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	Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action by Audrey Bollier, Hani Mansourian Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action   Oct. 2020   Protection of children in humanitarian crises is chronically underfunded   Child Protection measures, such as the assistance for child-victims, the reunification of unaccompanied children with their parents, or the reintegration of child soldiers, are chronically underfunded during conflicts and other crises, a new report titled Still Unprotected: Humanitarian Funding for Child protection shows.   Funding must more than double to assist children who either have been or are at risk of abuse, neglected, exploitation, or violence, the organisations warn.   Children living in humanitarian crises face an increased risk of abuse. While the threats of harm are increasing, the established systems in place to protect them are breaking down. Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts, vulnerable families suffer multiple hardships. Schools are closed and families have been pushed to the brink of poverty, sometimes having been denied the opportunity to protect and provide for their children.   The report provides an in-depth analysis of 19 Humanitarian Response Plans and Refugee Response Plans from 2019. Only 2% of the overall funding requested through humanitarian appeals was for child protection interventions. Less than half of that amount was received for humanitarian actors to give lifesaving protection assistance to children.   “Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the number of children who need protection has only increased. Children are among the most vulnerable during crises, yet our analysis shows just how chronically underfunded Child Protection is. This is costing children’s lives every day, as children are recruited, abused or fall victim to traffickers because the right mechanisms to protect them are not in place,” said Audrey Bollier, Coordinator for the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action.   The report shows a pattern of chronic underfunding of child protection and vast disparities in funding from one response to another, ranging from 14% to 97% in 2019. This hampers consistent support for the most vulnerable children fleeing violence, exploitation and trafficking.   During 2020 the gap between needs identified and funds allocated has grown at an alarming rate. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, the number of children in need of protection support has doubled, but as of mid-September the Child Protection within the Humanitarian Response Plan was less than 10% funded.   In 2019, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that 168 million people in 58 countries would need humanitarian assistance in 2020. COVID-19 spread across the world within months of the new year, and in July 2020 the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan aimed to provide humanitarian aid to 250 million people in need in 63 countries.   “Reaching particularly vulnerable children - who **may be victims of violence or abuse, or those who have been separated from their families, or children associated with armed groups - is complex and sensitive. It requires trained staff and time, and our report shows that the funding available is nowhere near enough*”, said Alison Sutton, Global Director Child Protection in Save the Children.   The report warns that if the international community fails to respond, children will be left in distress or without psychosocial support, and many children will face severe risks of abuse, violence or even death. The hope of reuniting unaccompanied and separated children with their families will also dwindle rapidly, and more children will be exposed to exploitation, child labour, and child marriages.   Humanitarian agencies are calling on donors and governments to fully fund Child Protection in crises, and to truly invest in building Child Protection capacity, especially among local actors, to ensure that quality support is available for children living in the harshest places on earth.   * The report Still Unprotected: Humanitarian Funding for Child Protection has been written by Save The Children in collaboration with the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (the Alliance), Child Protection Area of Responsibility, and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It is a follow up on the report Unprotected: Crisis in humanitarian funding for child protection published in 2019.   http://reliefweb.int/report/world/still-unprotected-humanitarian-funding-child-protection http://alliancecpha.org/en/playlist-2020-annual-meeting-pre-recorded-sessions   Dec. 2019   Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action   Today, one in four children lives in a country affected by conflict or disaster. Girls and boys face daily risks to their lives and threats to their future physical and mental health.   Evidence shows that illness, developmental challenges and even early death are connected to childhood hardship and exposure to violence. Children's survival, well-being and healthy development are seriously jeopardised in humanitarian settings.   Given these immediate and long-term risks, it is an urgent priority for all those working in humanitarian settings to protect children from violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect.   While child protection actors play a central role, all sectors need to be involved in preventing and responding holistically to the risks and vulnerabilities that affect girls and boys in crises.   Humanitarian efforts must be predictable, swift, well-planned and responsive to children's and families own priorities. Actions need to be grounded in rights, informed by evidence and measurable in their results. It is also essential to strengthen the formal and informal systems that will continue to protect children after the emergency response is over.   