Implementation of the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action

Implementation of the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action:

The 2013-2015 Work Plan of the Child Protection Working Group

Katy Barnett
Coordinator, Child Protection Working Group
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
5-7 Avenue de la Paix 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
phone: +41 22 909 5618

mobile: +41795597173
fax: +41 22 909 5900
email:

March 13th, 2013

Acronyms and Abbreviations

AOR / Area of Responsibility
BPRM / US State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration
CAAFAG / Children Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups
CERF / Central Emergency Response Fund
CPiE / Child Protection in Emergencies
CPWG / Child Protection Working Group
DCOF / USAID Displaced Children and Orphans Fund
DFID / UK GovernmentDepartment for International Development
DG ECHO / European Commission Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection
DPKO / United Nationas Department for Peacekeeping Operations
DRR / Disaster Risk Reduction
FTR / Family Tracing and Reunification
GBV / Gender Based Violence
GPC / Global Protection Cluster
IASC / Inter Agency Standing Committee
ICT / Information and Communication Technology
ILO / International Labor Organization
IM / Information Management
IMS / Information Management System
IRC / International Rescue Committee
M&E / Monitoring and Evaluation
MHPSS / Mental Health and Psychosocial Support
NGO / Non-Governmental Organizations
OFDA / USAID Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance
RRT / Rapid Response Team
SDC / Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
UASC / Unaccompanied and Separated Children
UI / University of Indonesia
UKZN / University of Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa
WFCL / Worst forms of child labour
WVI / World Vision International

Introduction to the Child Protection Working Group

An Area of Responsibility within the Global Protection Cluster

The Child Protection Working Group (CPWG) is the mechanism through which the Child Protection Area of Responsibility (AoR) for the Global Protection Cluster (GPC) is facilitated. The Global Protection Cluster has a unique architecture, where recognized areas of protection expertise are led by designated focal point agencies within the broader cluster. UNICEF is the Focal point Agency for the Child ProtectionAoR, and bears equivalent responsibility to a Cluster Lead Agency in relation to this sector of humanitarian response. Child Protection is an AoR alongside three others, namely Gender-based Violence (GBV), Mine Action, and Housing, Land and Property.

The CPWG is the global level forum for coordination and collaboration on child protection in humanitarian settings. The group brings together NGOs, UN agencies, academics, donors and other partners under the shared aim of “facilitating a more predictable, accountable and effective child protection response in complex emergencies, disasters and other humanitarian crises”.

Child protection in emergencies: a lifesaving sector

Child Protection is recognised asa lifesaving sector in emergenciesas stipulated inthe Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) guidelines and throughout humanitarian policy.The CPWG defines child protection in emergencies (CPiE) as “the prevention of and response to abuse, neglect, exploitation of and violence against children in emergencies.” This contrasts with the Inter-agency Standing Committee (IASC) definition of protection, which includes all human rights. In practice, child protection work includes specific child protection programmes as well as actions integrated into all other humanitarian sectors.

Current membership of the Child Protection Working Group

Under the leadership of UNICEF, theglobal level CPWG brings together NGOs, UN agencies, academic institutions, donors and other international partners, all working in line with the ‘Principles of Partnership’.The current CPWG members and associated institutions are listed in the column to the left. Global level CPWGmembers lead on the implementation of CPWG initiatives and drive the development of the global level CPWG work-plan. Many of the strong inter-agency relationships within the global level CPWG are also reflected in field-level child protection coordination groups.Formal membership to the global level CPWG can be attained through submission of a signed letter of commitment to collective goals; however institutions and individuals wishing to retain less formal, ’associate’ status also participate.

Ways of working within the global level CPWG

Since its inception in 2007, the global level CPWG has operated as a democratic forum, consistent with the Principles of Partnership, where all organizations are invited to propose, initiate and lead on projects aimed at improving child protection in emergencies responses. All standards, tools and guidance produced by the global level CPWG are developed through a process of wide consultation and represent the collective position and knowledge to date. The rate of achievement of activities led by different organisations within the group is testament to a sense of mutual accountability which drives the members to fulfil their commonly agreed commitments. The high number of concurrent initiatives on successive global level CPWGworkplans illustrates the ambition of the group, and a shared sense of urgency to significantly improve the way child protection concerns are identified and addressed in emergencies.

Regular global level CPWG meetings are held to exchange field-level experiences, review current trends and gaps in child protection as well as develop and evaluate inter-agency work plans. Although global level CPWG meetings were previously held annually in Geneva, it was agreed during the October 2012 CPWG meeting that the global level CPWG would meet at 18 month intervals, alternating between a field location and Geneva.In addition to the regular face-to-face meeting, monthly conference calls are held which allow the group to monitor progress of planned work, take decisions to progress work, and plan joint support to field level responses as required.

