Child-Protection-Strategy-2021.Pdf

• DRAFT

2021-2030 Click on section bars to navigate publication ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

he UNICEF Child Protection Strategy expertise: Obia Achieng, Segolene Adam, Save the Children, SOS Children Villages, Terre was produced by a core team at Henriette Ahrens, Ted Chaiban, Vidhya Ganesh, des Hommes and World Vision International. UNICEF under the leadership of Mark Hereward, Rob Jenkins, Afshan Khan, We are extremely grateful for inputs from Sumaira Chowdhury and Cornelius Andrew Mawson, Bo Viktor Nylund, Luwei leading child protection experts across the Williams. The team was comprised Pearson, Benjamin Perks, Vincent Petit, Marie- world who gave up their time to be interviewed Tof Child Protection staff at Headquarters and Pierre Poirier, Ron Pouwels, Lauren Rumble, for this Strategy and to provide written colleagues working in Child Protection from Christian Skoog, Natalia Winder-Rossi and comments on successive drafts. These include: the seven UNICEF regions. Peter Colenso Alex Yuster. A very special thank you to Sanjay Sheridan Bartlett, Nigel Cantwell, Julia Fozzi, supported the team with drafting. Wijesekera (IRG Chair) for his overall guidance Philip Goldman, Philip Jaffé, Mary John, Shiva as Director of UNICEF’s Programme Division Kumar, Santi Kusumaningrum, Kunzang Lhamu, Special thanks go to Regional Child Protection and to Omar Abdi for his unswerving support. Benyam Mezmur, Alejandro Morlachetti, Advisers who gave their individual expertise Dorothy Rozga, Howard Taylor, Jo Boyden, and also marshalled inputs from their regions: We wish to thank the 404 respondents – both Alexander Krueger, and Joachim Theis. Thanks Javier Aguilar, Jean Francois Basse, Andy UNICEF staff and external partners – who also to our sister UN agencies for the inputs Brooks, Aaron Greenberg, Amanda Bissex, responded to the initial survey that informed they provided, including Gabrielle Henderson Kendra Gregson, Rachel Harvey and Jose the direction of the Strategy. We are particularly at UN Women; Grainne O’Hara at UNHCR; Bergua. And to Team Leaders in Child grateful to the 852 people in 26 countries in Najat Maalla M’jid, Special Representative of Protection at Headquarters: Stephen Blight, all seven UNICEF regions who provided their the Secretary-General for Violence Against Kirsten Di Martino, Tasha Gill and Nankali input into the formal consultation process for Children; Tonderai Chikuwa, Chief of Staff, Maksud. Numerous UNICEF colleagues the Strategy – this in spite of the constraints of Special Representative of the Secretary- provided extensive and high-quality background COVID-19, both logistical and in terms of the General on Sexual Violence in Conflict; inputs into the Strategy, notably Joseph Banda, extra demands on people’s time. and Virginia Gamba de Potgieter, Special Jasmina Byrne, Eri Dwivedi, Claudia Cappa and Representative of the Secretary-General for Ramya Subrahmanian, but also more generally A very big thank you to the Government of Children and Armed Conflict. the Child Protection team in Programme Sweden, and in particular Charlotte Ståhl Division. Thanks also to all those from various from Sida, for convening donor inputs into With the incredible engagement we have had other teams who helped produced numerous the Strategy; the donors themselves are too throughout the Strategy development process, •background papers. numerous to name, but we thank each and it is not possible to list the name of every every one of you for the rich set of comments person who contributed inputs and feedback. TheDRAFT Strategy was expertly guided by an provided. Equally to the ‘Joining Forces’ So a big thank you goes to all our colleagues Independent Reference Group (IRG) comprised group of child-focused non-governmental in UNICEF and our external partners for so of UNICEF Senior Managers. We are extremely organizations (NGOs) who provided thoughtful generously giving their time and expertise grateful to the members of the IRG and their verbal and written comments through the throughout the process. The Strategy is teams who gave their time and considerable process: Child Fund Alliance, Plan International, significantly richer as a result.

2 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) Click on section bars to navigate publication CONTENTS

FOREWORD FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR...... 3 Humanitarian: To effectively prevent and respond to child protection violations in humanitarian situations, including addressing determinants ACRONYMS...... 5 of violations and strengthening child protection systems...... 29

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...... 6 7 Programming Approaches...... 34

...... 1 Background 8 Strengthen data and research generation and use...... 34

Advocate for national legislation, policies, budgets and 2 Context...... 10 accountability...... 35 Global context for children to 2030...... 10 Build capacity for scaled-up child protection prevention and Child Protection context for children...... 13 service delivery across sectors...... 35

UNICEF and Child Protection to date...... 15 Strengthen the engagement of communities, caregivers, children

UNICEF and Child Protection – looking forward...... 17 and adolescents...... 35

Conceptual Framework...... 19 Develop partnerships for coordinated global and national action...... 36

3 Strategic Framework...... 20 8 Thematic Priorities...... 38

4 ...... Vision and Goals 21 9 Core Inputs...... 47

Financial Resources...... 47 5 Objectives ...... 22 Human Resources...... 47

6 ...... Programming Strategies 23 Performance and Impact Monitoring...... 48 • Behavioural, Social, Cultural And Economic Determinants: to effectively address the behavioural, social, cultural and 10 Risks and Risk Management...... 49 DRAFTeconomic determinants of child protection violations at scale...... 23 Child Protection Systems: to support inclusive and effective A Annexes...... 51 child protection systems in preventing and responding to child protection violations...... 26 E Endnotes...... 54

2 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) There is limited and FOREWORD FROM THE shrinking space for the effective participation of NGOs, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR civil society and community representatives; and yet they are all critical for child protection. iolence against children Across more than 150 countries, we work (BULGARIA COUNTRY CONSULTATION) happens in every country in with governments, businesses, civil society the world. It can be physical, organizations and other partners to prevent psychological or sexual. It can violence against children and support happen online or in the streets survivors, including with mental health and V— in neighbourhoods, schools and homes. psychosocial counselling. We also work with communities to end harmful practices But as we celebrate these achievements, For girls and women, disabled children and such as child marriage and female genital we are clear-eyed about the challenges children living through conflicts or natural mutilation. ahead. The impact of COVID-19 is likely to disasters, the threat is greater still. put our hard-won gains at risk. Our work spans both decades of a child’s And for all children, the COVID-19 pandemic early life, from birth to adolescence, in The evidence presented in this Strategy has dramatically intensified these risks, while development and humanitarian contexts alike. reminds us that too many children are still simultaneously disrupting the services and living their lives without the systematic support systems intended to protect them. The progress outlined in this Strategy protection they need and deserve. We are demonstrates how far the world has come already predicting sharp rises in the number At UNICEF, we believe that every child has in recent years in protecting children of child marriages, girls subjected to female the right to grow up free from violence, on a number of fronts — with welcome genital mutilation and children drawn into exploitation, abuse, neglect and harmful increases in birth registration and reductions child labour, to name just a few examples. •practices. That is why child protection is a in child labour, child marriage and female cornerstoneDRAFT of our work. genital mutilation. We must not accept this.

3 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) This Strategy provides a vision and strategic framework to meet this challenge. It calls upon every sector of society — not just governments — to work together and invest together to prevent violence against children.

This includes scaling-up preventative and responsive health-care services, violence prevention and case detection, and mental health services, all delivered at the community level.

It includes ensuring universal access to safe schools — especially as education systems begin to re-open following the COVID-19 pandemic.

