntary and community sector organisations in En-gland. After graduating from Trinity College Cambridge with a degree in So-cial and Political Sciences, Kathy took a full-time CSV volunteer placement in a voluntary sector children’s home, an experience that inspired her to train in counselling, and to work with young people in LA secure accommodation for several years. She moved into policy work in 1996: firstly for DrugScope, spe-cialising in drug treatment for young people; then in 2001 to The Children’s Society where she was Policy Director until 2009.

Bianca Isaincu - Regional Advisor for Europe & Central Asia, Child & Youth Finance International

Bianca studied development and international economics at the University of Pavia (Italy), in Paris (Université Sorbonne) and in the USA (University of Oregon). She is of Romanian origin and was raised in Italy. After living and travelling around the world, she defines herself as an European Citizen. The exciting experience of working in an international and dynamic team and be-ing with passionate and hopeful people within the CYFI team is fulfilling her expectations and hopes in a better world.

EXPERT SPEAKERS IN THE MINI-PLENARY ON PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP (Thursday, 27 November, 11:00 – 13:00, Platinum Module 3)

Delia Pop - Director of Programmes, Hope and Homes for Children

Dr Delia Pop is Director of Programmes at Hope and Homes for Children. She is a member of high-level advocacy groups in the US and Europe and has con-tributed to the transformation of child protection and care systems at national and regional level in 15 countries across Europe and Africa. Born and educated in Romania, Delia is a medical doctor who has worked for 15 years with children trapped in the institutional care system and families at risk of separation.

Kevin Goldberg - Corporate and Institutional Partnerships Manager, Groupe SOS

Kevin Goldberg, European and national Partnerships Manager at Groupe SOS, a non-profit French-based social enterprise with about 12 000 employees and 350 structures acting in five main fields of activity: youth, employment, solidarity, health & seniors. As part of his functions, he works on the set-up of social and societal projects gathering actors from the public, private and non-profit sectors, with the aim to maximise their impact and generate responsible innovation. Pri-or to joining Groupe SOS, Kevin has been working as an adviser for the national association of French town mayors in the fields of European policies, sustainable development and new technologies. He is a graduate from the College of Eu-rope and Sciences Po Grenoble.

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Debating Debating

Session one 14.00-14.50

FG 1/A

Allyn Fives, UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, NUI Galway, Ireland

Evaluation methodologies

“A pluralist approach to evidence.”

FG 1/B

Stefan Darabus, Hope and Homes for Children Romania

Social Return on Investment

“The Financial Projection of the Child Protection System Reform in Romania”

FG 1/C

Hanna Heinonen & Tiia Hipp, Central Union for Child Welfare, Finland

Social Return on Investment

“How do child welfare costs accumulate?”

FG 1/D

Valentina Caimi, Social Platform

Public-Private Partnership

“EU developments in social service provision: the role of the state and private providers in changing modern societies”

FG 1/E

Bianca Isaincu, Child & Youth Finance International

Public-Private Partnership

“Promoting young people’s economic rights through innovation and cooperation with banking sector”

Session two 15:10-16:00

FG 2/A

Jean Gordon, Universal Education Foundation

Evaluation methodologies

“Learning for Well-being: influencing design, monitoring and evaluation.”

FG 2/B

Tom A. van Yperen, Netherlands Youth Institute / Utrecht University / Groningen University

Evaluation methodologies

“Hierarchy of evaluation & RCTs.”

FG 2/C

Claire Milligan, Save the Children, UK

Social Return on Investment

“The social return of investing in prevention and quality alternative care services for children: an exploration of methodologies.”

FG 2/D

Kathy Evans, Children England

Public-Private Partnership

“Delivering quality in children’s services: is public procurement fit for purpose?”

FG 2/E

Kevin Goldberg, Groupe SOS

Public-Private Partnership

“Social Entrepreneurship: promoting equal opportunities for children in France.”

FOCUS GROUPS(Thursday, 27 November, 14:00 – 16:00, Iridium Grand Ballroom & Lobby)

FOCUS GROUPS(Thursday, 27 November, 14:00 – 16:00, Iridium Grand Ballroom & Lobby)

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Learning Learning

Session one 14.00-14.50

PS 1/A

Tomasz Polkowski, Chairman, Our Home Association

“The model of small group homes focused on individual development – implemented by Our Home Associa-tion in Poland and Georgia”

PS 1/B

Benoit Guerin, Analyst, RAND Europe

“European Platform for Investing in Children: Using the evidence base to guarantee a social return on invest-ment for the implementation of programs and practices on child poverty and wellbeing”

