Nine good reasons to work with a regional approach

PM Knowledge Development and Management/IP Henrik Häggström 2007-05-22 Nine good reasons to work with a regional approach This document attempts to provide nine illustrative examples of the benefits of a regional approach in our international programme. It has been developed in close collaboration with several regions and the Secretary General s office with a view to produce arguments on why it is an effective approach to reach children. The document is not a balanced analysis of pros and cons of the regional model. The 8 regional offices of Save the Children Sweden world wide has in average 3-6 program officers working at each regional office with support to partners who; provides direct support to children at country level conducts advocacy on governments or regional institutions develop knowledge or expertise on methods build capacity of partner organizations The regional approach is generally appreciated as an important complement to the national country programs of SCS and the Alliance. The regional approach fills a gap which is considered important and necessary by most (if not all) program staff. 1. A regional approach is needed to enhance cooperation for policy change at national, as well as regional level. There is a need for linking advocacy efforts in different countries to put pressure on national and regional bodies, which in turn through their decisions may provide guiding standards and execute pressure on national governments. Pre-deployment training for peace keepers and national military in 15 countries Armed conflict/political/ethnical violence affects several countries in West Africa, in particular Côte d Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, and Nigeria. There are over 30 000 child soldiers working as mercenaries in the Manu river region. All in all over 50 000 child soldiers has participated in the different conflicts in the region during the last couple of years. There are approximately 25-30 000 peacekeepers in Côte d Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau. Save the Children Sweden has a long standing history of working with the peace keepers and children affected by armed conflict. Save the Children Sweden has been involved in demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration programmes of former child soldiers and has actively supported children who have been H:\Mina Dokument\Temporary\Regional programs\regional work examples.doc

displaced. Save the Children works in close collaboration with the peace keepers and the national armed forces on child protection and children s rights. In June 2000, Save the Children Sweden invited representatives from 13 armed forces in West Africa to attend a workshop in Côte d Ivoire on child protection in armed conflict. The workshop was the first of its kind and it pushed for two objectives: 1. The establishment of national child protection unites within the armed forces. 2. The adoption of the Save the Children Sweden training manual as part of the regular military training curriculum with a special focus on peace keepers. Shortly after the workshop Save the Children Sweden signed MoUs together with partner organisations with representatives of the military in 14 countries in West Africa (Côte d Ivoire, Senegal, Gambia, Cape Verde, Benin, Togo, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Sierra Leone, Guinea Conakry), which included both action plans on child protection units and the training manual. In 2006 over 50 000 national soldiers had been trained in children s rights and child protection. Representatives of the armed forces have applauded the collaboration with Save the Children Sweden. Save the Children Sweden also organised trainings on children s rights and child protection with a number of rebel groups in Côte d Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone during the period 2000-2006. Referring to the Accra Declaration in 2000 requesting the member states to provide pre deployment training to peace keepers, Save the Children Sweden decided to lobby ECOWAS to establish a child protection unit and adopt the training manual for their peace keepers. After two years of intense lobbying work, ECOWAS issued in 2004 a new policy on child protection in armed conflicts which included provisions in peace accords, and the promotion of concrete commitments made by parties to conflicts protecting the rights and well being of children. In 2006 over 25 000 West African peace keepers had been trained in association with ECOWAS. Today Save the Children Sweden is perceived of as the most important actor in the field of training military and peace keepers in child protection. The United Nations decided to replicate the Save the Children Sweden training manual for peace keepers in 2005 together with the department of peace keeping operations and the UN Special Representative on Children of children and armed conflict. H:\Mina Dokument\Temporary\Regional programs\regional work examples.doc 2