And it includes putting child protection at the heart of economic plans and priorities We can no longer accept a world in which Join UNICEF, our global partners and as countries continue to fight poverty within violence is a reality for millions of children children around the world as we translate their borders and rebuild systems shattered and women, keeping them from the safety this Strategy into investments, programmes by the pandemic. — and the opportunities to grow, learn and and solutions for children everywhere. thrive — that every child deserves. But our work must also be about changing Let’s put protection within reach of every child. minds in our families, homes and Protecting children from harm is not only communities. Progress on violence depends the moral minimum for any society — •on making some fundamental changes in it represents the only path to a better, social norms, attitudes and behaviours, safer and healthier future for children, and particularlyDRAFT towards girls and women. for our world. Henrietta Fore, Executive Director

4 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) ACRONYMS

AI artificial intelligence MENAR Middle East and North Africa Region

ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations MHPSS Mental Health and Psycho-Social Support

AU African Union NGO non-governmental organization

CCCs Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action OCHA United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women OHCHR Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

CPIMS Child Protection Information Management Systems PF4C Public Financing for Children

CPSS Child Protection System Strengthening PSEA Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child SAR South Asia Region

CRPD Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities SDGs Sustainable Development Goals

EAPR East Asia and Pacific Region SSW Social Service Workforce

ECAR Europe and Central Asia Region UN United Nations

ESAR Eastern and Southern Africa Region UNDS United Nations Development System

FGM female genital mutilation UNFPA United Nations Population Fund

GBViE Gender Based Violence in Emergencies UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

HIV/AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome UNMAS United Nations Mine Action Service

ILO International Labour Organization UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund

IOM International Organization for Migration UN Women United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

IPV Intimate Partner Violence WASH Water, Sanitation and Hygiene • LACR Latin America and Caribbean Region WCAR West and Central Africa Region LGBTQI+DRAFTlesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex WHO World Health Organization

5 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

hild Protection is the prevention violence against children estimated at $7 of, and response to, exploitation, trillion per year. The COVID-19 pandemic abuse, neglect, harmful practices has intensified risks for children and reduced and violence against children. It is services to manage those risks. embedded in the Convention on the RightsC of the Child and the Sustainable But there have also been significant and Development Goals. Child Protection is positive changes in child protection in universal: it is for all children everywhere, recent years. Government- and community- from low- to high-income countries. led actions have resulted in increases in birth registration and reductions in child Over 1 billion children experience violence labour, child marriage and female genital every year. The consequences of Child mutilation. Above all, we have learnt that Protection violations are catastrophic – child protection violations are preventable: from the Sustainable Development Goals for profound, enduring and often deadly for progress can be made through political will, child protection. children – and with economic costs of societal change and an emerging science of prevention and treatment strategies. The primary focus of this Strategy is prevention. Our ambition is to scale up The purpose of this Strategy is to provide evidence-based prevention approaches to a clear vision and strategic framework for the population level – not only in the core The primary focus UNICEF’s work in Child Protection for the Child Protection sectors of Social Welfare of this Strategy is decade to 2030, while allowing flexibility for and Justice, but also in Education, Health, prevention. Our ambition this work to be led by country and regional Social Protection and other sectors with • is to scale up evidence-based contexts and local needs. The vision of this strong and clear accountabilities to deliver prevention approaches to Strategy – centred in the Convention on the child protection outcomes. This includes DRAFTthe population level ... Rights of the Child – is a world where all universal access to justice, to family and children are free from violence, exploitation, parenting support, to safe schools and to abuse, neglect and harmful practices. safety online, as well as universal adoption The goals of the Strategy are taken primarily of transformative norms and values.

6 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) In addition to our core focus on universal prevention, UNICEF will In support of these objectives, the Strategy adopts three core ensure that no child is left behind: we will work with partners to interlinking programming strategies: target interventions on children at greatest risk of child protection To effectively address the behavioural, social, cultural and violations. These include children in humanitarian/crisis settings, 1 economic determinants of child protection violations at scale •children with disabilities, children deprived of parental care, and children experiencing other forms of discrimination and exclusion. To support inclusive and effective child protection systems in WhereDRAFT children are experiencing violations, UNICEF will work with 2 preventing and responding to child protection violations partners to strengthen access to response services to prevent To effectively prevent and respond to child protection recurrence and provide care, support and justice. 3 violations in humanitarian situations.

7 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) BACKGROUND

hild Protection is the birth registration and reductions in child prevention of, and response to, labour, child marriage and female genital exploitation, abuse, neglect, mutilation (FGM) over the last decade. harmful practices and violence Child Protection features prominently in the against children. It is embedded SDGs. There are new partnerships (e.g., in theC Convention on the Rights of the the Global Partnership to End Violence Child (CRC)1 – the most widely ratified Against Children), new standards (e.g., the international human rights treaty in history2 Minimum Standards for Child Protection in – and in the Sustainable Development Goals Humanitarian Action), new programmatic (SDGs). The need for Child Protection is frameworks (e.g., INSPIRE) and new universal: it is for all children everywhere, evidence of what works – particularly with from low- to high-income countries, in all respect to scalable strategies to prevent regions and settings. The consequences of and respond to human rights violations Child Protection violations are catastrophic: such as violence against children and profound, enduring and often deadly; with child marriage. UNICEF adopts a human rights-based the economic costs of violence against approach to Child Protection.5 Our children estimated at $7 trillion per year.3 Despite these advances, over 1 billion vision is to further the realization of all But this harm is preventable; progress children still experience violence every children’s rights, including their rights to be can be made through political will for the year, 4 and children face significant new protected from all forms of violence, abuse, fulfilment of children’s rights, societal challenges over the next decade such exploitation and harmful practices; and for change, and an emerging science of as rapid digital acceleration, increasing all children to access quality, effective and prevention and response strategies. urbanization, climate change, protracted appropriate preventive support, redress • armed conflicts and increasing migration. and remedy. UNICEF is guided by human There have been significant positive These challenges present new risks to child rights principles, norms and standards changesDRAFT in the field of Child Protection protection. The COVID-19 pandemic has contained in the key human rights treaties since the 2008 UNICEF Child Protection further intensified risks for children and that underpin all of its work, including the Strategy. Government- and community- disrupted services to manage those risks. CRC, the Convention on the Elimination led actions have resulted in increases in of All Forms of Discrimination against

8 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) Women (CEDAW) and the Convention regional context and local needs. The goals On this basis, the Strategy has three on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the Strategy are primarily taken from the Objectives. (CRPD). UNICEF supports Child Protection SDGs for Child Protection which partner systems by strengthening the capacities governments and others have adopted. Universal Prevention: All children 1 of both governments, as well as civil The adoption of the SDGs in 2015 has grow up in a protective environment; society organizations and other non-State challenged the child protection sector to Leaving No One Behind: Children actors, as duty bearers and of right holders focus more strongly on prevention: Target 2 including children themselves and their 16.2 commits the international community living in situations of highest risk families and communities. to “end abuse, exploitation, trafficking receive targeted support; and all forms of violence against children” Response and Preventing In humanitarian settings in particular, and target 5.2 to “eliminate all forms of 3 UNICEF is guided by its Core violence against women and girls”. Other Recurrence: Children experiencing Commitments for Children in Humanitarian targets address underlying causes of violations receive quality services. Action (CCCs), the Minimum Standards for child protection violations in the areas of Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, poverty, health, gender equality, education, To deliver these Objectives, the Strategy the Inter-Agency Minimum Standards for safe environments and justice. adopts three core interlinking programming Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies strategies: Programming6 and the Inter-Agency With less than 10 years left in the Decade Standing Committee Guidelines on of Action to 2030, important gaps remain To effectively address the 1 Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in in achieving child protection-related goals. behavioural, social, cultural and Humanitarian Action.7 In situations of There have also been set-backs as a economic determinants of child protection armed conflict, UNICEF is guided by result of the impacts of COVID-19 and violations at scale international humanitarian law and refugee other factors. Remedial action alone will To support inclusive and effective law and is specifically mandated by not achieve the elimination of violence, 2 Security Council Resolution 1612.8 abuse, exploitation and other forms of child protection systems in violation of children’s rights. There is preventing and responding to child •The purpose of this Strategy is to provide a therefore an urgent need to revisit our protection violations clear vision and strategic framework for protection strategy to strengthen focus on To effectively prevent and respond to UNICEF’sDRAFT work in Child Protection for the scaling up evidence-based preventative 3 decade to 2030, while allowing flexibility approaches that are necessary to achieve child protection violations in for this work to be led by country and the SDGs, with a strong focus on equity. humanitarian situations.

