WAR CHILD UK INNOVATION REPORT: Meeting the Rights of Children affected by Armed Conflict

War Child UK Innovation Report 1 Written by: Sophie Blyth-Whitelock

Contributions from: Aneeta Williams, Zareena Vasquez, Helen Guillermo, Priscilla Yoon, Alan Frisk, Kate Radford, Victoria Whitaker, Jessica Oddy, Sophie Bray-Watkins and many others.

Copy-edited by Jon Paxman Designed by Deniz Tekkul Cover image: War Child Holland Published 2016 Copyright reserved

CONTENTS

List of Acronyms ...... 3

Foreword ...... 4

Executive Summary ...... 5 Background ...... 7 Innovation and the transformative agenda ...... 8

Approach 1: Research and Advocacy in ...... 10 Recommendations ...... 13

Approach 2: Can’t Wait to Learn Educational Programme, Global ...... 14 Recommendations ...... 16

Approach 3: VoiceMore Youth Advocacy Programme, Global ...... 17 Recommendations ...... 19

Conclusion ...... 20

War Child UK Innovation Report 2 LIST OF ACRONYMNS

AtD Alternatives to Detention CAR CHS Core Humanitarian Standard https://corehumanitarianstandard.org/ (Launched in December 2014 and draws upon the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) Standard in Accountability and Quality Management, the Sphere Project’s Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response, The People in Aid Code of Good Practice and the International Committee of the Red Cross’ (ICRC) Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief) CiCL Children in Conflict with the Law CSRC Child Safety Report Cards CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child CWtL Can’t Wait to Learn Programme DFID Department for International Development DRC Democratic Republic of Congo EC European Commission EiE Education in Emergencies ICT Information, Communication and Technology JRC Juvenile Rehabilitation Centre MoE Ministry of Education MoJ Ministry of Justice MOLSA Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MoU Memorandum of Understanding NGOs Non-Governmental Organisations PPA DFID-funded Programme Partnership Arrangement PSS Psychosocial Support SDGs United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, https:// sustainabledevelopment.un.org/majorgroups SOPs Standard Operating Procedures RD Restless Development UN United Nations WCH War Child Holland WCUK War Child UK WP Women’s Prison YBI Youth Business International

War Child UK Innovation Report 3 FOREWORD

UNICEF estimates that armed conflict has uprooted nearly 50 million children from their homes, with 28 million of them abandoning the countries of their birth in search of a safer environment. Trauma, displacement, negligent treatment, exploitation and denial of basic rights are just some of the seemingly insurmountable challenges that these children and their families must deal with.

War Child is familiar with these issues. In this report, we demonstrate how innovative approaches can reach the unreached children affected by armed conflict. The DFID-funded Youth Consortium report “From Rhetoric to Action” outlined the need to support child protection, education, participation and livelihoods. Building on these findings, War Child’s innovative approaches have the potential to be of significant value to the humanitarian sector, particularly with regards to models of working and lessons learned.

Advocacy-focused research by the War Child team in Afghanistan has supported children’s rights to protection, participation and child-led processes. These are all contributing to the reduction of violence in Herat (and potentially the whole of Afghanistan) by improving conditions for children in detention centres, whilst also enhancing due process in juvenile justice cases. This approach is contributing to developing effective and accountable institutional change, thereby achieving Sustainable Development Goal 16 on promotion of rule of law.

By embracing tablet-based learning research through open-source technology, War Child has supported the realisation of a child’s right to quality education and learning. The Can’t Wait to Learn programme researches the development of a child’s learning through educational games on tablets in accordance with country-specific educational curriculum for children who have little access to schools due to displacement. Together with several key partners, we have invested significant resources in developing these programmes which will also build the resilience and self- esteem of such children. Such innovation is crucial for ensuring that humanitarian work remains relevant and current.

Finally, War Child’s VoiceMore Youth Advocacy programme supports on-going training and opportunities for children’s voices to be heard at global and local advocacy events. By investigating new ways to promote child and community-led initiatives, War Child is contributing significantly to decision-making and strategic planning across communities at all levels.

War Child has taken bold steps to embody one of its key organisational values: listening to children’s voices and being accountable to them. We have developed new meaning to being child-participatory and youth-led which challenges existing power structures. This is the basis for transformational social innovation. We are optimistic about these innovations and their potential to improve our ability to reach, listen to and learn from children who are most in need.

Rob Williams (OBE) CEO War Child UK

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Innovation involves the development and implementation of new ideas, methods, products and approaches to promote positive change. Whilst innovation is often side-lined in humanitarian settings due to the prioritisation of meeting basic needs, it is mandated in the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS)1 to which War Child adheres, and is supported by the international community through Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)2, which lead to the development of more effective and cost-efficient models of assistance to children in need.