PS 1/C

Henry Johnston, Director of Programme for Government and Delivering Social Change, Northern Ireland

“Northern Ireland Executive Delivering Social Change framework – Tackling Poverty and Social Exclusion for Children and Young People”

PS 1/D

Ioana Giurisici, Children with Complex Needs Services Director, FARA, Romania

“A chance to a decent life for children with special needs and their families”

PS 1/E

Peter Goldblatt, Senior Advisor University College London Institute of Health equity

“Early years education of care: a DRIVER of health equity”

PS 1/F

Luminita Costache, Education Specialist, UNICEF Romania

“The Standard-Cost Based Financing of the Pre-university Education – An Evaluation from an Equity Perspec-tive”

Session two 15:10-16:00

PS 2/A

Gabriela Sempruch, Chief Policy Advisor, Mazovian Social Policy Center

“Calculating the cost of inaction: Promoting evidenced based social investments through the use of technol-ogy.”

PS 2/B

Nicoleta Preda, National Programme Development Director, SOS Children’s Villages Romania

“Velux Project: “Steps to Self-Reliance” – good practices in integrating micro-grants into the frame of case”

PS 2/C

Rita Nunes, Researcher, Freie Universität Berlin, European Network of Masters in Children’s Rights

“The economic recession impacting children’s rights in Southern Europe”

PS 2/D

Eszter Salamon, President of European Parents Association

“Free meals in kindergarten for inclusion - case study from Hungary”

PS 2/E

Jeffrey Coleman, Project Programme Director, British Association for Adoption and Fostering

“Why we should develop fostering services for children in conflict with the law”

PS 2/F

Voica Pop, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Romania

“Financial analysis for scaling up model of community based services at national level”

POSTER SESSIONS (Thursday, 27 November, 14:00 – 16:00, Iridium Grand Ballroom& Lobby)

POSTER SESSIONS (Thursday, 27 November, 14:00 – 16:00, IIridium Grand Ballroom& Lobby)

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Learning Learning

Study visit 1

World Vision Romania organises a study vis-it with the aim to showcase two cross-cutting themes, social return on investment and pub-lic-private partnership, while focusing on the following thematic priorities: family and par-enting support & child and youth participation. Participants will be given an overview to an in-novative project called “Interdisciplinary School Based Services for Child Welfare in Romania” de-veloped by World Vision Romania with the goal to include this model among the continuum of child welfare services, by filling the gaps in the implementation of child welfare policy that are not correlated with the rights of the child.

Study visit participants will: (1) understand how evidence from the piloted project “School-based child welfare service (SDS)” has been used to advo-cate at local and national level for policy change; (2) hear from beneficiaries (children, parents and school) about the impact and investment of the programme in their life; (3) understand how we document and report on impact and how this proj-ect links between child protection and educational systems; (4) understand the role of the public and private sectors in delivery of school-based child welfare service (SDS) for vulnerable children; (5) gain knowledge about ways of working with chil-dren and families that we support to involve and empower them in community life.

Study visit 2

The Feed the Children Association is developing programmes to support disadvantaged families since 1998 year. The main objectives of Feed the Children Association are to improve life quality of underprivileged socio-economic people, to pre-vent family and school abandonment, to prevent the institutionalisation of children, to attract public attention and to develop the public - private part-nership.

The study visit proposed by Feed the Children Association will be focused on the social return on investment and public-private partnership themes – which arise when addressing priorities in family and parenting support, children in alter-native care, child and youth participation. The As-sociation offers services like: material and financial support to overcome crisis situations according to the identified needs; specialised counseling and accompanying the parents in finding a job; reg-istration to family physician, psychotherapy and family counseling; educational assistance of chil-dren with learning difficulties, information gaps; psychological counseling of parents and teachers in order to reduce the risk of serious abuse and neglect of children; social counseling for children and their parents; educational programs for family life, raising children, caring for the home, budget management and so on by the programmes they develop since 2000.

Supporting children’s empowerment through social and financial education - Aflatoun

The video shows children and youth experience when par-ticipating in Aflatoun programmes, inside and outside of school.

By teaching basic social and financial skills and providing children with practical experience, Af-latoun hopes that they will believe in themselves and their ability to make a difference in their lives and in the lives of people around them.

Mind Your Wallet! - International Debate Educa-tion Association (IDEA)

IDEA gives young peo-ple a voice through education, debate and by raising their aware-ness about worldwide issues. This short mov-

ie shows a project aimed at raising awareness on financial issues and how to prevent from getting debts and/or solve them. Youth workers, teachers and young professionals are trained to organise de-bate activities where young people learned to talk about issues related to financial problems and re-sponsibilities.