9 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) CONTEXT

Global context for children to 2030 he global population will grow from 7.7 billion in 2019 to around 8.5 billion in 2030.9 By the middle of the century, Africa will be home to 1 billion children, Talmost 40 per cent of the world’s total.10 By 2030, urban areas will house 60 per cent of people globally.11 Migration is increasing, with international migrants now comprising 3.5 per cent of the global population, up from 2.8 per cent in 2000,12 and forced displacement13 has doubled in the last decade to comprise 1 per cent.14

At 2.9 per cent, global economic growth is the lowest it has been since the 2008-2009 world financial crisis.15 Economic recovery is threatened by rising geopolitical tensions and social unrest, worsening trade relations, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.16 •There are 663 million children worldwide living in poverty, of whom 385 million are living in extremeDRAFT poverty.17 Eighty-five per cent of the poorest children on the global Multidimensional Poverty Index live in South Asia and sub- Saharan Africa.18 Two out of three children

10 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) globally have no access to any form of child or human rights to freedom of association and There is limited and family benefit, and coverage is lowest where organization declined in 43 countries while shrinking space for the child poverty is highest.19 The number of only improving in 16.25 Protests around the effective participation of NGOs, States graduating to middle-income status is world have exposed structural racism and civil society and community increasing, as is the proportion of the world’s discrimination, as well as xenophobia, representatives; and yet they are child population in middle-income countries, including in justice and law enforcement all critical for child protection. yet middle-income countries are home to 75 systems. This pressure is challenging (BULGARIA COUNTRY per cent of the world’s population and 62 per CONSULTATION) governments and partners to re-think cent of the world’s poor.20 their approaches and to build on transformative actions that can catalyse Nearly one fifth of children worldwide wider reforms for children. – 420 million children – live in conflict- affected countries, a rise of nearly 30 We are living through a 4th Industrial million from 2016.21 Armed actors conduct through environmental degradation, forced Revolution, with new threats to, and deliberate campaigns of violence against migration, poverty, stress on public services opportunities for, the realization of children’s children – including targeting schools and and compounding household vulnerabilities rights from emerging technologies such enslaving girls and boys22 – and against – in turn impacting child protection.24 And as biometrics, artificial intelligence (AI) and women. Children living in economic it will particularly affect marginalized and assisted reproductive technologies. Digital and physical insecurity are at risk of excluded groups, such as indigenous connectivity – largely driven, developed child trafficking, sexual violence and peoples. The increasing frequency and and owned by the private sector – brings recruitment by non-State armed groups severity of natural disasters due to climate risks from surveillance, data misuse, and by armed forces. At the end of 2018, change will exacerbate these impacts. misinformation, grooming, online abuse nearly 31 million children had been forcibly and bullying as well as the perpetuation of displaced worldwide.23 The world is witnessing worrying trends of social inequity through the digital divide. political and social polarization, along with These are risks that the world is currently ill- Climate change affects women and decreasing trust in traditional institutions equipped to manage. But, equally, the digital •children disproportionately. It is in the such as government and the media. Many world is an opportunity, with the potential areas most impacted by climate change countries are experiencing contractions of for children and young people to connect, thatDRAFT women play a central role: food democratic and civic space, with children socialize, express themselves, become security, agriculture, energy, livelihoods and young people taking centre stage empowered and be agents of change. and health. Climate change will have through social movements demanding AI-enabled technologies have the potential severe consequences for child rights change. Between 2006 and 2019, the to improve children’s access to services,

11 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) such as to education through personalized both the type of violence suffered and why Global evidence suggests that children curricula platforms, to health through faster violence is inflicted. In a recent survey, 58 with disabilities37 are at heightened risk of diagnostics and to targeted and more efficient per cent of girls and young women reported violence.38 They are 3.7 times more likely than child protection case management. Social being harassed and abused online, with children without disabilities to be victims of media and digital communication tools can one in four feeling physically unsafe as a any form of violence, 3.6 times more likely to open up opportunities for wider engagement result.31 In addition, compared to same-age be victims of physical violence and 2.9 times with parents, caregivers and communities. heterosexual peers, lesbian, gay, bisexual, more likely to be victims of sexual violence.39 transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) Studies from low- to middle-income countries Worldwide, 284 million people are children are at increased risk of interpersonal demonstrate that women with disabilities suffering from anxiety and 264 million from violence,32 including aggravated forms of are 2-4 times more likely to experience IPV depression,26 and an estimated 10-20 per bullying and harassment, particularly within than their non-disabled peers.40 cent of children suffer from mental health the school environment. LGBTQI+ children issues.27 Suicide is the third leading cause are also at heightened risk of self-inflicted While significant expansions in school of death in 15–19-year-olds; adolescent forms of violence, including suicide.33 enrolments over the last two decades have girls are especially at risk of depression.28 great potential to support child protection The experience of abuse, neglect and other Violent deaths are becoming more common outcomes, an estimated 258 million children adversities in childhood is a leading driver of in adolescence: homicide accounts for remain out of school41 and excluded from poor mental health outcomes. In low- and two-thirds of violent adolescent deaths the protection, personal development and middle-income countries, more than 75 per around the world, the highest rates of other related services offered within school cent of people receive no treatment for their which are concentrated in Latin America environments. Over 90 per cent of students mental disorder,29 and there is a particular lack and the Caribbean.34 Globally, 1 in 5 young worldwide were affected by school closures as of targeted, evidence-based programmes, women are married before age 18 and 1 in a result of COVID-19.42 Even children in school workforce capacity and sustained funding 20 before age 15.35 More than 40 per cent suffer violence. Globally, half of students aged for critical Mental Health and Psycho-Social of adolescent girls aged 15–19 years in 13–15 – some 150 million – report experiencing Support (MHPSS) for children and families. South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa peer-to-peer violence in and around school.43 Countries on average spend less than 1 per and sub-Saharan Africa think a husband is Some 720 million school-aged children live in •cent of their health budgets on mental health.30 justified in hitting or beating his wife under countries where they are not fully protected by certain circumstances,36 reflecting the social law from corporal punishment at school.44 GenderDRAFT affects access to opportunities acceptability of intimate partner violence and services, may exacerbate lifetime (IPV). Mental health issues constitute a major COVID 19 has exposed long-standing, inequalities and is a strong determinant of burden of disease for adolescents globally. deep-seated, systemic human rights and a child’s experience of violence, influencing child rights violations. It will likely continue