Taken together, all these requirements comprise the inter-agency Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action. Since their launch in 2012, the standards have contributed significantly to the professionalisation of the sector.   Widely known and used by child protection and other experts in humanitarian settings, they have markedly improved the quality of work. As part of the Humanitarian Standards Partnership, they have strengthened accountability to those served.   This second edition of Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action has been realised through the hard work of over 1,900 individuals from 85 agencies and 82 countries. It is a true example of collaboration. This edition strengthens the standards emphasis on principles, evidence and prevention and increases their applicability to internal displacement and refugee contexts.   We believe these changes will further professionalise the sector and add to the rigour and quality of programmes at the field level. We urge all those involved in humanitarian action to take this opportunity to implement and promote these standards.   # Child protection is the prevention of and response to abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence against children. Effective child protection builds on existing capacities and strengthens preparedness before a crisis occurs. During humanitarian crises, timely interventions support the physical and emotional health, dignity and well-being of children, families and communities. Child protection saves lives.   http://alliancecpha.org/en/series-of-child-protection-materials/protection-children-during-covid-19-pandemic http://alliancecpha.org/en/series-of-child-protection-materials/2019-edition-cpms Visit the related web page
	Children must not fall off the 2030 Development Agenda by Kailash Satyarthi Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation India   May 2020   In the space of just a few months, COVID-19 has changed our world beyond recognition. Wherever one lives, one feels a palpable sense of fear. Yet we do not all respond to fear in the same way. Though we all instinctively want to protect our loved ones, in a deeply unequal world, not all of us have the means to do so.   Among the most painful consequences of the pandemic is that it has or will hit the world's most vulnerable children and their families the hardest, driving many households that had escaped poverty over the past two decades back into destitution.   Child laborers, out-of-school children, and young people fleeing conflict or disaster are particularly at risk. Many of these children and their families live in informal settlements, in conditions that make social distancing and self-isolation impossible.   Many also have underlying health conditions that put them at increased risk from COVID-19. And many lack regular access to basic services like drinking water and electricity, while lockdowns have ended vital school-based meal programs.   Worst of all, many of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people do not have reliable access to sanitation, let alone health care.   Through our 100 million for 100 million campaign's work, I know that children in Nairobi's informal 'slum' settlement of Mathare now fear more than ever that they will go hungry. In India, we have opened the doors of Mukti Ashram, a rehabilitation facility for rescued child laborers, to take in street children and to feed the local community.   All over the world, communities and civil-society groups are showing compassion by volunteering their time and resources to protect their poorer neighbors.   Nonetheless, the situation calls for significantly more action, and on a much wider scale. Nearly one in five children worldwide lives on less than $2 per day.   The International Labor Organization reports that tens of millions of informal workers have already become unemployed as a result of the pandemic. And the World Food Program warns that an additional 130 million people could be pushed to the brink of starvation by the end of this year.   All of these trends indicate that marginalized children who were already at risk of hunger could starve.   Government and civil-society efforts to eradicate child poverty and end child labor must be stepped up substantially, both now and in the months and years following the immediate crisis. Evidence from past economic shocks shows that in countries with inadequate or non-existent social protections, many more children will be forced to work.   Moreover, a pandemic makes this especially likely. If adults in vulnerable households die or are incapacitated from COVID-19, the task of earning money to survive will fall to their children.   So, unless we act now, the crisis could leave millions more children vulnerable to forced labor, slavery, and trafficking, followed by a lifetime of illiteracy and poverty for those who survive. The long-term impact on an entire generation of children will be catastrophic.   As matters stand, G20 countries have committed more than $5 trillion in spending to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19. Yet the vast majority of those funds will go to those who are already best able to cope with the pandemic. Some of the world's richest corporations are benefiting the most, and many haven't paid their fair share of taxes for years.   Meanwhile, hard commitments and support for the world's most marginalized and vulnerable populations so far account for only a tiny fraction of the global financial response.   Vulnerable children and families must receive a proportional share. The poorest 20% of humanity should be accorded 20% of the funds, which would amount to a transformational $1 trillion.   