Presenting three case studies, this report describes War Child’s experimentation with innovative approaches in its work with children affected by conflict: (1) reaching children in conflict with the law in Afghanistan, (2) the Can’t Wait to Learn (CWtL) education in emergencies (EiE) programme, and (3) the VoiceMore child advocacy programme. These case studies reveal that War Child is bringing innovation to humanitarian settings through technology, research, advocacy, partnership frameworks and child participation.

The first case study outlines our innovative approach to supporting Children in Conflict with the Law in Afghanistan. These children are traditionally excluded from any process that decides on their fate and are often treated as criminals even prior to being charged. War Child has overcome

1 https://corehumanitarianstandard.org/ 2 https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300

War Child UK Innovation Report 5 this cultural practice by using traditional community-based mechanisms to promote child participation in community and national level decision making, and through child-led initiatives that have helped children in their communities feel safer. Further, War Child has collaborated with duty-bearers to identify areas where research is needed to support evidence-based advocacy that improves the protective environment for children in conflict with the law.

The Can’t Wait to Learn (CWtL) programme, outlined in our second case-study, is providing self-guided learning to refugee and displaced children through tablet-based educational games. This innovative approach enables learning to be child-centred, child-friendly and tailored to children’s needs and context. This technology has the potential to scale globally, and has particular value where children’s education is negatively impacted by conflict. CWtL is being developed with the involvement of children, communities, non-governmental Child UK Haney for War James Marcus organisations (NGOs), private companies, Ministries of Education and donors for long-term sustainability. It is supported by research to measure the value for money of the initiative and sector stakeholder acceptance.

Finally, War Child’s new VoiceMore programme supports children to become effective youth advocates, who can define their own role, expectations and goals in a way that is relevant to their needs, and who can influence high-level decision-making. In this way, War Child is expanding its implementation approach from merely a project-based methodology to a more fluid and adaptable approach that focuses on processes and movements. The approach is thus more fitting to supporting children in emergency settings and to the changing realities on the ground.

In all the case studies featured in this report, child participation is mainstreamed in both the internal project processes (design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation) and through programme implementation, quality and advocacy activities. Indeed, War Child often extends child participation to child-led processes, building on the learning from the DFID PPA- commissioned advocacy report “From Rhetoric to Action”, which explores the factors that provide an enabling environment for youth participation.3 The findings have been helpful for War Child to provide new and cost-efficient approaches that are innovative, flexible, adaptable and scalable nationally and/or globally.

3 http://www.fromrhetorictoaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/fromrhetorictoaction_research_report.pdf

War Child UK Innovation Report 6 Background War Child is a child rights organisation founded in the UK in 1993 with a vision of a in which children’s lives are not torn apart by war. War Child supports and rehabilitates child victims of war and deals with the lasting consequences of conflict by working with local communities, civil society organisations and local authorities in both conflict and post-conflict situations. Active in the three sectors of protection, livelihoods and education in emergencies, War Child currently works in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), , Afghanistan, (Syria response), and Central African Republic (CAR), and is awaiting registration in Yemen.

War Child is part of a Department for International Development (DFID)-funded Programme Partnership Arrangement (PPA) ‘Youth Consortium’ with Restless Development (RD)4 and Youth Business International (YBI).5 Under Result 8 of the list of deliverables, the Consortium wishes to “[engage] the development and humanitarian sectors in a debate on alternative (youth-led and community-led) approaches to emergency and crisis response,” by documenting, analysing and presenting its innovations to influence the sectors and exploring the relevance of these innovations for long-term recovery programmes. The Consortium has demonstrated the vital role of youth and community-led responses in emergencies and recovery contexts, yet a dearth of child actors are able to access and influence humanitarian interventions. In line with Result 8 of the PPA deliverables, this report highlights child participation and child-led processes in War Child’s work, alongside and within other innovations. War Child observes the UNCRC’s definition of children as individuals below 18 years of age.6

This report was developed through a desk review of relevant programme documents and other resources, listed at the end of the report, alongside telephone/Skype key-informant interviews with War Child country-based staff.

Innovation and the transformative agenda The humanitarian sector is constantly evolving, especially in terms of best practice, implementation approaches and the use of new technology. This has led to remarkable improvements; for example, the progression from a charitable approach that promoted dependence on international aid to a rights-based approach that views beneficiaries as rights holders and partners in humanitarian initiatives. It is therefore crucial for the sector to experiment with innovation, despite the risk of failure. Hence, Commitment 7 of the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS) stipulates that “communities and people affected by crisis [should] expect delivery of improved assistance as organisations learn from experience and reflection,” and two of Commitment 7’s key actions specifically mention innovation. As such, innovation within humanitarianism is an agreed best practice amongst humanitarian actors, therefore an operational imperative of any organisation’s work in the sector.