12 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) 47 to exacerbate these pre-existing violations, COVID brings point in their lives, and 15 million as well as create new ones, especially for heightened risks with respect adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 have 48 those who are already disadvantaged such to child labour and economic experienced forced sex (5.2); an as children from marginalized or minority exploitation, both in the formal estimated 650 million girls and groups, children without or at risk of losing and informal private sector. women today were married before 49 parental care and children with disabilities. (MYANMAR COUNTRY their 18th birthday (5.3); at least CONSULTATION) More than ever, fault lines have been 200 million girls and women have 50 exposed – between those who have access been subjected to FGM (5.3). to health care, education, digital technology, water, sanitation, nutrition, information, SDG 8 (Child Labour): economic and social protections and child 152 million children are protection services, and those who do not. it is vital that the Child Protection sector in child labour globally, be prepared for the next public health and almost 73 million children are While the short-term implications emergency, even while dealing with the performing hazardous work51 ​​ of COVID-19 for child protection are ramifications of this one. (8.7); in addition, many girls and increasingly known45 – increased violence, boys are involved in work that is reduced services for prevention and hidden within the home and in response and major economic contractions Child Protection context family enterprises – these and increased poverty – the medium- and for children children are not systematically long-term implications are unclear. What The child protection-related SDGs, which counted in available statistics. is clear, however, is that risk factors of are explicitly grounded in human rights, are harm are on the rise and protective factors mostly off-track, resulting in major child SDG 16 (Violence are weakened as a result of COVID-19 rights violations. For example: against Children; containment measures. A recent review Access to Justice; of evidence from previous pandemics Legal Identity): the United Nations and epidemics and their impact on child SDG 5 (Gender verified over 25,000 grave •protection outcomes highlighted how Equality): 1 in 3 violations against children affected disruptions to the care-giving environment, adolescent girls aged 15 by armed conflict in 2019,52 more schooling,DRAFT work and services can send to 19 worldwide have been the than half committed by non-State women and children into a spiral of harm victims of emotional, physical or armed groups and a third by and violence, with heightened risks of sexual violence committed by their government and international child marriage and child labour.46 Overall, husbands or partners at some armed forces (16.1); about half the

13 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) world’s children below the age of a rapid scale-up of evidence-based (see Figure 2).61 However, in order to 15 are subjected to physical preventive interventions will be required meet the target of elimination by 2030, 53 discipline at home, and roughly to avoid a reversal of gains and to meet global progress would need to be 17 times three in four children between the the SDG targets by the end of the Strategy faster than the rate observed over the ages of 2 and 4 years are exposed period. The world is not on track to achieve past decade for child marriage. Even in to psychological aggression and universal birth registration by 2030. Unless countries in which FGM has become less corporal punishment on a regular progress is accelerated, the total number of common, progress would need to be at 54 basis​ (16.2); in one third of unregistered children in sub-Saharan Africa least 10 times faster to eliminate it by 2030 countries, at least 5 per cent of will continue to increase and will exceed (see Figure 3).62 In addition, there are areas young women reported 100 million by 2030 (see Figure 1).60 such as the justice and care sectors where experiences of sexual violence we are not even able to measure progress 55 during childhood (16.2); one in Without further acceleration, over 120 because data, including disaggregated four children under age 5 (166 million girls are likely to marry by 2030 data, are lacking. million), on average, are not registered in the world today and 237 million children under 5 do FIGURE 1. Progress and projections on birth registration not have a birth certificate56 (16.9). Unless progress is accelerated, the total number of unregistered children in sub-Saharan Africa will continue to increase and will exceel 100 million by 2030 NUMBER OF CHILDREN UNDER AGE 5 WHOSE BIRTHS ARE NOT REGISTERED, OBSERVED AND PROJECTED, BY REGION At the same time, there has also been PREVALENCE REMAINS AT TODAY’S LEVELS OBSERVED TRENDS CONTINUE PROGRESS IS ACCELERATED significant progress in some areas. There 166 MILLION 180 MILLION 166 MILLION 117 MILLION 166 MILLION 89 MILLION

has been a rise in birth registration levels 19 MILLION 21 MILLION 21 MILLION 21 MILLION globally, with about three in four children 50 MILLION under age 5 registered today, compared 51 MILLION 51 MILLION 11 MILLION 51 MILLION 57 to six in ten in 2000. In the 31 countries 6 MILLION 111 MILLION 3 MILLION 100 MILLION with available data, FGM has dropped 94 MILLION 94 MILLION 94 MILLION 2 MILLION by a quarter in the last 20 years.58 Child 518CC2 84 MILLION •marriage has also declined over the past decades (though not in all regions); today, oneDRAFT in five young women were married in childhood, compared to one in four a Today 2025 2030 Today 2025 2030 Today 2025 2030 decade ago.59 However, even in those SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA SOUTH ASIA REST OF THE WORLD areas where progress has been made,

14 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) FIGURE 2. Progress and projections on Child Marriage The data are clear: linear progress is not If trends continue, Latin America and the Caribbean will join sub-Saharan Africa among the regions with the highest global enough to secure the rights of children and prevalence of child marriage by 2030 to achieve the SDGs. PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN AGED 20 TO 24 YEARS WHO WERE FIRST MARRIED OR IN UNION BEFORE AGE 18, PROJECTED, BY REGION WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA 40 UNICEF and Child 37 EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA 34 Protection to date

SOUTH ASIA 30 27 The CRC and its Optional Protocols provides

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN 25 25 the basis for UNICEF’s work in child protection, together with CEDAW and the 17 CRPD. UNICEF’s human rights-based MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AMERICA 16 13 approach means that its programming EASTERN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA 11 and advocacy are systematically guided 8 by human rights standards and principles63 EAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC 7 7 and the four guiding principles of the Today 2030 CRC: the best interests of the child; non- discrimination; respect for the views of FIGURE 3. Progress and projections on female genital mutilation the child; and rights to life, survival and Even in countries where the practice has become less common, progress would need to be at least 10 times faster to meet the global target of elimination by 2030 development. Specifically, UNICEF’s human

PERCENTAGE OF GIRLS AGED 15 TO 19 YEARS WHO HAVE UNDERGONE FGM IN COUNTRIES WITH rights-based approach encompasses the A DECLINE IN PREVALENCE, OBSERVED, PROJECTED AND REQUIRED FOR ELIMINATION analysis of child rights violations, identifies 3O YEARS AGO the roles and capacities of duty bearers and rights holders and aims, while building their respective capacities to fulfil their

TODAY human rights obligations and claim their rights, to redress discriminatory practices.

• PROGRESS Discriminatory practices include, but are not MUST BE AT limited to, those based on gender (including LEAST 10 TIMES DRAFTFASTER children who identify themselves as non- binary), race, ethnic and social origin (e.g.,

2030 minority and indigenous children); disability and nationality or migration status.

15 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) Guided by the 2008 Child Protection It is also learning the importance of International Organization for Migration Strategy, there has been a clear shift addressing the intergenerational cycle of (IOM) on mental health, psychosocial to systems strengthening, including violence. Gender equality and women’s well-being and development, children on a clearer focus on strengthening the empowerment have a major influence the move and violence against children, social service workforce in recent years. on children’s protection, with strongly among others. In humanitarian situations, UNICEF works across the humanitarian- evidenced links, for example, between UNICEF works with the UN Office for development-peace nexus. Strengthening violence against women – including the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs child protection systems across all contexts IPV – and violence against children.64 (OCHA), UNHCR, UNFPA, WHO, IOM and also requires enhancing coordination UNICEF has been a leader in the field of the United Nations Mine Action Service and collaboration between sectors gender-based violence in emergencies (UNMAS) to lead the Child Protection Area (particularly Social Welfare, Justice, (GBViE), delivering high-quality, innovative of Responsibility (AoR) and contributes to Education, Health and Social Protection) programming, leading multiple coordination the Gender Based Violence (GBV) AoR, to strengthen legal and policy frameworks mechanisms and playing a central role in Mine Action AoR and the Reference Group and make quality services available for developing all the seminal guidance of on MHPSS in Emergency Settings. UNICEF prevention and response. the GBViE sector. It has also invested in also actively engages with the UN human evidence-based prevention programming. rights mechanisms (treaty bodies including UNICEF has a strong focus on social the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and behavioural change, including UNICEF embraces the vision of the 2030 the Special Procedures and the Universal transforming harmful gender and Agenda for Sustainable Development Periodic Review) to support translating social norms and practices. In this and is fully committed to UN legal instruments into the realization context, it recognizes and supports the Development System (UNDS) reform, of children’s rights on the ground, and participation of change agents, including which promotes closer collaboration among with regional UN bodies. It works with through programmes that promote UN agencies. Notably, UNICEF co-leads the Office of the High Commissioner gender equality, non-discrimination two of the largest joint programmes for Human Rights (OHCHR) as well as and inclusion (including of LGBTQI+ with the United Nations Population Fund the Special Representatives of the UN populations), child and adolescent (UNFPA) on ending child marriage and Secretary General on Violence Against •empowerment, as well as community eliminating FGM. It also works with Children, Children in Armed Conflict and engagement strategies at scale. 14 UN agencies on legal identity, with Sexual Violence in Conflict. Within and Increasingly,DRAFT UNICEF is recognizing the the International Labour Organization beyond the United Nations, UNICEF works significance of the business world as (ILO) on child labour and with the World through a range of additional partnerships both an arena for social change and a Health Organization (WHO), UNFPA, the with State and non-State actors. contributor to solutions for children. UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the

