The education sector forms an important part of the child protection response in refugee setting
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s, and UNHCR’s Education Strategy (2012-16) reflects a focus on refugee education as a core component of UNHCR’s protection mandate. The right to education for all children also forms part of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. UNHCR’s Education Strategy promotes the importance of schools as safe learning environments, emphasises improving access to quality education for refugee children and maximises the protective benefits of participation in school. It advocates for the integration of refugee children into national education systems.
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Education in emergencies is a young area; the evidence of its impact is often anecdotal, and although its status as a humanitarian concern has gained legitimacy in recent years, it has yet to be accepted across
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the humanitarian community. Much more needs to be done to enhance our understanding of the links between education and child protection in emergency situations.
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These guidelines are informed by evidence of ‘what works’ and lessons learned in the field. They are designed to accelerate UNICEF regional and country offices’ programming on social service workforce strengthening, and support work to better
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plan, develop and support the social services workforce with national and regional partners.
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Children with disabilities in South Africa: The hidden reality is part of a multiple-country study conducted by ACPF. The study seeks to analyse ho
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w cultural, social, physical and other societal barriers prevent children with disabilities from enjoying their constitutional rights to equality, freedom and human dignity. It also seeks to establish opportunities and practices that could be used to address these barriers to enhance disabled children’s participation in society.
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Experience from Save the Children and partners globally
demonstrates that improvements in education quality go hand-in-hand
with inclusion and ac
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cess, Flexible, quality, responsive learning
environments will benefit all children and are fundamental to including
marginalised groups like disabled children in education.
These guidelines are primarily aimed at education staff trying to
develop inclusive education practices, focussing on including disabled
children in schools.While this book focuses on disabled children, we
hope it will be useful for developing general inclusive education
practices. Community groups and non-governmental organisations, as
well as people working in community-based rehabilitation(CBR) and
the wider disability context, could also use these guidelines to provide
input into inclusive education work.
While the guidelines focus primarily on schools, much of the
information is still relevant to readers working in out-of-school
situations.
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Every year, around 830 000 children die from unintentional or "accidental" injuries. The vast majority of these injuries occur in low-income and middle-income countries. However, dozens of preventio
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n strategies and programmes exist. If they were integrated into other child survival programmes and implemented on a larger scale, many of these deaths and much of the injury-related disability could be prevented.
The report documents the magnitude, risks and prevention measures for child injuries globally –particularly for drowning, burns, road traffic injuries, falls and poisoning.
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Every five minutes a child dies as the result of violence, according to a ground-breaking report from Unicef UK. The report reveals that
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the vast majority of children are killed outside warzones and that physical, sexual and emotional abuse is widespread with millions of children unsafe in their homes, schools and communities. Some 345 children could die from violence each day in the next year, unless governments act.
The report also finds that:
(1) Children who are victims of violence have brain activity similar to soldiers exposed to combat;
(2) A third of children who are victims of violence are likely to develop long-lasting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder;
(3) Those living in poverty are more likely to be victims of violence, wherever they live in the world;
(4) Over 7% of child deaths due to violence each day are the result of interpersonal violence, rather than conflict.
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War Child put forward a specific request for comparative study, addressing the following questions: •What are the key types of intervention for
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psychosocial assistance that are being applied to children in war-affected areas? •What are the results of (scientific) research into the effects of the most relevant programmes? •Which NGOs operate in this sector and what is their practical experience with specific methods? •How does the War Child methodology relate to developments in the sector; what is known about the effects of War Child’s programme and how can these be measured? How will War Child work towards the development of additional evidence?
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Despite the increasing population of refugees stuck in protracted situations and our awareness of the vulnerability of children and adolescents gro
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wing in up these contexts, relatively little is known about community based child protection mechanisms (CBCPMs) in refugee communities. CBCPMs, defined broadly, include all groups or networks that respond to and prevent problems of child protection and vulnerable children. These mechanisms may include family supports, peer group supports, and community groups such as primary and secondary schools, non-formal education and vocational training structures, women’s groups, religious groups, and youth groups, as well as traditional community processes, government mechanisms, and mechanisms initiated by international or domestic non-governmental organisations (NGOs). In diverse contexts, CBCPMs represent front-line, day-to-day efforts to protect children from exploitation, abuse, violence, and neglect and to promote children’s well being. This study, together with a parallel study conducted among the urban refugee population in Uganda, is the first study of CBCPMs undertaken in refugee settings.