At an organisational level, innovation enables War Child to support quality programming, evidence- based learning and relationship development with donors, beneficiaries and other stakeholders. At a programming level, innovation ensures War Child’s work is more effective and cost efficient in the long-term, whilst also enabling greater impact on children and families affected by armed conflict.

Over the past few years there has been mounting interest in innovation within the humanitarian sector, as demonstrated by the creation of the Humanitarian Innovation Fund7 and an increasing

4 http://restlessdevelopment.org 5 http://www.youthbusiness.org 6 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, http://www.unicef.org.uk/Documents/Publication-pdfs/UNCRC_PRESS200910web.pdf 7 For more information, see: http://www.elrha.org/hif/home/

War Child UK Innovation Report 7 number of reports on innovation in humanitarian settings, such as ALNAP’s “More than Just Luck: Innovation in Humanitarian Action”.8 Despite this, it is often in humanitarian settings that innovation is overlooked, due to the imperative to provide immediate relief to disaster-affected communities. This leaves little time for experimentation and innovation. With the increasing number of large-scale conflicts and natural disasters due to climate change, innovation is essential to provide more effective and cost efficient solutions where there are rising needs and intensifying competition for financial resources.

Children and/or communities should be actively involved in processes and initiatives that have an impact upon them. They should be supported to collaborate with other stakeholders on the design, planning, implementation and M&E of programming and advocacy action, and their ideas, opinions and concerns should be seriously considered in decision-making processes. Children’s participation is mandated within international human rights law. Article 12.1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) stipulates, “States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.”9 Child, youth and community participation is designated as a core principle and standard of best practice in both the development and humanitarian sectors. Three of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are specifically relevant to War Child’s work as described in this report. These are:

∞∞ “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” (SDG 4); ∞∞ “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” (SDG 5); and ∞∞ “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels” (SDG 16) as seen in Approach 1.

Additionally, the SDGs list children and youth as one of the nine “major groups” through which broad participation should be facilitated in UN activities related to sustainable development. War Child also adheres the Core Humanitarian Standards, and Commitment 4, dedicated to participation, stipulates the principle that “communities and people affected by crisis know their rights and entitlements, have access to information and participate in decisions that affect them”. It is therefore evident that children’s participation constitutes more than just good practice but an imperative for agencies working in humanitarian settings.

However, children are commonly marginalised from the decision-making process due to cultural norms and entrenched ideas about children’s lack of capacity to participate meaningfully. This denial of children’s contribution is exacerbated in humanitarian contexts, where financial, human and time resources are stretched and there are multiple competing needs and priorities. Arguably, this is when the participation of children is most crucial, not only from a human rights perspective, but also from a practical perspective. Their participation can help ensure the accountability of agencies delivering on child services and that the needs of this vulnerable group are not overlooked. Participation of affected populations promotes ownership and empowerment, which increases the likelihood of sustainability and contributes to the personal and professional development of workers involved.

8 ALNAP and HIF, More than Just Luck: Innovation in Humanitarian Action, 2016, http://www.alnap.org/resource/22238.aspx 9 UNCRC (ibid)

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APPROACH 1: RESEARCH AND ADVOCACY IN AFGHANISTAN

Children in conflict with the law (CiCL) is exacerbated when children are marginalised from decision-making processes, since they feel that they do not have a stake in society and opportunities for improvement in their circumstances are limited. Child participation must therefore be encouraged and supported to empower children and create meaningful change in their lives. Law enforcement remand children in conflict with the law for long periods of time, often without charge, rather than considering alternatives to detention (AtD), thereby increasing the child’s vulnerability to harm and promoting the cycle of poverty and/or violence. Child protection actors should therefore advocate for AtD in juvenile justice cases.

War Child has been working with children affected by conflict in Afghanistan since 2001. Over the past few years, War Child has focused on, inter alia, juvenile justice in Afghanistan, to support the wellbeing of CiCL, reducing violence against children and the likelihood of them coming into conflict with the law, and promoting AtD. This work includes a European Commission (EC) funded project which promotes a comprehensive range of approaches and methodologies, from capacity building, empowerment and peer-to-peer initiatives to multimedia for different audiences, research, advocacy and service provision. The use of these different approaches paves the way for changes to be made at individual, household, community and national levels, whilst also promoting child and community-led processes. This in turn sets the stage for greater sustainability of project achievements beyond the project period. The EC-funded juvenile justice project is being implemented over a three-year period in the Herat Province of Afghanistan and will end in November 2016. The overall objective of this project is to contribute to the reduction of violence against children in the western region of Afghanistan, with a focus on girls and CiCL. Its specific objectives are to:

1. support the reintegration of newly released children previously in conflict with the law (CiCL); and 2. empower all children to report violence committed against them and/or in their surroundings.