16 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) UNICEF fosters innovation and supports as ‘essential workers’ and capitalized It is critical to strengthen coherent and centrally supported on opportunities: to leverage digital child protection data and evidence information management systems technology to reach parents on caregiving generation. UNICEF has been a in line with data protection and privacy and MHPSS messages; to facilitate valued partner in generating country- rights and principles to support case children linking up with social workers; to specific evidence on prevalence of violence management, including through the inter- expand coaching and supervision; to add and knowledge, attitudes and practices on agency tool, Primero™. UNICEF uses a tier of teleservices with the potential to violence against children. This evidence rights- and results-based management expand service provision post-COVID-19; has helped us in advocacy, in policy to strengthen planning and monitoring and to engage communities in new ways; advice to the Government and in our to boost transparency and accountability for and to ensure safety in online learning work directly with communities. results. UNICEF has invested significantly following unprecedented school closures. (K A Z AK HSTAN NGOS in strengthening both performance and It also underscored the importance of the COUNTRY CONSULTATION) situation monitoring across the Child costing, affordability and financing agenda, Protection sector in recent years. particularly in the context of shrinking fiscal space and major economic contractions. In 2020, UNICEF responded to 455 new Within the context of the COVID-19 and ongoing humanitarian situations in pandemic, the GBViE expertise within the staff working in the area of Child Protection 152 countries, including supporting 17.8 agency was instrumental in addressing – its largest single workforce and the largest million women, girls and boys with gender- the shadow pandemic of violence against cadre of Child Protection specialists in any based violence prevention, risk mitigation women and girls far beyond the traditional international agency. This figure as a share of and response services; reached 4.2 million humanitarian space. UNICEF staff has remained constant in recent girls and boys who had experienced years at 18-19 per cent of specialist staff. violence with health, social work and Child Protection annual expenditure has justice services; and supported 5.7 million remained just below 13 per cent of UNICEF’s girls with prevention and care interventions total expenditure for the last seven years UNICEF and Child Protection – related to child marriage. (2014-2020), reaching $712 million in 2020. looking forward • The largest increases in expenditure have The process of Strategy development has As much as COVID-19 set back progress been: (i) thematically, to emergencies, violence been led by a team comprising UNICEF forDRAFT the realization of children’s rights, it also against children and systems strengthening; Headquarters staff and Regional Child provided opportunities for increased Child and (ii) geographically, to the Middle East Protection Advisers, supported by an Internal Protection. UNICEF advocated for social and North Africa (MENA) region. As of the Reference Group comprising UNICEF staff service workforce members to be recognized beginning of 2021, UNICEF had 894 full-time from different offices and functions. It has

17 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) been informed by three core inputs: (i) a survey on UNICEF’s Child Protection work, completed by 404 participants, (ii) a series of background papers, including reviews of research and evaluations and (iii) extensive internal and external consultations, including 852 people in 26 countries in all 7 UNICEF regions inputting into the formal consultation process for the Strategy. Key findings from the survey and broader consultations include the following (see Annex 1 for more detail):

• There is support for UNICEF to adopt a ’public health approach’ to child protection programming, i.e., (i) population-based, (ii) evidence- based and (iii) prevention first.

• UNICEF works best with governments, national civil society organizations and other UN agencies but less well with private • Young people tell us they want • While 91 per cent of survey sector companies; a positive narrative focused on respondents agreed that UNICEF participation and empowerment; is an established global leader in • UNICEF’s work is particularly Child Protection, only 24 per cent • critical in the areas of institutional • The survey showed strong support felt that it had enough staff to strengthening of national for UNICEF to do more on child execute its work. DRAFTchild protection systems and online protection (67 per cent), in-service delivery in fragile and children on the move (64 per cent) low-capacity contexts; and ending detention of children (60 per cent);

18 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) To address child FIGURE 4. Conceptual Framework for the Child Protection Strategy protection, we must address multidimensional poverty, including working through other sectors such as Health and Education (EGYPT COUNTRY CHILDREN CONSULTATION)

PARENTS, CAREGIVERS Conceptual Framework & FAMILIES The Conceptual Framework for the Child Protection Strategy describes five concentric layers nested within each other, denoting that none of these layers exists in isolation – they SOCIAL COMMUNITIES are all inter-related. At the heart are children, PROTECTION & SOCIETIES WASH supported by parents, caregivers and families, who in turn form part of broader communities EDUCATION HEALTH and societies. The next layer influencing CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEMS child protection outcomes is child protection URBANISATION (SOCIAL WELFARE & JUSTICE) PANDEMICS systems (comprised of the Social Welfare and Justice sectors), supported by other sectors POVERTY CLIMATE essential for child protection programming CONFLICT MIGRATION (e.g. Education, Health, Social Protection, MACRO CONTEXT • WASH). These layers are in turn situated within (HUMANITARIAN – DEVELOPMENT – the broader macro national and trans- PEACE NEXUS) nationalDRAFT context (social, political, economic, security). UNICEF will work across all layers of the framework to address violations of child protection-related human rights at scale.

19 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FIGURE 5. UNICEF Child Protection Strategic Framework

A world where all children are free from violence, exploitation, abuse, neglect & harmful practises VISION (Guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child)

SDG 3.4 Promote mental health and SDG 8.7 End child labour, including the SDG 16.9 By 2030, provide legal identity well-being recruitment and use of child soldiers for all, including birth registration SDG 5.2 Eliminate all forms of violence SDG 16.2 End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and Preventing family-child separation, against all women and girls all forms of violence against and torture of children ending institutionalisation of children GOALS SDG 5.3 Eliminate all harmful practises, SDG 16.3 Promote the rule of law at the national and strengthening family-based such as child, early and forced marriage and international levels and ensure equal alternative care and female genital mutilation access to justice for all

1. All children grow in a 2. Children living in situations of 3. Children experiencing protective environment risk receive targeted support violations receive services OBJECTIVES (Universal Prevention) (Leaving No one Behind) (Response & Preventing Recurrence)

1. To effectively address the social, cultural 2. To support inclusive and effective Child 3. To effectively prevent and respond and economic determinants of child Protection Systems in preventing and to child protection violations in protection violations at scale responding to child protection violations humanitarian situations (and across the PROGRAMMING (with particular emphasis on social (with particular emphasis on case Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus) STRATEGIES norms and gender transformation) management and the social service workforce)