Overcoming prejudice: supporting children with dyslexia – Sorana Stanescu, TVR Romania

Presenting testimo-nies from dyslexic chil-dren and their families on how it is like to be dyslexic in Romania, a country where learn-

ing disabilities are largely unknown, children struggle through school undiagnosed, in lack of proper therapy and support, while their parents are desperate in try-ing to come up with solutions on their own. It aims to make the case for investing in inclusive education and support for children with dyslexia from an early age improving their chances to reach their full potential.

Talking about public spending for children – Eurochild

Children taking part in CATS (Children as Ac-tors in Transforming Society) discuss about public spending in contribution to the

development of the UNCRC Committee General Comment on Public Spending to Realize Children’s Rights & the OHCHR report on “Towards Better In-vestment in the Rights of the Child”.

Wadada World Kids News Flash - Child and Youth Finance International

The video is a Wadada World Kids News Flash for Change, hosted by Fiona of Wadada World Kids News. Kids from around the world

address the United Nations regarding the Post 2015 Human Development goals. They all plead fi-nancial education to be included and embedded in good and accountable financial governance. Com-mon desires include gaining knowledge on how to save money on matters that are important, how to administer money more wisely and how to sustain oneself and become empowered.

The benefits of afterschool programs - World Vision Romania Foundation

Afterschool pro-grammes performed by World Vision Ro-mania Foundation during 2010 -2014 in areas that require

socio-educational intervention and dropout prevention services for the most vulnerable chil-dren. At the beginning, the Foundation provided 80% of funding and after 1-2 years, the local au-thorities, noticing the results, decided to partic-ipate in the programme through public invest-ment from the local budget.

STUDY VISITS(Thursday, 27 November, 13:15 – 16:00, External venues)

VIDEO CORNER ON THE PARTICIPATION OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE(Thursday, 27 November, 09:00 – 18:00, Iridium Lobby)

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Learning Learning

SIDE EVENT ON CHILD-FRIENDLY JUSTICE(Thursday, 27 November, 14:00 – 18:00, Florida)

SIDE EVENT ORGANISED BY CHILDPACT (Thursday, 27 November, 16:30 – 18:00, Kansas)

“Building an Economic Case for a Child-friendly Justice”

SPECIAL WORKSHOP co-organized by EUROCHILD & the Embassy of France in Romania, with the participation of the International Juvenile Justice Observatory

This workshop proposes to discuss the economic benefits a child friendly justice system could ensure. Through case studies and group discussions, it will aim at exploring the following issues:

• In times of austerity, how do we build an economic case in favour of juvenile justice reform and demon-strate long term return on investment?

• How do States reform their juvenile justice system while ensuring optimum use of public resource?

• Which approaches and tools are States using to measure, monitor and evaluate results for children and young people in the justice system?

Indeed, a large range of International and European standards provide a well-established framework for modelling juvenile justice. In 2010, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted guide-lines on child friendly justice. However, according to the Council of Europe, the implementation of these standards has so far been unsatisfying.

Moderator: Ms Mariama Diallo, Children’s Rights Consultant, EUROCHILD Associate Member

Workshop Agenda

Opening words Christophe Gigaudaut, Head of Cooperation and Cultural Affairs, Embassy of France in RomaniaJana Hainsworth, Secretary General, Eurochild

Introducing IJJO’s White Paper “Save money, protect society and realize youth potential – Improving youth justice systems during a time of economic crisis”

Marianne Moore, Consultant, International Juvenile Justice Observatory

Building an economic case: 3 case studies Joana Terzieva, National Network for Children, BGHervé Duplenne, Interregional Director, Western Region, Direc-torate for Judicial Youth Protection, Ministry of Justice, FRNathalie Whelehan, Policy Officer, Children’s Law Centre, Northern Ireland

Building an economic case: 4 focused policies for a child friendly justice

In this section of the workshop, all participants will be di-vided in 4 groups to brainstorm on related policies, the challenge of their implementation, in the light of the 3 questions addressed above and the specific recommen-dations formulated in the IJJO White Paper

Presentation of the 4 groups insights / Q&A sessionClosing Workshop – What’s next?

Synthesis and Main Recommendation formulated by Mar-ianne Moore, Consultant, International Juvenile Justice Ob-servatory

“Regional cooperation for child protection. Sharing Romanian lessons“

CHILDPACT PANEL

This side-event aims to:

1. Introduce ChildPact, the Regional Coalition for Child Protection, and celebrate its incorporation as a legally registered entity;

2. Celebrate and tell the story of the Romanian transition in the field of child protection and how Romania became a sponsor of child protection reforms in the region;

3. Introduce the Child Protection Index, the instrument that ChildPact proposes as an independent tool to measure each country’s child protection reform in accordance with the UNCRC’s rights based ap-proach and the systems approach to child protection.