2. Through a regional approach SCS makes optimal use of its limited resources to maximise impact for children worldwide. Building on a multitude of partners throughout a region, allows SCS to use its capacity in a much more cost effective way, than supporting individual projects in one country. SCS gets access to a range of experiences and a number of actors to engage in advocacy and capacity building. The case of Juvenile Justice in ECAf In the mid 90s, the Save the Children Sweden programme in South Africa developed an innovative juvenile justice programme which included alternative forms of corrective measures for delinquent youths in the communities. The aim of the programme was to make children in conflict with the law avoid the ordinary criminal system. In addition, the programme included a training scheme for police officers and social workers on how to deal with delinquent youth. Over the course of a few years several police stations in South Africa were set up with specially trained police officers and social workers who participated in the juvenile justice programme. The programme was a success and praised for its innovative approach. The Save the Children Sweden regional office in East and Central Africa received information of the programme and invited key staff from the Save the Children Sweden Southern Africa office to Addis Abeba. Discussions resulted in an invitation to representatives from the Ethiopian police, judiciary and NGOs to visit and study the project in South Africa. After a successful study trip, the Ethiopian authorities decided to launch a juvenile justice project of its own. After two years of training and organisational support, ten police stations in Addis Ababa were fully equipped with child protection units including trained policemen and social workers working together. Thousands of delinquents were transmitted into the new system, thus avoiding a dangerous and depressing life in prison with grown up criminals. One of our key partners, Forum for Street Children, was heavily involved in the project. A following step was to enquire whether the authorities and NGOs in Khartoum were interested. After some discussions it turned that they were and after two more years a similar system was in use in Khartoum. Shortly after, the authorities in Kenya were offered the same procedure, which they started to develop. The result or our regional approach is that with limited resources, a successful juvenile justice system, was introduced in three countries in the ECAf region. In Ethiopia 4-5 000 young delinquents/year benefits from the juvenile justice programmes, thanks to Save the Children. The figures are also high for north Sudan and Kenya which equals thousands of children a year in the ECAf region going through the child protection units and being corrected by their community instead of spending time in jail. The program has lasted for over 10 years in the region. NGOs and to some extent authorities continues to exchange experience in a regional network initiated by Save the Children Sweden. H:\Mina Dokument\Temporary\Regional programs\regional work examples.doc 3

The key to success was that SCS could offer an African based solution which had proven successful in an adjacent country and that there was a precise task for the office in facilitating cooperation in the region. 3. A regional approach meets a need among local NGOs for exchange and learning a need usually overlooked and poorly funded, but a constant demand from partners. Sharing, common learning and co-operation in civil society throughout a region complement and strengthen local research, programme quality and advocacy for policy change. Furthermore country specific practice will be compared and put into a broader perspective. Regional Child Led Disaster Risk Reduction Save the Children Sweden was during the Tsunami actively engaged in a programme with children to reduce the risk for them and the communities in natural disasters. The main focus of the programme was to include children in the planning of how to reduce risks in future natural disasters. The children identified how to plan what to do and how to behave when the next natural disaster occurs. Based on experiences from a Save the Children UK Child Led Disaster Risk Reduction (CLDRR) programme in Cuba, Save the Children Sweden decided to use the lessons learned from that programme in the Tsunami response in Ache. A study tour was arranged together with SCUK to Cuba where representatives from the Tsunami response programmes from Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand participated. As a result of this trip many people were inspired and began to individually develop programmes in which children where actively engaged to develop their own risk reduction plans in the communities in which they lived. Later on an Alliance member meeting was organized in Hanoi for people to share their experiences on DRR, to develop consensus on what CLDRR might look like within the Alliance and what the Alliance s niche might be when it comes to DRR. In Thailand, Save the Children Sweden trialled a 6 month preliminary pilot programme while in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India Save the Children Sweden and partners explored parts of the programme components. Through the regional offices in Bangkok and Nepal Save the Children Sweden arranged a meeting in India with representatives from Save the Children Sweden globally, SCUK and SCUS with key DRR responsibilities. After the meeting a vision, definition, strategy, programme outline, advocacy plan, research and learning plan was outlined. Also a steering committee was appointed to supervise that the programme was implemented. Thailand hosted a CLDRR lessons learning workshop with local NGOs from the region and Alliance emergency staff, and produced a DVD to showcase the way children can play leading roles in this process, plus a CLDRR toolkit to share globally. A further publication is also being developed on children s voices in DRR, drawing on the work undertaken by the Tsunami countries and Pakistan. H:\Mina Dokument\Temporary\Regional programs\regional work examples.doc 4