War Child UK Innovation Report 9 Working with communities and empowering them to take over project activities can promote sustainable action. In addition to child-led processes, War Child has promoted community-based leadership amongst adults in this project. The family support groups for parents of children in detention allow parents to share the challenges they face due to having CiCL. The groups enable parents to understand how their own actions may have contributed to the child’s criminal activity; other support includes information sharing about navigating legal processes, and raising issues with War Child to share with authorities. War Child has trained 60 parents to act as peer-to-peer counsellors once the project ends, so that parents of CiCL can continue to support each other. This not only provides a valuable resource for the community but also promotes community-led organisation, social Will Carter, War Child UK War Will Carter, action and individual/group empowerment for these parents, who might otherwise be marginalised from the community due to their children’s criminality and the affected social status of the family. The juvenile justice project mainstreams evidence-based advocacy throughout its activities to promote long-term, meaningful change that enhances results of other project activities. At the local level, studies examining the conditions for children in the JRC in Herat and the Women’s Prison have been produced and shared with local authorities. This has led to several key improvements for children in these institutions:

∞∞ children in the WP are now able to attend kindergartens outside of the prison and thus interact with other children; ∞∞ a memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been agreed on the distribution of proceeds from the work undertaken by inmates in the detention centres; ∞∞ nurses are now available in the Juvenile Rehabilitation Centre (JRC); ∞∞ schooling is now provided in the JRC so children can continue their education and re-enrol into school when they are released (63% of children released are re-enrolling into school); ∞∞ a policewoman is now present in the JRC to address girls’ issues; ∞∞ social inquiry reports are now mandatory during court proceedings; ∞∞ social workers are now called upon in the Herat provincial courts to testify in juvenile cases; and ∞∞ judicial authorities have agreed that suspended sentences can be given to juveniles instead of detention if social centres are established in Herat.

Advocacy gains and policy changes have been made at district and national levels, through cooperation and collaboration with authorities and duty-bearers using evidence-based research. Judicial authorities identified and agreed that the juvenile justice sector would benefit greatly from research into alternatives to detention (AtD). Consequently, War Child

War Child UK Innovation Report 10 commissioned several research reports to investigate (1) how and when AtD could be applied to young offenders,10 (2) the different attitudes of judicial authorities towards the subject11 and (3) child labour.12 The second report found that most judicial authorities were in favour of AtD for juveniles under certain circumstances. The findings were presented to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA), the Supreme Court and the Attorney General’s Chambers at a high-level meeting Kabul. It was agreed that AtD should be applied over detention for juveniles as envisaged by Art.35 of the 2005 Juvenile Code of Afghanistan,13 and there are plans for this mechanism to be extended to the provinces. This demonstrates how evidence-based advocacy combined with collaboration and cooperation with authorities can be used to complement programming and produce macro-level legal and policy reform.

Innovation can be introduced to traditional mechanisms and cultural practices to promote child or community participation and leadership. In the case of the juvenile justice project, War Child has used the concept of children’s “shuras”14 in Herat Province to promote the rights- based approach of child participation in community and national action, debate and decision- making. Children’s inclusion in community shura, which previously comprised solely of adults, is significant since Afghanistan still maintains very traditional hierarchies in regards to adult–child relationships. At the national level, the Herat children’s shura has participated in the National Children’s Shura in Kabul, wherein children from Herat were specifically selected as the lead speakers for the sessions addressing parliamentarians.

Children’s shura are responsible for a range of initiatives which enable and promote child empowerment and support social action, such as radio programmes about child rights and issues that reach up to 5,000 listeners per day. They are so popular that the radio station has confirmed its commitment to continuing the programmes beyond the life of the project. School principals have affirmed that shura-directed and staged theatre productions have a positive impact and are effective because of their child-friendly format. Each performance can reach between 500 and 1,000 children, which is welcomed in schools that are hugely over-crowded and under-resourced.

It is therefore evident that if provided with appropriate and comprehensive support, children can be effective spokespersons and respected social change actors using theatre performances, circus activities, radio programmes, peer support for other children and family visits. Discussions in children shuras and follow-up discussions with parliamentarians and local authorities on topics already introduced in the shuras were also facilitated by children. Topics discussed in shuras and meetings were early marriage, forced marriage, selling girls, hard labour, beating children, exploitation, sadness, lack of access to education and communication. Following the child shura community-outreach activities, children reported feeling safer in most situations

10 Comparative study between alternatives to detention as against cost on the government and effects of detention to children. War Child UK and Marianne Moore (2013) 11  Afghanistan Social and Empowerment of Women Organization (2015) Cultural practices and societal attitude on violence against children in 15 city districts and 3 provincial districts of Herat Province, Afghanistan. War Child UK and Herat University 12 GoodWeave International (2015). The situation of child workers in Kabul’s informal carpet industry. War Child UK 13 Media coverage of the event on 27th July, 2016: http://www.bbc.com/pashto/bbc_pashto_radio/p0420pxq (BBC Radio); https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=DtNjXEZ2otA (Tolo News TV) 14 Shura is the Islamic tradition of assembling (parliament) and gathering to exchange opinions and make decisions.