Panel Agenda

Welcome and introduction Mirela Oprea, ChildPact Secretary General

ChildPact presentation Mira Antonyan, ChildPact Board Member and Presi-dent of the Armenian Child Protection Network

Romania’s transition experience in child protection and its support for child protection reforms in the region

Mirela Oprea, ChildPact Secretary General

Presentation of the Child Protection Index Andy Guth, Child Protection Index Consultant

Concluding remarks and signature of ChildPact reg-istration documents

Mariana Ianachevici, ChildPact Board Member and President of APSCF Moldova

About ChildPact

ChildPact is the Regional Coalition for Child Protec-tion with members in 10 countries (Albania, Arme-nia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Georgia, Moldova, Romania, and Serbia) and with a current representational base of more than 600 NGOs. Together, ChildPact members serve more than 500,000 children as direct beneficiaries. ChildPact has four main ChildPact objectives:

1. Monitor and influence child-related policies at regional and European levels by documenting child protection concerns and advocating for better policies to protect vulnerable children;

2. Strengthen the capacity of its members by active-ly supporting their expertise development, visibil-ity and credibility at regional and European levels;

3. Advocate for regional cooperation at inter-gov-ernmental and civil society level, in order to identify best practices and solutions to common threats to children’s well-being;

4. Raise public awareness of child rights and pro-tection issues at national, regional and Europe-an contexts. More information about ChildPact: www.childpact.org. Panel co-financed by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Official Development Assistance Unit, with UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre as implemen-tation partner.

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Exchanging Exchanging

WORKSHOP ON FAMILY AND PARENTING SUPPORT(Thursday, 27 November, 16:30 – 18:00, Iridium Module 1)

WORKSHOP ON CHILDREN IN ALTERNATIVE CARE(Thursday, 27 November, 16:30 – 18:00, Arizona)

“Helping parents to help children - why this should be a priority for the public sector”

Within the overall conference context, this workshop will look at what services related to family and par-enting support do we want to promote and how would we get decision makers and commissioners to buy/use them? The aim of this workshop is to build on the information provided throughout the confer-ence and offer participants a chance to discuss how we can move the discussion on in practical terms. It will consider two areas of practice where integration and research has been core to delivery of services, while acknowledging the areas of both good practice and challenges faced.

Chair: Marion Macleod, Children in Scotland – co-chair of Eurochild Thematic Working Group on Family and Parenting Support

Agenda

This workshop is led by members who are active in Eurochild Thematic Working Group on Family and Par-enting Support, which provides a forum for members to exchange experience and know-how, thereby con-tributing to improved policy and practice across Europe.

“Quality intervention for children in alternative care: respect child rights now and save public spending in the future”

Workshop organised by Eurochild Thematic Working Group on Children in Alternative Care

Programme

Setting the scene & explanation of what will happen in the workshop

Each workshop participant will be invited to join two consecutive discussion tables.

Discussion Table 1 What kind of family and parenting support services/programmes/practices do we want to promote?

This discussion will link with the SROI theme from day 1.

Discussion Table 2 How to convince decision makers to invest in the type of services we want?

This discussion will link with the Effectiveness & Efficiencies of Public Spending and Evaluation Methodologies from day 1.

To break up the table discussion and to give “food for thought” for the discussions, two practical ex-amples on integrating the evidence into prac-tice – benefits & challenges will be presented.

Michelle McCabe, Lifestart Foundation, Ireland - ‘The practical challenges of Integration’

The presentation will look at the experiences of implementing a collaborative working arrange-

ment between a voluntary sector organisation and public sector agency in Ireland. The case study will illustrate the challenges of integration on practice, culture and programme fidelity, and establish what the overall benefits were for both the organisations and more so for the families in-volved.

Hanna Falk, HelsinkiMission, Finland - ‘Co-ordi-nated volunteering accompanying the public sector’

The presentation will focus on the Save-A-Gen-eration project by the Finnish social work or-ganisation HelsinkiMission and the qualitative research on the effects of volunteer operations developed in the frame of the project. The ob-jective of the research study is to gather infor-mation about the effects of HelsinkiMission’s Save-A-Generation project on the customers of the mentoring programme from the perspective of families, professional and voluntary workers and about the cooperation between the third sector and the public sector and factors that fa-cilitate or impede such cooperation. Feedback from discussion tables, summary discussion & concluding remarks will close up the workshop.