Already, SCS can see a massive interest from a number of local organisations including UN agencies on our experiences from CLDRR. The fact that children are so successful in the work draws attention to the project. It is hoped that as a result of all these initiatives, CLDRR will be embedded into practice by both emergency and development programmes, across the Alliance. 1 SCUK has already started to implement CLDRR programmes in all their emergency prone countries. SCUS ha started to do the same. 4. Outlook and overview of ongoing research, programmes, events etc. Few country-based NGOs have the capacity to keep an overview of existing actors, processes and achievements. Focus Africa Save the Children Sweden s HIV/Aids work in Africa targets children and has a special focus on children s right to sexual and reproductive health. The work is considered innovative and cutting edge and it has been developed in close collaboration with research institutes and universities around the world. In 2006, Save the Children Sweden commissioned a study in order to improve knowledge on rights based responses to children affected by the HIV epidemic. The study mainly covered sub-sahara Africa but through its regional offices Save the Children Sweden could provide input from all parts of Africa leading to trends and recommendations highlighted in the study report being applicable for the whole continent, a process that has also strengthened the credibility of the of the study. The report from the study was launched in all three African regions as well as in Sweden, and a lot of stakeholders have responded positively, including several members of Save the Children. Most importantly however, a number of local NGOs have been able to use the research to develop programmes to prevent the spread of HIV/Aids. The strength of the research process was the pooling of experiences from a wide spectrum of countries and research institutes, and that the Save the Children Sweden regional offices and Head office together have built a common strategy and understanding on the issue. Save the Children Sweden has therefore been able to influence a wide variety of local organisations and governments in their respective regions. As a result it is expected that thousands of children will be able to benefit from programmes strengthening children s sexual and reproductive health rights. The regional approach has facilitated the promotion of lessons learned and has transformed these experiences into programmes in a way that a country programme would not have been able to do. The Save the Children Alliance has recently been engaged in our research and been invited to discuss the outcomes of our findings. As a result Save the Children UK, Denmark and 1 The central coordination from the regional office included, overall strategy planning, proposal writing, grant management, donor liaison and reporting through a child protection coordinator, information officer. H:\Mina Dokument\Temporary\Regional programs\regional work examples.doc 5

Norway have decided to join Save the Children Sweden in our efforts to develop programmes to prevent HIV/Aids around the globe on the basis of our research. Save the Children Sweden is now in the process of developing a joint strategy with the Alliance and our key implementing partners to start programme on this topic. A programme outline, advocacy plan, research and learning plan will soon follow. 5. Innovation, inspiration and advancement. SCS helps inspire, inform and advance an agenda by spotting actors and projects at the forefront, supporting and sharing innovations and new thinking to a wider audience. SCS gets sufficient number of participants or critical mass for edge cutting knowledge development in seminars and capacity building workshops or training initiatives. Men Engage In South and Central Asia, Save the Children Sweden is promoting work with boys and men to promote gender equality, caring fatherhood and for ending violence against girls and boys. The work has been undertaken in close cooperation with UN agencies and different women s organisations in the region. By having a regional approach in South and central Asia, Save the Children has been able to strengthen country based initiatives, link up with regional organisations, sharing resources and influencing global actors such as the Alliance, UNIFEM and UNDP. Save the Children Sweden has undertaken a number of global capacity building initiatives (workshops and seminars) which has been followed up with coaching and other forms of country based support to several partner organizations in the region. A number of country based initiatives, such as a national network on working with boys and men against gender based violence in Bangladesh, has been initiated as a result of this support and sharing of knowledge. SCS has also produced resource CDs and conducted a mapping of good practices and programme tools available in the region. SCS has as a result been able to identify good programme experiences and has initiated a number of interesting partnerships with grassroots organisations working with boys and men for gender equality in various countries in South Asia. This resource tool has also contributed in strengthening country based initiatives and stimulated cross country learnings. Through persistent advocacy from SCS regional office, both UNDP s and UNIFEM s regional offices have included a child focus in their work to address gender violence and discrimination. UNDP has also provided the resources needed for a regional coordinator on working with boys and men has been employed and placed in SCS regional office. As a result all governments in the region are now subject to advocacy and pressure from the UN to develop policies on gender based violence (GBV) and discrimination and to implement H:\Mina Dokument\Temporary\Regional programs\regional work examples.doc 6