Strengthen data and Advocate for national Build capacity for Strengthen the Develop partnerships for research generation legislation, policies, scaled up child engagement of coordinated global and and use budgets & protection service communities, children national action • PROGRAMMING accountability delivery across sectors and adolescents DRAFTAPPROACHES Violence Against Access to Prevention Mental Health and Harmful Grave violations Legal Psycho-Social Girls, Boys in armed Identity Justice of Family Practices THEMATIC Separation Well-Being and Women conflict PRIORITIES

20 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) The vision of the VISION AND GOALS UNICEF Child Protection Strategy is a world where all children are free from violence, he vision of the UNICEF Child (CEDAW) and allied to the concept of human exploitation, abuse, neglect Protection Strategy is a world security – a people-centred and multi- and harmful practices. where all children are free from disciplinary understanding of security. violence, exploitation, abuse, neglect and harmful practices. It The goals of the Strategy are primarily Tis a vision centred in the Convention on the taken from the Sustainable Development Rights of the Child (CRC), the Convention Goals (SDGs), indicating alignment to those on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities global goals that partner governments have shows the correspondence between the (CRPD) and the Convention on the Elimination adopted, supplemented by one in an area SDGs for child protection and the relevant of All Forms of Discrimination against Women not represented in the SDGs.65 Table 1 articles of the CRC.

TABLE 1. SDGs for child protection and the relevant articles of the CRC

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGS) CRC ARTICLES

SDG 3.4 Promote mental health and well-being Art. 6, art. 24.1, art. 24.2, art. 39

SDG 5.2 Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls Art.1, art. 19, art. 28.2, art. 34, art. 35, art. 36, art. 37(a), art. 38.4, art. 39

SDG 5.3 Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation Art. 1, art. 24.3; Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostutution and child pornography (Articles 2[a], 3[1a(1)])

SDG 8.7 End child labour, including the recruitment and use of child soldiers Art. 1, art. 19, art. 32, art. 34, art. 35, art. 36, art. 37(a), art. 38.2, art. 38.3, art. 39; Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict

SDG 16.2 End abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children Art. 1, art. 6, art. 19, art. 21, art. 32, art. 34, art. 35, art. 36, art. 37(a), art. 39; Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child • prostitution and child pornography SDG 16.3 Promote the ruleDRAFT of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all Art 37, art.38.1, art.40 SDG 16.9 By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration (and SDG 17.19.2) Art. 7, art. 8

Prevent and respond to unnecessary family-child separation, end institutionalization of children and strengthen family- Articles 7, 9, 18, 20, 21 and 25 based alternative care66

21 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) OBJECTIVES

The Strategy has three Objectives.

UNIVERSAL PREVENTION: All LEAVING NO ONE BEHIND: RESPONSE AND PREVENTING 1 2 3 children grow up in a protective Children living in situations of RECURRENCE: Children environment. UNICEF will support the scale highest risk receive targeted support. experiencing violations receive quality up of prevention strategies and approaches UNICEF will focus on prevention and early services. Where children are experiencing to population level. These include universal interventions for children at greatest risk of violations, UNICEF will strengthen access to access to birth registration, to family and child protection violations. These include response, as well as secondary and tertiary parenting support, to access to justice, to children in humanitarian/crisis settings, on prevention services to prevent recurrence safe schools and to safety online, as well as the move, with disabilities, from minority and provide care, support and justice. universal adoption of transformative norms groups, deprived of parental care and •and values. This also entails close experiencing other forms of discrimination collaboration with other sectors, such as and exclusion. Education,DRAFT Health and Social Protection, to address other risk and protective factors outside of the Child Protection sector.

22 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) PROGRAMMING STRATEGIES

o deliver these Objectives, the Behavioural, Social, Cultural Strategy adopts three core inter- And Economic Determinants: linked Programming Strategies to effectively address the centred in a human rights-based behavioural, social, cultural and which has depressed economic approach: economic determinants of child growth and placed considerable T protection violations at scale additional economic and other BEHAVIOURAL, SOCIAL, 1 pressures on households – in CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC 1. Addressing the economic determinants particular, low-income households. DETERMINANTS: to effectively address of child protection violations the behavioural, social, cultural and • UNICEF will seek to put Child economic determinants of child protection • Child protection violations are Protection at the heart of social violations at scale inextricably linked to broader and economic policy and poverty structural issues that cannot be reduction strategies. It will do so CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEMS: to 2 solved through child protection by working through its approach support inclusive and effective child interventions alone. Economic to Public Financing for Children protection systems in preventing and hardship and poverty-related (PF4C); and through supporting responding to child protection violations drivers are at the root of many child governments and other partners to protection issues, including child build and invest in child-sensitive67 HUMANITARIAN: to effectively • 3 labour, child marriage, unsafe child social protection systems, prevent and respond to child protection migration, violence against children, including cash transfers and violationsDRAFT in humanitarian situations. sexual exploitation, trafficking, family integrated social protection schemes separation and under-18 offending. (‘cash and care’) for low-income and Moreover, these violations have vulnerable households, including been exacerbated by COVID-19, for children with disabilities. This

23 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) also includes linking these social including vulnerability assessments, Our work for positive social change will protection systems to broader case management and social welfare cut across all areas of the Child Protection child protection systems, including workforce strengthening – and their Strategy, from shifting prevalent beliefs the social service workforce. work is often led out of the same and expectations on child justice at country The 2019 evaluation of UNICEF’s government ministry. and global levels to working towards more support to Child Protection Systems positive parenting and gender-equal roles, Strengthening showed that the best 2. Promoting social change and addressing including gender-equitable masculinities. performing child protection systems harmful social and gender norms In line with the Conceptual Framework were in countries where these were presented in Figure 4, the three paragraphs deliberately linked with functioning In line with the Conceptual Framework for below describe priority actions for: children; social protection systems. Social Child Protection, UNICEF will adopt a range parents, caregivers and families; and Protection and Child Protection of strategies for reducing the negative communities and societies. systems have multiple interfaces – social influences that families are exposed to and adopting and leveraging the positive CHILDREN: To strengthen the resources, ones. Across all contexts, a particular resilience and voice of children and PUBLIC FINANCING FOR CHILDREN focus will be put on addressing harmful adolescents, UNICEF will: (PF4C) WITHIN CHILD PROTECTION social and gender norms that create strong PF4C analyses are essential to build the economic case for system expectations to maintain the status quo, as • support life skills programmes strengthening and service delivery scale-up, and they are crucial to well as the various compliance mechanisms that integrate attention to child advocating for the budgets required to get these initiatives implemented. To support the uptake of PF4C, UNICEF has strengthened the capacity of also holding harmful practices in place (e.g., protection-related human rights, Social Policy units, introduced internal staff training on PF4C and put in socialization processes, powerholders’ gender norms, healthy relationships place a global long-term agreement to facilitate easier contracting with influence, group sanctions). This also and violence prevention and provide public financial management experts. Going forward, UNICEF will prioritize applies to humanitarian settings, including positive role models for children; PF4C in child protection systems strengthening, coordinating with its wider efforts to create fiscal space for social services and focusing on five natural disasters or humanitarian crises core actions: (i) making the economic case for child protection to increase triggered by the influx of refugees. UNICEF • support school-based (e.g., ‘Safe its budget priority in line with States’ CRC commitments; (ii) assisting with will engage children, adolescents and to Learn’68) and community-based building national child protection systems, including the workforce and the scaling-up of quality• services (including cross-sectoral investments in youth, parents, caregivers and families, violence prevention programmes core preventive services such as education); (iii) supporting sub-national local leaders including religious leaders and collaborate with the health authorities responsibleDRAFT for child protection; (iv) improving the efficiency of and, more broadly, the private sector, sector on issues such as teenage child protection services; and (v) enabling and implementing the tracking communities and societies at large to pregnancies and HIV/AIDS; of child protection budgets and expenditures. promote protective behaviours and norms.