16:30 – 16:35 – Opening wordsIntroduction by the facilitator, co-chair of Eurochild Thematic Working Group on Children in Alternative Care:

Jane Snaith, Family For Each Child, Estonia

16:35 – 16:50 – Young people’s views on investing in after care servicesAs inspiration for the debate, the workshop will start with watching a video with short presentations of and interviews with three young people on their experience with after care. The video was prepared by LOS - Private Social Services, Denmark.

16:50 – 17:55 – Round table discussionsThe discussions will aim to tackle the following elements:

• Poverty cannot be a reason for placing children in care – invest in services to support vulnerable families to care for their children and in capacity of child welfare systems;

• Invest in quality care – standards of quality care, investing in quality means investing in future “pub-lic profit” (people who can take responsibility and social role in their adult life)

• Invest in supporting services for preparation of care leaving – education, employment, social assis-tance

Participants of the round table:

• Adriana Birloi, SOS Children’s Villages Romania

• Chris Gardiner, “V zájmu dítete” (In the interest of the child), Czech Republic

• Michal Dord, President of Vteřina poté, Czech Republic

• Meelis Kukk, Estonian Care Workers Union

17:55 – 18:00 – Closing

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WORKSHOP ON EARLY YEARS EDUCATION AND CARE (Thursday, 27 November, 16:30 – 18:00, Iridium Module 2)

WORKSHOP ON CHILD AND YOUTH PARTICIPATION(Thursday, 27 November, 16:30 – 18:00, Colorado)

Within the overall conference context this workshop will look at the (two-way) linkages between the re-cent EU policy developments, especially the European Quality Framework and the Investing in Children Recommendation, and developments at a national / local level. We will particularly seek to explore how EU policy can influence national policies, advocacy and practice; implications of austerity measures and their impact on public investment decisions on early years at national and local level; and the relevance of Structural Funds to advance quality early years provision.

Setting the context : EU policies & challenges aheadMathias Urban, Director, Early Childhood Research Centre, University of Roehampton, UK.

How and why increase Romania’s (Europe’s?) most disadvantaged children’s pre-school attendance rates? Maria Gheorghiu, Aude Harou & Alina Seghedi, Asociatia OvidiRo’s Romania

Presentation of Every child in pre-school, an integrated child and family support programme targeting disadvantaged families in rural Romania. The programme implements a food coupon system conditional on pre-school attendance coupled with cash provided to teachers for schools materials, local council transfers for clothing, and professional training to pre-school teachers.

We do know: the less investment in ECEC the poorer condition in all aspects of accessibili-ty and quality - the case of Greece.Nektarios Stellakis, Assistant Professor at University of Patras, Greece. Regional Vice-President for Europe of World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP).

The presentation will depict the current situation of early years education and care (ECEC) in Greece and make the case for the development of a national plan to implement the EU recommendations on ECEC.

The difficulties in bringing EU policy to life in Ireland – and the need for a European Qual-ity Framework.

Toby Wolfe, Start Strong, Ireland.

While access to ECEC has increased in Ireland, public investment is low, quality is variable, and EU policies (such as the 2011 EC Communication) have had little impact. This presentation will explore some of the reasons for this, including the impact of austerity, competing rationales for investment in early childhood, and also national policy “traditions” (such as Ireland’s historical split between “care” and “early education”, and the Irish State’s reluctance to be involved in service delivery). The presentation will then briefly con-sider what features a European Quality Framework might need to have if it is to have impact at national level in Ireland.

Discussion

This workshop is led by members active in Eurochild Thematic Working Group on Early Years Education and Care, which provides a forum for members to exchange experience and know-how, thereby contributing to improved policy and practice across Europe.

The workshop aims to showcase participatory practices related to the overall conference theme - better public spending - or one of the cross-cutting themes: social return on investment, evaluation methodologies and public private partnerships. The discussion following the presentations aims to identify ways to improve the participation of children in public spending decision-making and im-plementation processes.

Unaccompanied refugee children in foster care – participating in decision making and budget allocation Donya Azimi & Elinor Brunnberg, Mälardalen University

Every year 4000-6000 unaccompanied children arrive to Sweden and many are placed in foster care. The inclusion process varies and children can be discriminated. They are not informed about their rights, which according to adolescents taking part in a small youth study, is a problematic situation. The present-ers will talk about the need to involve children in decision making that regards their care situation, includ-ing knowing more about the family budget so the economic situation in everyday life will be clearer and not a part in an exclusion process.