programs and action plans at country level. Working with boys and men has also become a priority in the regional inter-agency follow up to the UN Study on Violence against Children. It is still too early to measure the results on children from this program but it is clear that the regional coordination and advocacy has already had a major impact on girls and boys at local level. Local partner organizations who are working with GBV and discrimination at community level claim that girls are better protected in the school and in their homes largely thanks to SCS s work at country and regional level. The UN has praised our innovative efforts to promote new working methods of female genital mutilation (FGM) and discrimination. 6. The regional approach complements and supports the Alliance UP programmes by providing regional expertise on mainly children s rights, child participation, good governance and child protection. The regional approach constitutes an important link and venue to regional and global institutions for the Alliance in general and smaller members in particular. Child Participation in the UN Study on Violence against Children Child participation was - and remains - Save the Children Sweden s entry point to the work on the UN Study on Violence against Children (VAC). During the process of identifying issues and providing input to the study, Save the Children Sweden has supported the participation of children at both national and regional levels, as well as the participation of children in the global setting of the study in New York. With the study itself having a strong regional focus, with regional consultations as the base, Save the Children Sweden had an advantage in its advocacy work since we already had the structures in place to be able to participate at the regional level and also that we already had knowledge of violence issues of concern both at national levels and at the regional level. Save the Children Sweden had a role in training adult members of the regional strategy committees (RSC) for the Study on child participation, including how to involve children in research. After the training, Save the Children Sweden facilitated the selection process of the two children to be member of each RSC and supported their participation at the RSC meetings. Our participation to this process has two main components: 1. Technical and financial support to children s own processes, and 2. Advocacy and awareness raising of adults, including government officials, on the perception of meaningful and ethical participation of children. The sensitisation training of adults included in this process on child participation was a key point to success as many UN agencies, including UNICEF, became more supportive to H:\Mina Dokument\Temporary\Regional programs\regional work examples.doc 7

children s involvement during this process. They are now supporting, together with Save the Children, several child-led organisations follow up action plans in the regions. The Save the Children Alliance has often applauded our work with child participation and has invited SCS to organize lectures and workshops for different Alliance members on how to work with child participation in program design. Save the Children Sweden was also invited to take the lead in child participation in the Rewrite the Future Campaign. Save the Children Sweden continues to be considered an international expert on child participation and SCS should offer its expertise and services to the Alliance in this field. 7. A regional approach means access to regional bodies, their agendas, structures and resources. There is a growing need for dialogue and exchange with political bodies for regional cooperation like OAU and EU. There are also other regionally based institutions like research institutions or national institutions with a wider outreach like many universities. Advocacy at the Interamerican System on Human Rights Over the last few years, Save the Children Sweden has, together with partner organisations in the region, increasingly been using the Inter American System on Human Rights in Latin America to combat Violence against children. One example of a successful outcome was the request for an advisory opinion on the elimination of corporal punishment in the region presented to the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (ICHR) in October 2005. The request was prepared by Save the Children Sweden in cooperation with the Andean Commission on Human Rights and partner organisations in South and Central America. The delegation participating in the hearing with the ICHR included representatives from Costa Rica, Venezuela, Brazil and Peru. Our regional approach and collaboration with key partners enabled us: 1. To lobby for an advisory opinion on the elimination of corporal punishment in the region and build a solid case around the argument based on the research, information and experiences of partners from a large number of countries in the region. 2. To be one voice before the ICHR, representing several actors in the region and to raise the issue as a regional concern and not on a country-by-country basis. 3. To unite our partner organisations around a regional important issue and to build a joint regional agenda. 4. To strengthen the national agenda of the partner organisations by using the hearing with the ICHR as a leverage for national advocacy efforts. 5. To raise the profile of SCS as a major regional actor in the field of child rights in Latin America. H:\Mina Dokument\Temporary\Regional programs\regional work examples.doc 8

