Investing in Child Protection By Beatrice Ogutu Regional Advisor, Child Protection ICS Africa Dec 7 th and 8 th -2010ICS : 4 th International policy conference

Why invest in children? Children constitute a larger/substantial % of any country’s population Children are at the heart of economic, social and cultural rights and MDGs They are here and now and its better to shape their future now Investment in children raises efficiency of public expenditure and reduces need for public resources to be used later on It enhances prospects of long term economic competitiveness-well developed children are more productive Helps in correcting historic biases-e. g empowering girls breaks the vicious cycle of poverty

Resource allocation for children There is slow progress in investing in children There is evidence on allocation in sectors such as health ECD and education with social protection receiving attention What about investments in child protection? Allocation in Child protection usually lower compared to other sectors Allocation to child protection usually focuses on certain groups and neglecting others

Investing in child protection No violence against children is justifiable; all violence against children is preventable. Yet the in-depth study on violence against children (the Study) confirms that such violence exists in every country of the world, cutting across culture, class, education, income and ethnic origin UN study on Violence Against Children Research has consistently identified child abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination as risk factors for violent and/or deviant behaviour in future

A child that has been instilled with anger and poisoned remains a cultural landmine that lies for a long time as a cause of any instability -Napoleon Adok, former Sudanese child soldier

Reasons for not investing in child protection Child protection not yielding changes rapidly enough Lack of evidence (data on the nature and extent of abuse) to support relevant programming and budget advocacy efforts Research difficulties associated with investigating such complex, highly sensitive issues; and in some cases researchers' failure to translate findings into a form that is useful for the child protection sector.

Limited funding- not able to realise intended results with the funding period Lack of capacity-within some government and civil society organizations (authority, resources, willingness) Inadequate mechanisms to check misappropriation of funds Inadequate sharing of what has worked and what interventions are cost effective

WHAT CAN CIVIL SOCIETY DO TO PROMOTE GOOD INVESTMENT CHOICES IN CP BY GOVERNMENTS?

There is need to look at child protection system as a chain of actors and services from prevention to front-line child protection to specialized services (by govt and various actors). To ensure more systematic responses there is need for joint development of practical inter-agency guidelines/protocols Catalyze good practices and share widely- in non traditional methods such as action learning case studies Promote partnerships for joint resource sharing, learning and sharing to enhance visibility and influence Invest in research and documentation to enrich policy dialogue. There is need to develop strong collaborative relationships with external research institutions/ knowledge centres. Facilitate a conducive environment for child protection systems by conducting joint analysis of capacity and resource gaps with relevant govt ministries. There is also need to deliberately look at organizational development as well. A strong institutional structure is critical for the sustainability of investments

Participatory advocacy –empowering communities, children to organise themselves to demand and claim for services and effective resource utilization at various levels Focus not only on allocation but also on utilization –invest in financial management, M&E, Quality management systems Jointly establish results framework - build systems and capacity to monitor and communicate sector results, recognize success, and promote dialogue around challenges Child budgeting, budget analysis, and budget advocacy requires different skills that need to be available within the children sector As civil society we needs to look beyond our own competitive islands of CP initiatives and look at the bigger picture. There is need to work together with governments. If we do not share a common vision, interventions may conflict

Call for/facilitate research on how governments score on CP, including research on the economic losses when you do not invest in CP. There is also need to document on the cost effectiveness of interventions on Child protection

Asante sana