Public spending cuts and the impact on children in CyprusOurania Kyriakou & Maria Timotheou, Cyprus Children’s Parliament (CCPs)

Presenters will talk about work developed by the CCPs during 2013 on social services in view of the planned reorganization of these services in Cyprus. They will depict the impact of the crisis on social ser-vices due to extreme cuts on services and benefits, their efforts to influence policy and new legislations that affect children, and the difficulties of making themselves heard by the authorities and the commu-nity in general. The main points of a Memorandum handed over to the President on spending and social services, the topic of CCPs session on 18 November, will be highlighted.

Children’s participation in the creation of a budget for childrenKatja Knežević & Ivan Tancabel, Opatija Children’s City Council (CCC)

CCC offers children the opportunity to have their and their friends’ opinion to be acknowledged by those who make decisions about questions related to the life of Opatija’s inhabitants. Presenters will describe how the CCC contributes to decision-making processes of the city’s council budget: how children put forward proposals and how they decide which projects will be funded.

This workshop is led by members of Eurochild Reference Group on children’s participation, an advi-sory group supporting Eurochild and its member organisations to mainstream child participation into their work.

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Building Building

Purpose of the Panel Debate

Panellists

PANEL DEBATE: FUNDING ADVOCACY FOR CHILDREN’S RIGHTS (Friday, 28 November, 09:00 – 11:00, Platinum)

The panel debate will build on the three cross-cut-ting themes of the conference: evaluation method-ologies, social return on investment and public-pri-vate partnerships. The panel will link these themes with Eurochild’s aim to build more effective advo-cacy for children’s rights to influence and monitor public spending. To address this aim, experts from national and regional child rights networks, civil society, funders and government representatives will focus on three areas.The first area will explore the role of civil dialogue in effective public spending, addressing questions such as how can children’s rights organisations be

involved in government decisions on budget.The second area will focus on the particular role of membership structures and national children’s rights coalitions in implementing the UNCRC and who funds coordination of such networks.Finally the question is addressed how the impact of the work of child rights coalitions on the lives of children and their families can be evaluated, whether this impact is direct or indirect. Coali-tions and networks are better able to lead societal change than individual organisations, but often have very limited resources. How can they mea-sure and demonstrate their impact?

Aine Lynch - Treasurer of the Children’s Rights Alliance - Ireland

Áine Lynch is Treasurer of the Children’s Rights Alliance and a former Vice Chair. She is also the CEO of the National Parents Council (primary) in Ireland and a registered paediatric nurse with a BSc (Hons) in Behavioural Science, a diploma in Manage-ment, as well as a postgraduate diploma in Child Protection and Welfare. Áine has served as a nurse in both paediatrics and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Áine was manager of Childline and a Director of Services for the ISPCC.

George Bogdanov - Executive Director National Network for Children - Bulgaria

George Bogdanov is the executive director of the National Network for Chil-dren - a network of 124 leading Bulgarian NGOs, working with children and families. He is strongly experienced in project management and research in the social sphere, including projects concerning deinstitutionalization, devel-opment of social services and antidiscrimination policies for children and vul-nerable groups. He has a significant background in working with civil groups, NGOs, the Roma community in Bulgaria as well as with isolated communities. As independent national expert, he is a member of the European Social Policy Network and he is a member of the Eurochild Management Board. He has a master in European Social Policy and Social Work.

Mirela Oprea - Secretary General ChildPact - Romania

Mirela Oprea is the ChildPact Secretary General since 2012. The ChildPact mem-bers are national networks from 10 different countries in the wider Black Sea area, bringing together 600 NGOs, which work with more than 500.000 vulnerable children. She has a key role in supporting ChildPact’s main objectives: monitor-ing child-related policies, strengthening the capacity of the national networks and promoting the creation of a regional cooperation mechanism for child protection.

Valeriu Nicolae - Child Rights and Roma activist - Romania

Valeriu Nicolae is Regional Advocacy Director for World Vision since 2013 and former senior adviser for the Open Society Institute, director of the Roma or-ganisations ERGO and ERIO. He is the producer of “Toto and his sisters” movie that won The Golden Eye for best documentary in Zurich – September 2014. The movie is focusing on the life of children in a ghetto in Bucharest. He is the winner of the 2013 European Citizenship Award of the European Parliament and winner of four other international prizes, including the 2012 UNICEF award for best practice in Sports and Education. He published three books and wrote hundreds of articles about social inclusion, politics and children. He is founder of the Policy Centre for Roma and Minorities.