24 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) • implement social and behaviour • support inclusive and accessible NGOs and community- change strategies to raise social care and support services based organizations are close awareness, encourage self-efficacy (e.g., home visits), particularly for to the ground and close to their and peer support and promote social vulnerable families; communities; they can test new and gender norms change; approaches, build local capacity, • support equitable and inclusive challenge harmful social norms and • strengthen child and adolescent cash transfer and integrated social partner with UNICEF and with participatio69, voice, empowerment protection schemes, especially governments to execute child and engagement with organizations those that address or evaluate protection strategies at scale. and networks of young people, the impact on girls’ and women’s (HAITI COUNTRY CONSULTATION) including organizations representing empowerment and safe transitions vulnerable groups such as people to adulthood for girls and boys. with disabilities, people affected by migration and ethnic minorities;70 COMMUNITIES and SOCIETIES: To change harmful social and gender norms, • work to keep siblings together when strengthen community participation and • engage with communities and in the best interest of the child. positive social norms and promote early community-based organizations to intervention and response, UNICEF will: prevent and respond to violence and PARENTS, CAREGIVERS and FAMILIES: all forms of discrimination, including To support positive and protective parenting • prioritize standard setting and on the basis of different gender and caregiving and prevent family-child monitoring and oversight mechanisms identities, migrant status, ethnicity separation, UNICEF will use gender- to ensure quality, accountability and and disability; transformative strategies that: long-term sustainability of community engagement for child protection • build a social environment • empower mothers, fathers and supportive of the local change other caregivers to adopt positive • support community engagement and new behaviours, through • parenting approaches through strategies to address power conducive public discourses, media community engagement and imbalances and change harmful narratives, positive entertainment DRAFTinclusive positive parenting support social norms around gender, violence, and marketing industry practices, services as part of a broader discrimination, disability and care, reinforced social movements and approach to nurturing car71 through in particular through community-led publicized change stories; the life course; deliberation, mobilization and action;

25 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) • engage young people to strengthen and ensure that the approach is reflected in • advocate for and support the community-based child protection organizational plans. Accordingly, UNICEF development, implementation and mechanisms; has identifiedseven elements of CPSS: (i) enforcement of child protection legal, regulatory and policy, (ii) governance, and child safeguarding policy and • spread local community-level (iii) services, (iv) standards and oversight, legislation; change through organized diffusion (v) resources, (vi) participation and (vii) data. mechanisms; It will promote system strengthening in • support the development of humanitarian responses and in development comprehensive CPSS strategies. • address the risks and opportunities contexts, seeking to support systems that of online communities, which are are resilient and can adapt to changing 2. Governance: becoming an ever-greater part of contexts. In every country context, UNICEF To promote effective governance structures children’s lives. will seek to support systems that are – including coordination across government inclusive of internally displaced, migrant and departments, between levels of government In working with partners to address harmful refugee children, as well as children with and between formal and informal actors social and gender norms, UNICEF will seek disabilities. It will also seek to ensure that – in both humanitarian and development to scale up evidence-based programmes to support systems are family and community contexts, UNICEF will: national scale, focusing particularly on: (i) focused and work towards ending the use of parenting programmes, (ii) education institutional care and orphanages. Our work • support the establishment of national programmes and (iii) community-based on CPSS strengthening is embedded in the and decentralized coordination interventions. CRC and in a human rights-based approach to structures/mechanisms; programming and advocacy. • strengthen horizontal and vertical Child Protection Systems: 1. Legal, regulatory and policy: coordination at national and sub- to support inclusive and effective To support a robust legal and regulatory national levels. child protection systems in framework, as well as specific policies preventing and responding to related to national child protection systems 3. Services: •child protection violations strengthening, UNICEF will: To ensure a continuum of services (spanning A 2018 UNICEF evaluation72 examined prevention and response), UNICEF will: UNICEF’sDRAFT support to child protection • advocate for and support child system strengthening (CPSS) between protection systems mapping and • support the modelling, testing and 2012 and 2018. The evaluation recommended assessments; expansion of child protection services, that UNICEF clarify its approach to CPSS with a focus on preventive approaches;

26 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) • support the development and • support comprehensive workforce 6. Participation: roll-out of case management and strengthening initiatives, including To promote child, adolescent and family referral systems; the development of curricula participation and community engagement, and provision of training for child UNICEF will: • support a continuum of services protection service providers and • support and promote community across Social Welfare, Justice, staff, with a focus on upskilling engagement forums/platforms, Health and Education. the workforce on preventive including the integration of approaches and ensuring adequate community engagement within child 4. Standards and oversight: working conditions; protection systems; To encourage minimum standards and • support the monitoring of child oversight (supervision and accountability protection budgets and the • support and promote platforms mechanisms), UNICEF will: development of budget briefs; for children’s and adolescents’ empowerment; • support the development and • support the costing and financing implementation of standards and of child protection preventive and • invest in, and build the capacity of, oversight mechanisms; responsive services. young people to register, manage and refer relevant cases, and to • engage with human rights act as facilitators and mentors to mechanisms to support the younger children; monitoring of, and accountability for, child protection-related child rights • support setting standards and violations and ensure that children oversight mechanisms for child and The participation and are engaged and actively participate family participation and community empowerment of children in these mechanisms. engagement; and adolescents is absolutely 5. Resources: critical to driving forward •To ensure the availability of human, financial child protection goals. • advocate for and support and infrastructure resources, UNICEF will: (BENIN COUNTRY the establishment of complaints CONSULTATION) DRAFTmechanisms and grievances • advocate for increased investments in redressal for children and their child protection systems, services and families. violence prevention interventions;

27 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) 7. Data: To support data collection and monitoring systems, UNICEF will:

• support the integration of disaggregated administrative data as part of broader national statistical systems and its use for policy-making;

• support research, including situation analyses, on factors that affect child • promote and support the inclusion recognize the inter-relatedness and inter- protection (prevention and response) of child protection survey modules dependency of child rights, and to establish and child protection systems change; and questionnaires in ongoing data a continuum of services across the many collection plans and mechanisms; sectors that contribute to Child Protection • build evidence on the impact and programming and outcomes, particularly cost-effectiveness of primary • support strengthened data Education, Health, Social Policy and prevention interventions; governance (coordination, oversight Social Protection, Nutrition and Water and secure management); and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH). Child Protection outcomes cannot be delivered • support capacity building of all without these sectors – their systems, stakeholders on data collection, institutions, resources and professional staff – UNICEF can support management and use; just as their goals and objectives also benefit the mainstreaming of child from the support of Child Protection. This is protection across multiple systems; • support young people to contribute particularly the case for scaling up prevention not only social welfare and legal to data generation and use. approaches to the population level. systems but also health systems, • education systems and others.. UNICEF identifies Child Protection systems Some of the most significant inter- (ZAMBIA COUNTRY as being delivered primarily through Social dependencies between Child Protection DRAFT CONSULTATION) Welfare and Justice sectors, and their and other sectors – including core corresponding line ministries, institutions accountabilities of other sectors, and functions (e.g. social work, law required for the delivery of Child Protection enforcement). It is critical, however, to outcomes – are listed in Table 2.