War Child UK Innovation Report 11 described in the Child Safety Report Cards (CSRC),15 including in culturally sensitive areas such as child marriage, and 51% of children affirmed that they would report cases of violence committed against them. Consequently, child-led processes can contribute to the realisation of SDG targets, such as target 5.3: “eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.” The effectiveness of child-led initiatives is thus evident both as a process, in terms of the impact on the individual, and in results at community and duty-bearer levels.

RECOMMENDATIONS

∞∞ Identify traditions and cultural practices that can be adapted to promote child or community participation and leadership. ∞∞ Provide child/community-based training, mentoring and support for long-term capacity building to improve children’s confidence, skill-sets and public status for meaningful participation and/or leadership. ∞∞ Design and promote peer-to-peer methodologies that provide valuable services and build trust. ∞∞ Provide opportunities and platforms for communities and children to share the results of peer-to-peer research with decision-makers and duty-bearers. ∞∞ Collaborate with a range of stakeholders to identify areas where research is lacking and can support evidence-based advocacy that has realistic goals. ∞∞ Design projects with a multi-faceted approach to sustainability so they are promoted by different stakeholders for the benefit of all.

15 The following topics are included in War Child’s CSRC: classroom safety, school water, corporal punishment, school latrines, teachers, schoolmates, household chores, hunger, beatings, being called names, early marriage, family, getting to and from school, road safety, play areas, moving at night, bullying, abduction, explosion, receiving medical care, problems with families, problems with community leaders, problems with NGOs, and doing odd jobs.

War Child UK Innovation Report 12 War Child UK War APPROACH 2: CAN’T WAIT TO LEARN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME, GLOBAL

The Youth Consortium report “From Rhetoric to Action” revealed that when youth are asked about the single biggest obstacle to child and youth development, education is most often cited, typically lack of access or low quality education. This is exacerbated in humanitarian settings, where conflict and displacement increases obstacles to education. The right to education and the link between education and livelihoods, together with the cycle of war and/or poverty, therefore compels humanitarian actors to identify new, innovative ways of providing quality education in emergencies (EiE) that can overcome access constraints and reach more conflict- affected children.

Can’t Wait to Learn (CWTL)16 is an ambitious, multi-stakeholder educational programme that has innovation at its core, since it aims to develop a cost-effective model to support EiE for conflict- affected children. The CWtL project17 was originally developed and piloted in by WCH, Afhad University for Women and TNO, and is now being expanded to two more countries in the where WCH and War Child UK operate. The plan is to keep developing, improving and expanding the model so that it can be eventually rolled out globally. Consequently, the programme’s overall objective is to develop a sector-endorsed innovation model that will make a verified contribution to improving learning attainment in EiE settings by 2020. More specifically, the project aims to provide access to:

∞∞ an ICT-based learning approach which develops competency levels required in national curricula and access to formal accreditation and/or equivalent certificates; and ∞∞ psychosocial support (PSS) through tools integrated into gaming software and blended learning delivery to build children’s self-confidence and well-being.

16 For more general information about the CWtL programme refer: http://www.warchildholland.org/cant-wait-to-learn and for more specific information about its implementation in Sudan: http://www.educationinnovations.org/program/cant-wait-learn-sudan 17 The project is a collaboration between War Child Holland (WCH), War Child UK, Ahfad University for Women, TNO, Butterfly Works, National Council for Literacy and Adult Education, Ministries of Education in Sudan, the Middle East and UNICEF. Donors include the Dream Fund of the Dutch National Postcode Lottery, IKEA Foundation, Latoer Foundation, the Humanitarian Education Accelerator and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

War Child UK Innovation Report 13 CWtL uses tablet-based serious gaming as a child-friendly approach to learning, which is adapted to the educational needs and contexts of different children. The custom-made games include instruction, practice and a learning management system. Children support the creation of the game , private companies support the development of the software, and research institutes support the development and implementation of research themes and methodologies. This enhances the sustainability of the approach by promoting stakeholder engagement and ownership. To this end, CWtL creates tablet-based learning and delivery models relevant to the context of different conflict-affected children in different countries, including children out of school and those performing poorly in overcrowded schools and informal learning centres. Trained teachers and/or facilitators guide students through the educational programme, as well as providing direct, face-to-face psychosocial support. Research is simultaneously conducted into learning attainment and the cost efficiency of the model, as compared to standard education in the country/region. Research also explores the effects of psychosocial distress and the effectiveness of PSS interventions, and the endorsement and adoption of this model by other humanitarian actors. Research findings are then used to inform and improve the development and content of the programme and its rollout.