The global level CPWG has a link with the Paris Principles Steering Group, and the work of the long established Inter-Agency Working Group on Unaccompanied and Separated Children is incorporated into its workplan. Further, the global level CPWG seeks linkage wherever possible with child protection organisations and structures working in non emergency situations, recognising the development of national child protection systems as mutual goal shared with this community. As part of the broader GPC and a key actor in the GPC workplan, the global level CPWG works in close concert with other protection actors and groups on an on-gong basis.

Global level CPWGCoordination Team

The team providing the coordination function for the global level CPWG consists of a full time Coordinator supported by UNICEF, and a Deputy Coordinator supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). These posts arebasedinthe UNICEF office in Geneva, alongside the other global level Cluster Coordinators for UNICEF-led Clusters, who all have a common management line. In addition to the Coordinators, the UNICEF Geneva office also houses an Inter-Cluster Coordinator, an Inter-Cluster Information Management Specialist, and a Web and Communications Officer, all three of whom support all UNICEF-led Clusters.

CPWG Rapid Response Team

In partnership with the Danish Refugee Council, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children and RedR Australia, the CPWG established a Rapid Response Team (RRT) in 2011 to provide high quality, rapidly deployable child protection Coordinators and IM supportto humanitarian responses at field level. This team currently consists of four members, a fifth member specialising in Information Management will join the team in 2013. The CPWG RRT are situated within the global level CPWG Coordination team and are deployed to humanitarian settings as requested, under the overall supervision of an interagency steering committee for the RRT.In between deployments, RRT members support initiatives on the global CPWG work plan.

Field-level coordination of child protection in emergencies

As at the global level, field-level coordination of child protection in emergencies is also the responsibility of UNICEF as the lead agency for the AOR. In many contexts, however, these field-level coordination groups are co-lead by government departments, and in some contexts by (inter)national or local NGOs. Costs for coordination, including deployments of RRT members, are predominantly covered by UNICEF country offices.

Support whichtheCPWGprovides to field-level coordination

The global level CPWGprovides support to emergency affected contexts around the world in a number of ways:

• advocacy to raise awareness on child protection issues and achieve outcomes such as improved funding;
• deployment of senior level, experienced child protection coordinators through the Rapid Response Team (RRT);
• tailored support for child protection assessment, including guidance on adaptation of tools and deployment of assessors;
• facilitating the delivery of training for child protection actors in country;
• providing and helping to adapt standards, guidelines and tools to support the child protection response;
• remote support and mentoring to the in-country coordinator and coordination group; and
• provision of technical assistance on child protection issues in the response, through an interagency helpdesk function.

Work Planned for 2013-2015

The CPWG workplan for 2013-2015 was developed with the aim of bringing current and future child protection in emergency responses in line with the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action(Minimum Standards)recently developed for the sector.

The Minimum Standards equip humanitarian actors with benchmarks to improve and better measure child protection responses, ensure accountabilityfor the child protection sector in humanitarian action, and better communicate child protection issues.In order to work to achieve the Minimum Standards set, global level CPWG members compiled this three year work plan with initiatives in different technical areas to address gaps in guidance, support and capacity where these exist in the sector. A survey was conducted with field based child protection coordination groups in 2012 to identify the strengths and challenges of current CPIE responses which helped identify specific areas that require most urgent attention. In addition, lessons learned from evaluations and reviews of humanitarian action, including a series of inter-agency reviews of coordinated child protection responses in recent emergencies, were also reviewed to ensure the work plan speaks to issues highlighted.

At the 2012 annual CPWG meeting, whose main focuswas tobuild the 2013-2015 work plan, global level CPWG members agreed that the following key criteria should be observed throughout the work plan:

1. All activities included should support the implementation of the Minimum Standards
2. Attention should be paid throughout to child protection systems strengthening
3. The focus should be on getting expertise and capacity to the field
4. Capacity building should be incorporated throughout
5. Areas for collaboration and coordination with others engaging in similar activities should be identified
6. The suggested activities and actions need to be feasible
7. The pace for the suggested activities and actions needs to be reasonable
8. The generation and use of evidence is a common thread throughout that must be maintained
9. Accountability (e.g. clear roles, responsibilities, measurable results deliverables) needs to underpin the work plan
10. Linkage with other Clusters should be promoted where possible

Priorities in the CPIE sector the work plan 2013 – 2015 addresses

1.Introducing and implementing the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action

In order to introduce theMinimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, the global level CPWG has agreed to a raft of initiatives to better enable emergency responders to access, understand and apply the Minimum Standards, with the overall goal of providing better protection for children in emergencies. The initiativesinclude launches, translations, technical field support, the development of auditing tools, and the promotion of the Minimum Standards with humanitarian practitioners more widely and policy makers.

2. Bringingcurrent child protection programming in emergencies in line with the Minimum Standards

In addition to introducing the Minimum Standards, a suite of activities will be undertakento significantly improve practice in relation to several of the Minimum Standards themselves,specifically the Minimum Standards to address child protection needs and the Minimum Standards to develop adequate child protection strategies. The initiatives in these areas include projects to develop guidance, provide technical support and build capacity to practitioners working with unaccompanied and separated children, case management, worst forms of child labour in emergencies, disaster risk reduction,strengthening national child protection systemsand gender.

