Children and Adolescents, Present and Future
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CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS, PRESENT AND FUTURE ANNUAL REPORT 2015 PERÚ CHILDREN ARE THE PRESENT AND FUTURE Childhood is the time when we plant seeds with the hope of a good harvest. This is why, for the last 70 years, UNICEF has worked to grow opportunities for children and adolescents in Peru. For us, a country’s development is only possible by raising a generation of children with equal opportunities. ©UNICEF PERÚ/MORENO FOREWORD Since 31 July 2015, the day I started as UNICEF’s Representative in Peru, the commitment of Donors and businesses continued to support UNICEF’s work in Peru. This the Government, civil society and international cooperation to the development of children and is reflected in the 4,085 individual donors who make monthly donations adolescents continues to amaze me. to our programmes and in the partnerships we maintain with businesses from different sectors. My travels to regions where UNICEF works have allowed me to see the challenges Peru faces due to its multiculturalism, geography and history. They have also given me the opportunity to see Through UNICEF’s Procurement Services, the Government acquired strategic supplies to reduce how the Government and communities together can come up with solutions to critical problems. child mortality, reduce anaemia, prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS and support pregnancy care. The supplies amount to US$14.2 million. During the long journeys to Amazonian and Andean communities, I gained a better understanding of why, despite remarkable progress, Peru still faces challenges in ending neonatal mortality, 2015 was a fruitful year. At year’s end we were left to build on the achievements made during malnutrition and anaemia in children. the current Country Programme: the creation of a set of regulations that will inform Intercultural Bilingual Education over the next five years; the positioning of early childhood as a critical stage of The stories I heard of indigenous teachers, who as children experienced the confusion of having human development; the studies on the determinants of violence that can inform evidence-based Spanish-speaking teachers, explain the commitment and passion that drive the UNICEF team’s prevention policies for children and adolescents. work alongside the Government to strengthen Intercultural Bilingual Education. We ended the year with the challenge of preparing the way for a new Country Programme to I have been pleasantly surprised to see the creation of UNICEF-supported legislative, policy and support Peru in achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). budgetary frameworks for Peruvian children and adolescents. In the last year, Peru has adopted a law that prohibits physical and humiliating punishment of children and a law that safeguards I must also highlight the high rates of violence against children and adolescents reported by the financial resources for the National Plan of Action for Children and Adolescents (PNAIA) 2012-2021. Women’s Emergency Centre and the Demographic and Health Survey in Peru. This daily reality UNICEF provided technical assistance to both of these initiatives. that Peruvian children and adolescents face is a call to action. The on-going work of civil society and increasing private sector participation in promoting children’s Beyond legal sanction, we all have a role in identifying and addressing the roots of violence and rights also deserve recognition. While we still have a long way to go, there have been significant in challenging its social acceptance. We also need to focus our efforts on the most vulnerable joint efforts to improve social services for children, particularly in Amazonian regions. children. They include those who live in residential care deprived of the basic right to grow up in a family and those exposed to sexual exploitation and child labour. The media are part of daily life for both children and adolescents. UNICEF trained journalists from major TV networks with the aim to improve news coverage of issues related to children. This We take on these challenges with determination and a special commitment to children and training was possible thanks to a partnership with the National Radio and Television Society, the adolescents in Peru. Ombudsperson’s Office and Save the Children. We also worked with the Government to promote civic participation of children and adolescents through the La Onda de mi Cole (My School’s Vibe) engagement initiative and consultations with adolescents on what they expect of their schools and Peru’s next government. María Luisa Fornara Representative UNICEF IN ACTION UNICEF IN ACTION We supported the ministries of Development and QUALITY AND We worked with regional education authorities to implement Social Inclusion, Education and Health to improve their service improvement plans. We participated in IBE their early childhood care services. train-the-trainer initiatives and supported teachers in their EQUITABLE BASIC pedagogical practice. Working with the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and Cusco’s regional health EDUCATION Working with the Ministry of Education, we organized authority, we implemented a strategy to help four the conference ‘New contexts and challenges in the local health networks deliver maternal and child implementation of Intercultural Bilingual Education’. The health services in remote areas. The mobile health Thanks to the financial support of the conference identified best practices to strengthen IBE and units provided high quality laboratory, ultrasound Government of Canada, we continued to was complemented by an outreach campaign in traditional and dental services to health centres, building their work with the Ministry of Education to and digital media on the importance of IBE. capacity to diagnose and resolve health issues. strengthen Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE) and pre-school education. We provided We worked with the Department of Alternative, Intercultural Working with UNICEF’s Spanish National Bilingual and Rural Education to design the national IBE Committee and the Probitas laboratory, we technical assistance at the national level and policy and various regulations that, once adopted, will build implemented two laboratories that provide the regional level in Amazonas, Apurímac, on progress made in IBE. We also ensured that children HIV testing to help prevent mother- to - child Ayacucho, Cusco and Ucayali. are included in IBE consultations. transmission of HIV / AIDS in Condorcanqui ©UNICEF PERÚ/BARCO (Amazonas region) and Datem del Marañón ©UNICEF PERÚ We helped organize Tinkuy, an event that gathers (Loreto region). The Ministry of Health drew on children from across Peru to share their local culture and CHILD both experiences to develop standards related knowledge. This shows that IBE is not only a right but to treating HIV in indigenous communities. also an opportunity to protect and share Peru’s ancestral knowledge with the world. SURVIVAL AND We supported the “National Plan for the Reduction of Chronic Malnutrition and Anaemia 2014 – 2016”. In pre-school education, we supported a programme to DEVELOPMENT We successfully advocated for the standardization professionalize indigenous teachers in remote areas. We of multi-micronutrient and zinc supplementation also helped conduct the first evaluation of pre-school In 2015, our challenges were: positioning early as ways to prevent diarrhoea. education, which measures the all-round development childhood development (ECD), expanding of children, as well as the quality of their learning access to quality health services in remote With the support of the Aquae Foundation, we environments. developed culturally relevant models for solid communities, strengthening prevention waste disposal (ecological toilets), water treatment With the Florecer Network, we organized the second of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/ (banana circles) and access to safe water (rainwater national meeting for adolescents ‘If I were president’. AIDS, supporting the fight against neonatal harvesting). The Ministry of Housing, Construction Youth from Peru’s 14 regions participated in the event, mortality, anaemia and child malnutrition, and and Sanitation is validating the models to improve where they expressed their opinions and called for public promoting alternative models for access to water and sanitation in the Amazon. policies that promote their development and right to live safe water and sanitation. without violence. THE MAIN GOAL THE MAIN GOAL Families in Peru’s most excluded regions improve their childrearing practices and all All children access quality, equitable, relevant, children have access to quality and culturally linguistically appropriate and gender-sensitive relevant health services, as well as safe water education to help them reach their full potential. sources. 6 7 UNICEF IN ACTION UNICEF IN ACTION In partnership with the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable We expanded the use of Peru’s tool to track public Populations (MIMP) and with expertise from the UNICEF spending on children among decision-makers, public Innocenti Research Centre, we produced: a report on the servants and civil society. The tool can be used to prevalence, incidence and determinants of violence against determine the exact national investment in children and children; a study on the prevalence of violence against adolescents. children and adolescents and its impact on educational outcomes; and a study on physical punishment in schools. We advocated that Supreme Decree