The approach of the CWtL programme is very flexible and can be used where schools and teachers are in short supply. The programme can constitute blended-learning alongside other educational programmes, or can exist as a standalone programme that acts as a pathway to re-enrolment into formal school. Qualifications may be attained through the programme, dependent on government accreditation, since children learn what they would learn in a traditional school. All games are custom-built, with open source software. Such informal and personal learning can complement formal education in providing the competencies and confidence young people need for short and long-term advancement.18

HOW THE GAME WORKS

∞∞ Graphics used in CWtL are familiar to children. Children’s drawings are used in designing the learning environment. ∞∞ All instructions are in audio and video, overcoming illiteracy and poor numeracy skills. ∞∞ Children present the instruction videos. ∞∞ Children discover how their skills are directly applicable in their own lives. ∞∞ The educational games start simply. On completion of a series of exercises, the software automatically unlocks new exercises at a higher level, making it possible for children to progressively acquire new skills and competencies. ∞∞ The game provides immediate feedback to children with correct answers, using audio and visual elements. ∞∞ The game allows children to learn at their own pace with continued motivation. ∞∞ The game allows children to go back to previous activities whenever they want. ∞∞ The open source software of the educational games has been designed in such a way that games can be easily adapted to new contexts (other countries and situations) and without high licensing costs.

18 From Rhetoric to Action report (ibid)

War Child UK Innovation Report 14 Evidence indicates that the games promote gender-balanced learning and stimulates and retains boys and girls equally, thereby contributing to SDG target 4.5: “by 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education”. There is additionally a measurable positive effect on self-esteem experienced by children engaged in CWtL, and CWtL is very effective in supporting the attainment of learning outcomes when compared to traditional education, when measured using the early grade mathematics assessment as the standardised assessment. Communities invest their own financial resources in the programme and therefore take a lead in its sustainability. The MoE has scope to further develop the software, aligned with curriculum changes. The potential for scaling up the programme across any target country is huge. The coupling of innovative technology with stakeholder participation may therefore enable rollout across the humanitarian sector, whilst also promoting national ownership in humanitarian response.

RECOMMENDATIONS

∞∞ Promote ownership and sustainability through wide and varied stakeholder engagement throughout the project cycle. ∞∞ Promote the use of innovative ICT programming as a means of reaching a wide range of audiences. ∞∞ Ensure the format is user-friendly and child-centred and relevant to children’s needs. ∞∞ Design the CWtL programme with PSS and income generation components. ∞∞ Invest in research to build an evidence base for innovations and share research findings with the humanitarian sector for learning and scale-up. ∞∞ Work in partnership with the relevant MoEs to develop accredited alternatives to formal schooling in emergency settings where formal education may be inaccessible. ∞∞ Develop innovative and cost-efficient models that support expansive beneficiary reach. ∞∞ Support community-based groups and movements to raise financial and in-kind resources to increase local ownership and direction of initiatives. ∞∞ Develop projects and programmes with sustainability and/or exit strategies in mind.

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APPROACH 3: VOICEMORE YOUTH ADVOCACY PROGRAMME, GLOBAL

Over the past few decades, advocacy has become increasingly formalised within the charity sector and within this, community-based and child-led participation have been promoted to ensure a rights-based approach that is more equitable, relevant and likely to achieve programme objectives. In the past, children have been commonly perceived as being incapable of gaining the requisite knowledge, skills and experience to contribute effectively to policy debates and decision-making processes. This is reflected in the “From Rhetoric to Action” youth survey, where 69% of respondents thought young people lack the knowledge and awareness of how to participate, while 63% felt that young people believe their contribution will make no difference. Such viewpoints constitute significant barriers to child and youth participation.

War Child’s VoiceMore Spokesperson Training Programme aims to nurture greater active participation of young people in War Child’s advocacy activities and ensure their voices are at the forefront of its advocacy efforts at a local, national and international level. It aims to:

∞∞ empower children to express their views and opinions about issues that impact their lives, and those of their peers, to a wide range of audiences, including media and decision-makers; ∞∞ create spaces, mechanisms and processes through which children can influence relevant debates and decision-making processes; and ∞∞ support the creation of communities and networks of children at local, national and international levels to work together to ensure their voices are heard.

War Child organises series of training sessions and workshops with children to build their individual and collective capacities, and to determine their key objectives, strategies and action plans. Once the children are ready, they are supported to implement local, national and international advocacy initiatives of their choice. Advocacy activities may include speaking to media, participating in meetings and events, and strategic planning with local, national or international decision makers. Children are also encouraged to run peer-led workshops to seek feedback on issues from other children, contributing to participatory research and/or supporting programme design, implementation and evaluation.