That sum would cover the United Nations appeal for charitable giving to tackle COVID-19, two years of low-income countries debt repayments, and two years of the annual funding gap for the Sustainable Development Goals. The SDGs include concrete programs to improve access to health, water, sanitation, and education, which is crucial for providing a better future for marginalized children.   Even after covering these outstanding costs, there would still be enough left to fund the social safety nets needed to prevent child labor. It is safe to assume that more than ten million lives would be saved. That is a response to the COVID-19 crisis that humanity could be proud of.   So, I am urging all G20 leaders to look beyond their own borders, and to recognize the urgent need for coordinated international aid.   I am also calling on US President Donald Trump to reconsider his decision to freeze American funding for the World Health Organization. The WHO is absolutely critical at the moment, and it will continue to play a vital role in supporting basic health care, including vaccinations for children in less-developed regions.   In every country hit by COVID-19, one can find stories of hope. Millions of health workers are providing front-line care for the infected. Teachers are continuing children's education online. Huge new volunteer networks are taking shape and extending a helping hand to those who lack access to basic supplies, food, and drinking water.   When so many ordinary people are going out of their way to show compassion and assist the poorest and most vulnerable, it would be utterly shameful if national leaders did not do the same.Governments must join us in creating a safer world for all our children. Let this pandemic be the moment when we commit to genuine, enduring change.   * A Fair Share for Children: Preventing the loss of a generation to COVID-19: http://bit.ly/35xS1nd   Oct. 2019   I had kept a vacant chair in the front row of the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony at Oslo in 2014. That chair represented millions of children who are languishing in slavery, exploitation and violence in our modern world.   My Nobel Peace Prize, announced exactly five years ago today, overnight shone the global spotlight on these children for whom I had been fighting for since 1980.   It was an important step when child labour, trafficking, forced labour, slavery and all forms of violence against children were incorporated in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.   But while in the last decades the world has made progress on many fronts, millions children are still far from freedom, safety and education. Last fortnight, when the world leaders gathered for a high-level U.N. summit in New York, they did not even mention them.   If the world moves in business-as-usual mode, there will still be 121 million child labourers by the end of 2025, 225 million children and youth will not be attending school by 2030, and hundreds of millions of the world's population (half of whom are children) will still be reeling under extreme poverty.   Though youth mobilization for climate change took the centre-stage at the U.N. General Assembly, the real concern for children who are worst affected by the climate crisis was clearly absent. According to the U.N., some 2,500 people are displaced every day by weather-related disasters, with the numbers of children likely to be many times higher.   According to a recent study, we are 43 years behind schedule in our progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs).   Unless we treat this as an emergency, we will fail our children once again. The Sustainable Development Agenda cannot be accomplished without achieving children-related goals.   So, what exactly needs to be done? Firstly, enhancing financing for children is the need of the hour. Clear and adequate budgets for achieving children-related goals should be chalked and implemented at national and global levels.   Secondly, a holistic approach in dealing with all children-related development goals is key for achieving the SDGs.   I strongly suggest that all U.N. agencies working on various aspects for children, including U.N. children's agency UNICEF and refugee agency UNHCR, form a global task force focusing on achieving goals related to children in a time-bound and accountable manner.   At national levels it is important to set up inter-ministerial taskforces with action plans for protecting the rights of all children.   Currently the progress of SDGs is tracked through voluntary reviews where countries can conveniently cherry pick the indicators they wish to report upon, as a result of which several important aspects related to freedom, safety, health and education of children are left out.   Therefore, it is important that the reviews are made mandatory to assess time-bound progress on all indicators with proper accountability.   It is high time the world finally addresses child labour, trafficking of children, poverty, malnutrition, and denial of education in a holistic way.   Thirdly, the world badly needs children rights champions at regional, national and international levels. Unless spirited leaders own up for the cause of children and inspire the world through their work, Agenda 2030 will remain a charter of wishful thinking.   Fourthly, denial of children's rights, and violence perpetuated on children are crimes for which there are laws both at national and international levels, which should be enforced in letter and spirit.   Last but not the least, the world needs to realise that even one child trapped in slavery and violence is one too many.   We have to be honest, bold, responsible and compassionate to prevent our children from falling off the development agenda.   * Kailash Satyarthi is a Nobel Peace Laureate.   http://globalmarch.org/ http://satyarthi.org.in/ http://satyarthi-us.org/ http://globalmarch.org/ Visit the related web page
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