3.EnsuringMinimum Standard 1 on coordination is upheld in child protection responses

As has been highlighted through the high level of inter-agency support globally forcoordination structures, coordination forms the bedrock of all emergency responses, regardless of sector. The single most common recommendation of reviews on coordination within the child protection in emergencies sector is for the timely appointment and/or deployment of highly skilled and well prepared coordinators, as well as the necessary information management capacity.

In line with the Minimum Standard on coordination, the first standard listed to ensure a quality child protection response, the global level CPWG plans to maintain and grow the current team of rapidly deployable Coordinators, adding information management expertise, and funds to facilitate deployment to contexts where donor investment is low. In addition, the creation of more child protection coordination posts at field levelwill be promoted, and coordinators will gain access to new support and learning opportunities, including through webinars with peers, training, and improved availability of coordination tools in relevant languages.

4.Building the capacity of practitioners on the Minimum Standards

Reviews of humanitarian responses have shown that structural human resource problems and a chronic lack of capacityin the CPiE sector, including national capacity, is a common cause of delays, gaps and shortcomings in responses.With the advent of the Minimum Standards, there is an urgent need to both develop the pool of high quality, deployable personnel in the child protection in emergencies sector, and to step up the investment in national child protection personnel who provide the front line response in emergencies, and guide the recovery phase. To this end, the existing training materials in child protection will be complemented in 2013-2015 with new modules and consistent reference to the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action. Training material and in-person expertise will be made available, in a variety of languages, to current child protection staff as well as new entrants to the sector through a range of media, drawing on a pool of existing expert trainers.

5.Addressing gaps vis-à-vis the Minimum Standards on Programme Cycle Management and Child Protection Monitoring

In general, there is a paucity of robust data providing the evidence base for child protection responses, and therefore a need to strengthen interagency assessmentand monitoring practice. Further, as an integral part of the effort to improve the standard of responses, there needs to be an acceleration of learning in the child protection in emergencies sector in order to ensure that guidance, tools and standards promote proven good practice, and facilitate high quality, effective responses. In order to ensure that child protection responses are better tailored to the needs of different boys and girls, greater support will be made available for child protection rapid assessments, including the development of methodologies for hard-to-measure child protection issues such as sexual violence. Equally important, new tools and expertise will be developed to improve the measurement of child protectionresponses, including their level of consistency with individual Minimum Standards. These will be essential steps in improving accountability to affected populations as well as others, and upholding the Minimum Standards to ensure quality child protection responses.

6.Raising awareness for and support of Child Protection to enable realisation of the Minimum Standards

A CPWG review of funding for child protection responses over the period 2008-2010 revealed a serious and chronic pattern of underfunding for child protection responses; with the majority of projects receiving less than half the funding required. In order to address this, it is essential that the sector develop more intelligent ways communicate thelifesaving nature of child protection responses. As part of this, the CPWG needs to engage constructively with donors, policy makers and practitioners in other humanitarian sectors to provide these actors with the information and support they need to fulfil their responsibilities with regard to child protection in emergencies.

Feedback from field based child protection staff clearly identifies lack of funding and lack of understanding of child protection as key impediments to ensuring that responses attain coverage and meet the Minimum Standards set for the sector. In response, the global level CPWG will undertake activities to raise awareness and understanding on issues such as the lifesaving nature of child protection, and the impact of underfunding on children.

7.Ensuring gender and inclusion are mainstreamed in child protection responses

Efforts have been made to ensure that all elements of the 2013-2015 CPWG work plan include attention to gender and inclusion. Not only have specific activities to promote gender mainstreaming been included under each of the objectives but gender also has a space of its own underthe first objective of the work plan. The global level CPWG has put in place aregular review process to track and ensure adherence to upholding the agreed principles of gender mainstreaming and ensuring inclusion throughout planned work. To this end, global level CPWG members have committedto attaininga score of no less than 2a/2b using the IASC Gender Markerratings in all projectssubmitted by country-level child protection coordination groupsto humanitarian appeals by the end of 2013.

Key achievements on which the CPWG work plan builds

The global level CPWG, which started in 2007, has been running now for a period of five years. The establishment of the global level CPWG brought together several areas of excellent interagency work in the CPiE sector, on issues such as unaccompanied and separated children; children affected by armed forces and groups; and mental health and psychosocial support for children. This quickly led to the transformation of discreet, issue-based goals into a commonly held vision of a full range of high quality child protection services for children in emergency affected settings, provided in a more holistic and effective way, thereby reaching more children better. As part of thisCPWG members developed a shared commitment to ensuring that humanitarian action strengthens national capacity and helps ultimately to establish or rebuild a national child protection system that serves all children.