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This guide is designed to assist UNICEF staff and partners, in establishing and
operating Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) in an emergency. It attempts to provide
readers with the main principles of a
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CFS and the processes on how to establish
one.
The overall aim is to improve the standards and capacity of field staff, by providing
the required knowledge to support the design and operations of child friendly
spaces.
It will facilitate an understanding of how to develop a CFS in contexts in which
children’s well-being are threatened or damaged as a result of conflict or natural
disasters. More specifically, this guide attempts to broaden and strengthen the
knowledge, skills and attitudes of protection officers/field staff so that they are able
to respond to the multi-faceted needs of children.
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Nearly half the population of Sierra Leone is under the age of 18 years and the impact of the Eb
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ola crisis on their lives now and on their future opportunities has been far-reaching: no school; loss of family members and friends to the virus; and changing roles and responsibilities in the home and the community.
While the priority now remains meeting the goal of zero cases, the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) is also developing a comprehensive strategy aimed at supporting communities to recover from this crisis, to put the country back on track to meet development targets. The Ebola Recovery Strategy – currently being finalised by the GoSL – represents a potentially transformative framework to support the immediate recovery of children from the crisis and to ensure their place in the future development of Sierra Leone.
To date, there has not been a formal process for children to outline their own priorities for recovery to decision-makers. In mid-March 2015, child-centred agencies conducted a Children’s Ebola Recovery Assessment (CERA) in nine districts across Sierra Leone to create a mechanism for more than 1,100 boys and girls, to discuss issues of concern; assess the impact of the crisis on their roles, responsibilities and future opportunities; and to formulate their recommendations for recovery.
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This report presents data and outlines best practices and policies that can put governments on the path to providing every child with the best star
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t in life. It outlines the neuroscience of early childhood development (ECD), including the importance of nutrition, protection and stimulation in the early years. And it makes the case for scaling up investment, evaluation and monitoring in ECD programmes. The report concludes with a six-point call to action for governments and their partners to help maximize the potential of the children who will build the future – by making the most of the unparalleled opportunities offered by the early moments in life.
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Guidance Document
Unite for Children
The principle of “the best interest of the child” should guide decisions by politicians when
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ever
children are affected. This is one of the basic ideas in the UN Convention on the Rights
of the Child. Decision makers should assess the consequences for children before taking
action. Today, this principle is not fully respected in European countries in relation to migrant
children.
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Children with disabilities are particularly vulnerable in humanitarian settings, yet they are often not able to access the services and protection
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they need. While multiple factors create these barriers, a major cause is how data about children with disabilities is collected and mapped. Data collection processes often exclude or underrepresent the views of children with disabilities and thier caretakers. When the experiences of children with disabilities and their caretakers are not defined and collected, they become excluded from mainstreamed protective services, which are meant to serve all children. Children with disabilities also do not get the specialised interventions they need.
This guidance note explores how to use qualitative methods to create more robust assessment processes to ensure more effective programming and services for children with disabilities. This note provides promising practices for engaging with children with disabilities and includes sample tools that can be tailored to fit the needs of a particular assessment process. The note also explores the importance of thoughtful cross-sectoral responses so that children with disabilities, and their families, are carefully considered in areas like water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), education, health, and nutrition, and therefore receive the holistic support they need and deserve.
This note is intended for a broad audience of relevant child protection actors, including practitioners, coordination groups, researchers, and donors. The information is not limited to one type of humanitarian setting, geographic region, or culture. As a result, the practices and guidance should be adapted to each specific context, ideally in partnership with well-informed local actors, such as representatives from local organisations for persons with disabilities.
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Towards a policy of inclusion
From Participation to Partnerships (September 2020)
Despite the COVID-19 challenges, children around the world have found meaningful ways to suppo
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rt and protect their peers, families, and communities. Children are on the frontlines of innovative responses and are working closely with their adult allies. The leadership demonstrated through these child-adult partnerships is the underlying inspiration for this guide.
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