The request was approved by the ICHR and transferred to the International Court on Human Rights in San José, Costa Rica, for further consideration. An advisory opinion on the right of the child to be protected from corporal punishment will imply that national legislation has to be reviewed in the light of such an opinion. This was an example of a successful advocacy initiative which maximised it s influence through regional coordination and joint a An increasing role played by the military to improve the protection of children (integration of the issue of trafficking into the basic program - involvement of CPU in some national committees on child protection i.e. Guinea) ction. The regional SCS office in Peru played a major role by promoting the advocacy process forward and by pulling the different organizations together in this project. 8. A regional approach helps address regional, multi country or trans-border problems and issues like children in migration, harmful practices as FGM or discrimination of romas. The Latin American Network for Missing Children In Latin America, migration is big business. Each year thousands of persons from South and Central American countries decide to migrate, legally or illegally to the United States or to Canada, often leaving behind their children in custody of a grandparent or a neighbour. Once established in the new country the parents may send for their children, paying a coyote to accompany the child. Regularly these children are left by the US or Canadian boarder without any means to go further and without receiving any attention as to their needs and rights. Other children set out on their own in search for their parents. Children disappear also for other reasons. Children may flee from family violence, others disappear as a result of trafficking and job opportunities in other parts of the country. Some children flee death threats from maras, organized street children gangs. Some are sold to sex tourism and other kinds of exploitation, or to international adoptions. The problem of migrating and disappeared children in Latin America is massive. Only on the boarder between Guatemala and Mexico, 300 un-accompanied children are brought into custody by the police each month. With the children often crossing one or many boarders it is clear that the problem can only be considered and valued from a regional point of view. No country can address this problem in isolation. The Latin America Network for Missing Persons, created by Save the Children Sweden, is an information-based network that helps find, identify and reunify thousands of missing persons, especially children and adolescents. The network is a Web based information system that contains a public on-line database of officially missing persons. The program coordinate the work of national police authorities and partner organizations in 9 countries in Latin H:\Mina Dokument\Temporary\Regional programs\regional work examples.doc 9

America. The police authorities and the partner organizations administer and manage the information provided by those searching for a missing person into the system. The site receives an average of 200,000 visits per month and of the 17 500 cases of disappeared children all over Latin America, 11 000 have been reunified with their families largely thanks to SCS regional work. Save the Children Sweden has received recognition from the Organization of the American States for the regional benefit of the network and it has been a very visible project in Latin American media. The system was also adapted for Spanish speaking communities in the USA by Save the Children US during the hurricanes Katrina and Rita BY. It permitted an easy communication on where are you? and I am here during the evacuations that separated groups and family members. 9. There is a growing trend of multinational solutions to national problems. UN and other agencies are increasingly moving into regional structures to bridge between national governments and the international level processes. In addition, growing regional co-operation and regional arenas means growing political space at the regional level. A shifting focus from programme delivery to policy change will enhance opportunities for interlinked national level and international advocacy. Fundraising for regional programmes Increasingly the UN, especially UNIFEM, UNDP, UNHCHR and UNHCR, and bilaterial donors such as Sida, NORAD and DfID and USAID are starting to appreciate the benefits of a regional approach to tackle problems that are international or cross-border. This new awakening opens up possibilities for fundraising for regional programmes. Concrete examples of this is UNIFEM s and UNDP s funding of the Men Engage project in South and Central Asia. NORAD has decided to fund some of our regional violence programmes, in particular the establishment of national protection systems. Sida has expressed high appreciation for our work with the Interamerican System on Human Rights on violence issues, and also a strong interest in funding our HIV/Aids programmes focusing on sexual and reproductive health rights in Africa which is considered a new and innovative project with strong regional elements. In addition, Sida has stated that it is a requirement that Save the Children Sweden has a regional approach and include regional institutions in promoting the strengthening of civil society organisations. DfID has decided to finance our regional child led disaster risk reduction programmes because it is regional and considered innovative and of great benefit for other organisations. USAID was particularly interested in financing the missing persons project. Save the Children Sweden believes that social change and policy change are the most efficient ways of addressing children s rights. It is cost effective and has a huge impact on large numbers of children. The regional approach serves as the cornerstone for SCS s H:\Mina Dokument\Temporary\Regional programs\regional work examples.doc 10

programme design. A regional approach promotes capacity building, analysis and research and advocacy and permeates direct support at country level if needed. The regional approach is a niche which we should develop in our collaboration with the Alliance. H:\Mina Dokument\Temporary\Regional programs\regional work examples.doc 11