Module 2: Child Rights in Programming and Sector Policies

Key issue: How to translate child rights commitments into

programming realities At country level

Mainstreaming child rights = applying a child rights focus Programming Cycle of operations Key sectors

Introduction

European: CRC, Lisbon Treaty, Agenda for Change, etc.

Regional & Country-specific: CRC, African Charter for the Rights and Welfare of the

Child, National Action Plans, etc. Global:

e.g., Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness

Legal & Policy & Global Context

Ownership: needs to extend beyond government & systematically involve children,

parents, communities Alignment:

local/national systems need to integrate/address child rights Harmonisation:

donor coordination & shared focus on child rights (common approaches, assessments, analysis)

Results: rights-based & child-specific results (disaggregated – minority,

marginalized, invisible) Mutual accountability

CRC & international, regional standards used as common reference point

Aid effectiveness principles from a child rights perspective

‘Our future’: 70,000 babies born today, 2 billion born by 2025

‘Our present’: half the population in developing countries, one third of the world’s

population Legal commitments:

CRC - most universally ratified human rights treaty Political commitments:

European & regional & national Central to development:

High ‘returns’ on investments

Integrating child rights in development cooperation: WHY?

Challenges of rights-based & child-focused programming Political sensitivities Prioritisation

Political trade-offs, workload Social norms, traditions, culture Complexity, interrelated & interdependent rights

Key principles ‘Progressive realisation of all rights’ No retrogression, no new deprivations Prioritisation choices to be justified & transparent

WHY NOT?

Group Discussion

ENTRY POINTS

PROGRAMMING PROCESS

WHERE TO START?

What Align donor and country cycles Identify & build national consensus

How? Adopt a child-rights lens when assessing: National policy, legal, institutional context Resource mobilisation & allocation Implementation at central & subnational levelsInclude: Child rights indicators, benchmarks, child-focused questions for

country/sector context analysis

Tool 1.1: Child Rights Country Context AnalysisTool 2.1: Child Rights Screening Checklist

Entry Points: Policy Dialogue:

Country cycle

Donor cycle of

operations

Budget support: CR commitments assessed as pre-condition for budget support

Tool 1.1.: Child Rights Country Context Analysis Tool 4.1: Child-sensitive Governance Assessment

Project/programme support Identify stakeholders with commitment to child rights Ensure primary target group/beneficiaries include children Put into place coordination, management & financing arrangements that

prioritize children Set up an M&E system with child rights indicators for performance management.

Tool: 2.1 Child Rights Screening Checklist Tool: 2.3.-2.13 Sector Checklists

Entry points: budget & project/programme support

Programming: Cycle of operations

Preliminary screening of child rights issues Tool 2.1: Child Rights Screening Checklist Tool 2.2: Pre-feasibility study

• Stakeholder Analysis• Problem Analysis• Analysis of Strategies• Analysis of Objectives

Child-focused sectors: child specific indicators & targets

Non-child focused sectors: child impact assessment, maximise gains & mitigate risks

Cycle of operations: Identification stage

What: Systematically address all project-relevant child rights issues

Where: Action Fiche: incl. risk assessment and mitigation TAPs (Technical & Administrative Provisions): Basis for implementation,

monitoring and evaluation How:

Focus on marginalized/disadvantaged children Statistics disaggregated by key variables of exclusion (sex, ethnicity, disability

status, et al) Use of qualitative information on issues affecting children Objectives, results, indicators and assumptions based on child rights analysis Sustainability of child rights actions addressed All children prioritized in the project benefit equally from its results.

Tool 2.2 ToRs for addressing child rights issues in feasibility studies

Cycle of operations: Formulation stage

Implementation: best case scenario Child rights embedded in project design, structure & mechanism Planned results, targets and goals delivered Available resources managed efficiently

Monitoring: child-rights sensitive monitoring: Child-focused:

How the situation of children evolved, who benefited – did all children benefit equally?) Quality of the process (participatory, inclusive?)

Non-child focused: Direct & indirect impact on children (update child impact assessment, if available, or

sector checklists) Tools 2.3 - 2.12 Sector Checklists - guidance for monitoring

Cycle of operations: Implementation/monitoring Implementation

/ monitoring

Rights-based evaluation questions should include: Outcomes:

Has the programme delivered the desired child rights outcomes? Have the outcomes (intended or not) affected child rights?

What is the long-term impact on children? Was the policy effective in meeting child rights objectives

on the ground? Could risks be mitigated (using a child impact assessment)?

Stakeholder satisfaction: survey.

“What works”?

Cycle of operations: Evaluation

Relevance: Alignment with CRC Effectiveness: Child-focused results defined,

monitored, achieved Efficiency: Input/output chain, complex

change process & cost/benefits analysis

Sustainability: Long-term realisation of rights Impact: Positive/negative,

intended/unintended, primary/secondary

OECD-DAC criteria from a child-rights perspective

Group Activity:Policy Dialogue, Aid

Modalities, and the Cycle of Operations

There is no ‘child-neutral sector’ Child rights considerations should be taken into account across

all sectors

Need to ‘minimise’ child-specific risks and ‘maximise’ opportunities in sector policies, strategies and planning

CHILD-SPECIFIC SCOPING

.

Child rights in sector programs

A ‘must’ for any development initiative most likely to affect large numbers of children – or significantly affect specific groups – particularly those which: Affect household incomes and livelihoods Affect access to and quality of key services used by

children and their families Affect key forms of social capital that protect children

and help them develop

Child-centred scoping:

Examines risks and how to mitigate those: Sector-specific risks to children Potential countermeasures to be introduced through

sector policies, strategies or projects Examines how to enhance opportunities:

Sector-specific opportunities for children Potential measures designed to enhance such

opportunities through sector policies, strategies or projects

Sector checklist methodology:

Tools 2.3-2.12 - make potential impact of economic and development policies more explicit Education, vocational training and culture WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) Social protection Rural development Urban development Transportation (infrastructure and services) Energy Finance Criminal justice Nutrition

Sector checklists

Group Activity

In response to severe, prolonged drought, a water project is proposed near a refugee camp to install a well and a water kiosk in order to provide water to the community.  Under the proposed project, a small fee will be charged for the water, and the revenue will be used to fuel the water pump’s generator and to contribute to the cost of other priority community needs.

Case example 1: WASH sector

Question 1: Based on the description, what are

the potential child-focused risks?

Question 2: Based on the description, what are

the potential child-focused opportunities?

Case example: WASH sector

Although the region has the fewest motor vehicles, a 2013 World Bank report found Africa to have the highest number of road accidents. Roughly 24 per 100,000 people are killed in traffic accidents per year.

Case example 2: Transport sector

Poor communities are more likely to be found along the largest roads and high volume traffic routes and are less likely to have access to emergency medical services or effective mobile trauma care services. With growing urbanization in Africa, the report estimates that accidents are likely to become the major cause of deaths of children between the ages of 5 -15.

In 2007, African ministers of transportation and health pledged to reduce by half the number of road deaths by 2015. International development cooperation has a role to play in achieving this goal.

Question 1: Based on the description, what are

the potential child-focused risks?

Question 2: Based on the description, what are

the potential child-focused opportunities?

Transport sector: Traffic accidents