Prior to her involvement with ChildPact, Mirela worked with the Romanian help-line for abused children (World Vision 2000-2003), the National Volunteer Center in Romania (2004-2005), Telefono Azzurro in Italy (2006) and with World Vision Ro-mania (2007-2011). Mirela has a BA in psychology and educational sciences from the Babes-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania), an MA in EU integration poli-cies and a PhD in international development from the University of Bologna (Italy).

Joost van Haelst - Children’s Rights Coordinator of the Flemish Govern-ment - Belgium

Joost Van Haelst is children’s rights coordinator at the Flemish government since 1997. Nowadays, he works within the Division for Youth of the Flemish Ministry of Culture, Youth, Sports and Media, which coordinates the youth and children’s rights policy in Flanders. He is involved in the execution of several policy instru-ments such as the Flemish youth and children’s rights policy plan, the child and youth impact report, the children’s rights monitor, the governmental network of (Flemish) focal points for youth and children’s rights policy meeting on a regular basis the civil society organizations in a reflection group. Furthermore, he executes the vice-presidency of the National Commission on the Rights of the Child of Bel-gium. He is Belgian CRC focal point for the Council of Europe and the European Commission. He took care of the start of the subsidization of the Flemish Children’s Rights Coalition since its foundation as autonomous organization in 2000 till 2007.

Bjørn Bredesen - Former Deputy Director General in the Ministry of Chil-dren, Equality and Social Inclusion - Norway

Bjørn Bredesen (1946) has been Deputy Director General of the Norwegian Royal Ministry of Children (including Family policy) from 1994 -2014. Before becoming Director General he has been a Director of Social services in the City of Oslo and project manager at the Ministry of Children. Currently he works as an International Consultant in child policy. Bredesen has through many years been a national representative, chairing international steering committees and expert groups in the field of social, family and child policy partly at the Council of Europe, the Council of the Baltic See States and the Nordic Council of Ministers and United Nations. He has been working closely with the UN on combating violence against children. Bjørn Bredesen (1946) holds a BA in social work and social policy (1974).

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Visioning Visioning

Gabriela Coman - President, National Authority for Child Rights Protection and Adoption, Romania

Gabriela Coman is the former President of the Romanian Federation of NGOs for Children (FONPC) and Executive Director of Focus, the Romanian Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. Her extensive experience in the child protection filed includes the prestigious position of former Secre-tary of State of the National Authority for Child Protection and Adoptions (2001-2004) as well as UNICEF consultancy positions in Romania, Serbia and Moldova . Fighting for reformed child protection policies and partic-ularly, for the de-institutionalisation of children under three years, have been Mrs. Coman’s main preoccupations during her entire career, both from a governmental and from a non-governmental activist perspective.

Agnes Von Maravic - Children’s Rights Division, Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law, Council of Europe

Agnes von Maravić is a Programme Officer in the Council of Europe Children’s Rights Division. She studied Political Science and Public Administration in Potsdam and Lille. Before joining the Council of Europe in 2006, she worked for the German NGO “Action Reconciliation Services for Peace” in Kiev, Ukraine, and as a research assistant at Düsseldorf University, Germany. In the Council of Europe, she has worked on judicial reform in Ukraine before she joined the Children’s Rights Division in 2008. She is currently Secretary to an intergovern-mental Committee that develops the next Council of Europe Strategy for the Rights of the Child for the period 2016-2019. Her main interests in the field of children’s rights at the moment are participation, the rights of children in alternative care and positive parenting.

Efi Bekou - Secretary General of Welfare, Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Welfare, Greece

Efi Bekou holds the position of the Secretary General for Welfare at the Min-istry of Labour, Social Security & Welfare of the Hellenic Republic since July 2012. Prior to this, she held the position of the Secretary General for Gender Equality at the Ministry of Interior, Public Administration and Decentralization from 1999 until 2004 and also acted as a Vice President at the State Scholar-ships Foundation. Efi’s experience and expertise is on social welfare and gen-der equality. More specifically, she focuses on strategic planning and policy implementation on combating poverty; on homelessness and the protection of vulnerable groups and people with disabilities. Also she has designed and implemented programs relating to the mainstreaming of women in the econ-omy. She is a Ph.D Candidate in Political Science, she holds a master’s in Po-litical Science and Sociology and an undergraduate degree in Mathematics.