War Child UK Innovation Report 16 The VoiceMore programme is currently being piloted in CAR and Jordan. In both countries, an initial week’s training was implemented with 10 children, who are now being supported to develop and implement specific advocacy initiatives. Confidence levels of participants visibly increased over the course of the training period, and the idea of becoming a spokesperson for other children and actively engaging in advocacy initiatives was positively embraced by the groups. Local VoiceMore Support Officers are now being recruited to continue building capacity and support the development and implementation of further advocacy initiatives. It is important to note that the VoiceMore Programme is currently in pilot phase and only one cohort has so far been trained and recruited in each country. Despite this, the children’s input into advocacy activities has already been tangible.

∞∞ In CAR, participants sent letters to world leaders and recorded video messages, which were presented at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in March 2016 on the theme of the impact of the conflict on children’s education. ∞∞ In Jordan, the children discussed potential themes for prioritisation ahead of the UN General Assembly in September 2016, and their feedback was used to shape the focus of the War Child advocacy events in New York. ∞∞ At the Wilton Park conference on Stigma arising from Sexual Violence in Conflict, in Nov, 2016, the VoiceMore group from CAR provided their thoughts on causes and consequences through an innovative video.

For child-participatory advocacy to be effective, opportunities for meaningful participation from the start to the end of the process must be provided. Otherwise, there is risk that participation is downgraded to consultation and/or child engagement in one-off activities or events. The VoiceMore Programme adopts a holistic approach to children’s participation in advocacy by ensuring that their capacity is built, space and opportunities are identified and created, roles and frameworks are clearly delineated, and support is sustained to allow implementation of a variety of advocacy initiatives. This contributes to the objectives of CHS key action 3.1: “ensure programmes build on local capacities and work towards improving the resilience of communities and people affected by crisis.”

The principles and aim of the initiative are unwavering in contributing to target 16.7 of the SDGs: “ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels.” Children should be supported to take an increasingly active role in advocacy so that their participation gradually leads to child-led initiatives, where suitable and safe to do so. VoiceMore adopts this approach so that over time, War Child increasingly devolves strategic direction to the children it is supporting – albeit that initiatives must still fit within humanitarian principles and War Child’s strategic objectives, whilst ensuring that children are not put at risk. For example, the children, start by being trained but then increasingly take the lead in designing and implementing their own capacity-building and outreach sessions with peers. Similarly, while the initial overarching advocacy theme might be chosen by War Child or dictated by the focus of a global summit, children still determine the specific advocacy issues on which they want to focus within the theme. Over time, groups will be also supported to identify their own independent subjects for War Child to further promote and champion through advocacy activity.

The transition to child-led initiatives within advocacy, however, does not mean that children are no longer supported in their advocacy goals. On the contrary, ongoing support is still provided in terms of capacity-building, facilitating linkages between stakeholders, creating platforms for engagement, and supporting group development and strategies for overcoming challenges. Further, the support provided will depend on the maturity, skills, experience and circumstances of the group and will be tailored accordingly. This recognises that advocacy processes and

War Child UK Innovation Report 17 approaches must be fluid to respond to the varying realities on the ground. CHS key action 4.3 is to “ensure representation is inclusive, involving the participation and engagement of communities and people affected by crisis at all stages of the work.” Children’s active participation in programmes such as VoiceMore ensures that they will be empowered to identity and learn from mistakes, act for improvement, and evaluate programmatic interventions, organisational processes and their own self-development. This will endow them with critical skills for their personal and professional lives, as well as making them more effective social actors.

Every advocacy initiative encounters resistance and challenges, since advocacy seeks to change the status quo and effect impactful change. These challenges are increased when focusing on child- centred advocacy, as children are commonly in positions of less power. However, as the “From Rhetoric to Action” report makes clear, “for youth participation to be meaningful, it needs to address the issue of power.” Organisations seeking to support greater child-led advocacy therefore need to make concerted efforts to reduce imbalances in programmes and be sensitive to the kind of pressures such hierarchies can have on participation. Another key challenge to engagement is the need to manage expectations and maintain the motivation of the children, since advocacy is often a very long and frustrating process with many setbacks. Finally, War Child recognises there may at times be constraints to diverse and representative participation amongst children. For example, in Jordan some families have denied girls the opportunity to participate, whilst in CAR, War Child has found it challenging to access Muslim children in more unstable and deprived areas of Bangui.