CLOSING PLENARY SESSION (Friday, 28 November, 11:30 – 13:00, Platinum)

Closing plenary speakers

Mária Herczog - President of Eurochild, Member of the UN Committee of the Rights of the Child

Dr. Maria Herczog, Ph.D is visiting lecturer at the ELTE Budapest University Doctoral School, and at the Law Faculty post graduate course, Chair of the Family Child Youth Association since 2005. She was elected as a member to the UN CRC Committee in 2007 and re-elected in 2010. She was a member of the EU Economic and Social Committee between 2004-2010 as a repre-sentative of the Hungarian civil society. Maria Herczog has been doing re-search on child welfare, child protection and on child rights, family matters in the last 30 years, author of several books, book chapters and journal arti-cles. She was one of the founding members of Family, Child, Youth Associa-tion in 1992 and has been actively involved its work since than in different positions. She was elected to be a member of the Management Board of Eurochild in 2009 and to as president in 2010, re-elected in 2013.

Delia Pop - Director of Programmes, Hope and Homes for Children

Dr Delia Pop is Director of Programmes at Hope and Homes for Children. She is a member of high-level advocacy groups in the US and Europe and has contributed to the transformation of child protection and care sys-tems at national and regional level in 15 countries across Europe and Af-rica. Born and educated in Romania, Delia is a medical doctor who has worked for 15 years with children trapped in the institutional care system and families at risk of separation.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There are many people and organisations that have contributed to this event. In particular we would like to thank:

• Our hosts, Hope and Homes for Children Romania, in par-ticular Ottó Sesták, Reka Filip and Stefan Darabus for sup-port on content, logistics and generally for being excellent col-leagues to work with.

• Our programme advisory group, in particular Delia Pop, Direc-tor of Programmes at Hope and Homes for Children UK; Mirela Oprea, Secretary General of ChildPact; Roxana Ogrendil, Ex-ecutive Director of FONPC (Romanian Federation of Child Rights NGOs); Luis Pinto, responsible for organization development at Universal Education Foundation; and Professor Pat Dolan, UNESCO Chair and Director, UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, NUI Galway, Ireland; Voica Pop and Eduard Petrescu at UNICEF Romania.

• Those people consulted in preparation of the 3 cross-cutting themes. In particular we want to thank our ‘resources persons’: John Canavan, Associate Director, UNESCO Child and Family Re-search Centre, NUI Galway, Ireland; Nicholas Rees, Policy Anal-ysis Specialist, Division of Policy and Strategy, UNICEF New York and his colleague Jing Qing Chai; and Valentina Caimi, Policy and Advocacy Adviser, Social Platform. For the session on pub-lic private partnership we sought advice from several people – thanks particularly to Ariane Rodert, Gordon Hahn, Luigi Martignetti and Luk Zelderloo.

• FONPC - Romanian Federation of Child Rights NGOs – and Roxana Ogrendil in particular for organization of the study visits.

• All the speakers, those running poster sessions, workshops, fo-cus groups and those providing video material.

• To the young participants Donya Azimi from Sweden, Ourania Kyriakou and Maria Timotheou from Cyprus, Katja Knežević and Ivan Tancabel from Croatia, and Michal Dord from the Czech Republic.

• Finally, to the Eurochild team in particular Andrea Witt for overall coordination, Manon Jacobs and Monique Kesteloot for logistics support, Agata D’Addato, Reka Tunyogi, Aagje Ieven for leading the mini-plenaries as well as the thematic workshops; Mafalda Leal for leading on the child participation and the early years workshop, Mieke Schuuman for coordinat-ing the panel debate on child rights networks and funding for advocacy; Marie Dubit for supporting members and the na-tional partner networks; Federico Lanzo, Björn Becker and Nerea Rial for communications support prior to, during and after the event; Cristina Negoiescu and Greta Mackonyte, our interns for logistics and content support.

TWITTER AND WEB

• Conference website: http://bit.ly/Eurochild_AC2014• Twitter hashtag: #EurochildConf• Emergency telephone: +4 0733 179416• Howard Johnson Grand Plaza Hotel telephone: +4 021 201 50 13

ORGANISERS

PROGRAMME ADVISORY COMMITTEE

This event is supported under the European Community Programme for Em-ployment and Social Solidarity (2007-2013). This programme is managed by the Directorate-General for Employment, social affairs and equal opportunities of the European Commission. The views expressed by Eurochild do not neces-sarily reflect the position or opinion of the European Commission.

The side event “Building the economic case for child-friendly justice is co-financed by the Embassy of France in Romania.

The conference is organised as contribution to a project co-funded by the OAK Foundation on Building the Economic Case for Investing in Prevention and Quality Alternative Care (January 2014-June 2016)

Panel co-financed by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Official Development Assistance Unit, with UNDP Re-gional Center for Europe and CIS as implementation partner.