RECOMMENDATIONS

∞∞ Ensure all advocacy initiatives are based on a thorough risk assessment that places child safeguarding and protection at its heart. ∞∞ Ensure children are supported to engage in the advocacy process from its inception to completion to enable meaningful participation. ∞∞ Develop flexible programmes that are relevant to existing needs, constraints and opportunities, as identified by the children themselves. ∞∞ Allow for child consultation, participation and/or child-led initiatives in advocacy, while gradually building the skill set of children and transferring responsibility to them, where it is safe and appropriate to do so. ∞∞ Ensure that children themselves define participation, their role and their expectations. ∞∞ Challenge internal, organisational assumptions and prejudices, and support staff to develop their knowledge, attitudes and practices with regards to child rights and child-centred advocacy. ∞∞ Engage community members in child-led advocacy processes and explore ways to promote community support. ∞∞ Identify ways to support children’s groups and movements whilst actively acknowledging and addressing power imbalances and the co-opting of activities and agendas. ∞∞ Manage the expectations of children and identify ways to promote long-term motivation and engagement.

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CONCLUSION

These case studies illustrate how organisations in their humanitarian work can promote, support and adhere to CHS, SDGs and research findings of the “From Rhetoric to Action” report, whilst also experimenting with innovation and child/community-led processes. Using innovative methods and programmes, War Child is changing policy and encouraging legislative reform through advocacy-focused research and child-participatory decision-making gatherings, as well as by embracing technology to provide educational access for displaced children. These innovative approaches are effective and cost-efficient and can be adapted, replicated and rolled out on a much wider scale. The innovative structuring of programme partnership frameworks promotes joint ownership and decision making among a variety of stakeholders, as a means of ensuring buy-in and the sustainability of programme achievements. By developing holistic programmes that contribute to several sectors and effectively combine research, advocacy and programming, changes can be impactful in the long-term as well and the short term.

War Child mainstreams innovative approaches throughout various internal processes of the project cycle (design, planning, implementation, M&E). By mainstreaming child participation and providing opportunities for children’s voices to be heard, War Child has enabled child empowerment and greater inclusion of children in decision-making and child protection. War Child advocates for change where constraints to participation exist, to ensure that participation is meaningful, rather than tokenistic. By investing in advocacy-led research, technology and child participation, War Child has demonstrated its uniqueness through adaptability and flexibility in challenging circumstances. War Child suggests that other organisations who wish to follow suit should:

∞∞ promote an organisational and sectoral culture of reflection, innovation and learning through the allocation of specific resources within organisational and sector-wide structures and processes; ∞∞ develop and showcase different models of flexible and innovative programming that respond to the changing realities on the ground, whilst also ensuring cost-efficiency;

War Child UK Innovation Report 19 ∞∞ advocate with donors to adopt more flexible approaches to funding that give organisations the freedom to experiment with new ideas and approaches in the face of changing realities on the ground, whilst simultaneously ensuring accountability to donors; ∞∞ increase their understanding of the role, structure and position of informal movements and youth networks, and provide support that enables their strengths, rather than seeks to change them. Support should include flexible finance mechanisms, legal support and protection, and the provision of basic resources; and ∞∞ develop structures and processes that ensure child and community-based participation in organisational governance, rather than on a purely project basis.

Humanitarian actors rarely have the resources to experiment in these areas due to the more urgent priorities of meeting basic needs. Exploration and innovation in these areas may however present more effective and cost-efficient alternatives, as well as links between relief and development work that facilitate the reconstruction and rehabilitation of vulnerable communities, particularly for children and youth affected and displaced by armed conflict.

REFERENCES

1. ALNAP and HIF, More than Just Luck: Innovation in Humanitarian Action, 2016. http://www.alnap.org/ resource/22238.aspx

2. Can’t Wait to Learn information provided on websites: http://www.warchildholland.org/cant-wait-to-learn and http://www.educationinnovations.org/program/cant-wait-learn-sudan

3. ELRHA website: http://www.elrha.org/hif/home/

4. Restless Development website, http://restlessdevelopment.org

5. Restless Development, War Child and Youth Business International, From Rhetoric to Action: Towards an Enabling Environment for Child and Youth Development in the Sustainable Development Goals, 2015. http:// www.fromrhetorictoaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/fromrhetorictoaction_research_report.pdf

6. Save the Children, Advocacy Matters: Helping Children Change their World, 2007. http://www.unicef.org/ adolescence/cypguide/files/Advocacy_Matters_Participants_Manual.pdf

7. The Joint Standards Initiative, The Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability, 2014. https:// corehumanitarianstandard.org/files/files/Core%20Humanitarian%20Standard%20-%20English.pdf

8. UNICEF, Advocacy Toolkit: A Guide to Influencing Decisions that Improve Children’s Lives, 2010. http://www. unicef.org/evaluation/files/Advocacy_Toolkit.pdf

9. UNICEF, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, http://www.unicef.org.uk/Documents/Publication-pdfs/ UNCRC_PRESS200910web.pdf

10. United Nations, Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/ majorgroups

11. War Child, Lessons Learnt Report: Working towards Improving the Quality of Programmes for Children Affected by Armed Conflict (published)

12. WCH and War Child programme documents (not public), including proposals, evaluations, reports and guidelines.

13. Youth Business International website, http://www.youthbusiness.org

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