28 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) An example of an area where Child Protection TABLE 2. Accountabilities of other sectors for the delivery of Child Protection outcomes systems need to work particularly closely with other sectors is in the prevention and elimination EDUCATION of Child Labour,75 whether in terms of formal (i) Schools as a safe and protective space for children, including in73 emergencies, (ii) education systems that address bullying and violence in and informal economies or domestic child labour. schools (peer to peer and staff to peer), (iii) children in school learning about threats and protective factors, e.g., gender-based violence, sexual This is because to address the root causes or risk violence, comprehensive sexuality education, FGM, child marriage, (iv) schools acting as identification and referral points for specialized child protection services, (v) schools ensuring the safety of students as they travel to and from schools; (vi) digital learning platforms proactively seeking to factors, the social service workforce will need protect children from online harms and (vii) national education curricula integrating digital literacy, including cyber safety. to identify children in vulnerable situations and refer them and their families as appropriate to HEALTH social protection and other services, where they (i) Violence-related public health research, (ii) violence prevention and case detection, including positive parenting, particularly through exist, while also working with them to (re-)enrol community health workers and primary health-care providers, (iii) care and support – including mental health services – for children, them in school. This is also an area where private adolescents and women who experience violations related to child protection or, for example, IPV, (iv) the integration of teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS prevention and response strategies, (v) timely and accurate vital registration (birth registration, marriage and death), (vi) sector partnerships are particularly important. behavioural and regulatory issues relating to safety for children and adolescents, (vii) school health, as it relates to child protection Child labour prevention and remediation by issues and (viii) forensic evidence collection and presentation in legal cases. the private sector should support and align NUTRITION with wider prevention policy and practice. Collaboration with the labour sector is equally (i) Combining nutritional programmes with Child Protection / Mental Health & Psycho-Social Support interventions and (ii) preventing child labour in the food system and (iii) unethical marketing of foods and beverages to/for children.74 critical as it is often labour inspectors who

identify children in the workforce and need to WASH make appropriate referrals. (i) Safe access to sources of water and latrines to decrease the risk of gender-based violence, particularly in emergencies, (ii) addressing climate change and water scarcity, which can both be drivers of child protection violations and (iii) ensuring adequate conditions and resources for menstrual hygiene management. Humanitarian: To effectively prevent and respond to child SOCIAL POLICY & SOCIAL PROTECTION protection violations in (i) Advocacy and technical support for public financing for children relating to child protection systems and services, (ii) cash transfers and other humanitarian situations, including safety net mechanisms to support the most vulnerable children and households (both prevention and response), (iii) support to equitable and inclusive •addressing determinants of child protection and social protection systems – including the social service workforce – to ensure a continuum of preventive and responsive child violations and strengthening protection services and (iv) strengthening decentralization and local governance to improve child protection services and outcomes. childDRAFT protection systems EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT Humanitarian action for (i) Implementation of the Nurturing Care Framework, (ii) focus on stimulation in the early years, (iii) scaled up early childhood development UNICEF encompasses interventions (ECD) services across health, nutrition, education and care in the early years, including in emergencies and (iv) positive parenting programmes. aimed at saving lives, alleviating suffering,

29 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) preventing violations, maintaining human dignity and protecting the rights INNOVATIVE USES OF TECHNOLOGY IN CHILD PROTECTION of affected populations wherever The Child Protection sector has not historically been at the forefront of technology-based innovation. This is changing through innovations such as GBV virtual safe spaces and practising remote referrals. UNICEF will seek to there are humanitarian needs. This leverage technology and accelerate these changes through the course of the Strategy period. Recent examples of is regardless of the kind of crisis (sudden- technology-based innovations in child protection include the following: onset or protracted emergency, natural disaster, public health emergency, complex n GeoPoll is a mobile-based platform that can administer remote, mobile-based surveys all over the world; emergency, international or throught SMS and voice calls to target specific populations, it is being used to conduct surveys to gather insights into communities’ knowledge, perceptions, beliefs, expectations and behaviours around harmful practices. internal armed conflict, etc.) and irrespective of the gross national n Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of a variety of digital platforms has facilitated rapid delivery of positive parenting resources to more than 80 million families in virtually every country in the world to income level of a country (low, middle reduce harsh parenting practices, strengthen parent-child communication and improve parental self-efficacy. or high) or legal status of the affected n The justice sector is seeing the growing use of virtual or mobile courts, online training of justice populations. It is important to note that professionals and online delivery of post-release support and supervision services. UNICEF’s work in humanitarian settings n digital platforms are increasingly being used for delivering MHPSS services and core elements of case is not distinct from the two programming management to complement face-to-face social work, psychological, medical and legal interventions. strategies described above – addressing UNICEF will work with governments, the private sector and other partners to pilot, evaluate and scale innovative and behavioural, social, cultural and economic secure approaches and service delivery platforms for Child Protection. determinants and strengthening child protection systems – both of which apply to humanitarian settings. countries facing humanitarian crises and emergencies are evolving, including situations of fragility are off track to meet outside of international and internal armed Humanitarian action also encompasses the SDGs as we enter the final decade to conflict, UNICEF will lead the coordination interventions to address underlying meet the 2030 deadline. of child protection in all emergency risks and causes of vulnerability to settings to mobilize and deliver a disasters, climate change, fragility UNICEF works directly, and in support comprehensive response that prioritizes and conflict. These interventions of governments and civil society, community-led action. •include system strengthening and resilience to provide protection to millions of building, which contribute to reducing children, caregivers and women affected In humanitarian settings, UNICEF operates humanitarian needsDRAFT and to addressing by armed conflict, natural disasters, on the basis of a distinct UN mandate and the risks and vulnerabilities of affected forced displacement, socio-political in accordance with its Core Commitments populations. Humanitarian action is essential crises and infectious disease outbreaks. for Children in Humanitarian Action to achieving the SDGs. The majority of Acknowledging that complex humanitarian (CCCs) (see below), which provide the

30 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) Our role is to be agents of peace, to promote youth empowerment via our organizations and through our participation; as youth, to become role models in our society. (TIMOR-LESTE ADOLESCENT AND YOUTH CONSULTATION)

strategic framework and corresponding commitments for its work in humanitarian situations, and the Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action.76 UNICEF’s work in humanitarian situations is guided by international human rights law and, in situations of armed conflict, also by international humanitarian law. UNICEF is the lead agency for the Child Protection Area of Responsibility in the Inter-Agency Standing Committee system, with concomitant accountabilities, and will deploy this capacity to support In working with government and civil important role to play in engaging •government and other frontline responders society partners and in close collaboration communities, governments and parties to a in all emergencies (whether or not the with UN political and peace missions, conflict to protect child rights and women’s clusterDRAFT system is activated). UNICEF also UNICEF puts children’s and women’s rights. This responsibility extends to permanently co-leads the Alliance for Child rights and well-being at the centre of its effectively delivering on UNICEF’s and the Protection in Humanitarian Action, which is efforts. Child protection programming in United Nation’s pledge to link humanitarian, the standard-setting body for the sector. humanitarian settings has a particularly development and peace programming.

31 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) The phrase ‘humanitarian – development – TABLE 3. UNICEF Core Commitments for Children in peace nexus’ reflects the fact that operating Humanitarian Action (CCCs) – Child Protection ‘Strategic Result’ contexts rarely conform to one typology and that it can be counter-productive to CHILD PROTECTION ‘STRATEGIC RESULT’ IN THE CCCS: CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS ARE assign distinct operational approaches to PROTECTED FROM VIOLENCE, EXPLOITATION, ABUSE, NEGLECT AND HARMFUL PRACTICES different contexts.77 It further recognizes that Leadership Effective leadership and coordination are established and functional humanitarian and development programming 1 and coordination should be designed and implemented to ‘do no harm’, prevent conflict and build Strengthening child protection Child protection systems are functional and strengthened to prevent and respond to all 2 systems forms of violence, exploitation, abuse, neglect and harmful practices resilience. Humanitarian programming should contribute to system strengthening and Mental health and psychosocial The MHPSS needs of children, adolescents and caregivers are identified and addressed development programming should contribute 3 support (MHPSS) through coordinated multisectoral and community-based MHPSS services

to preparedness and social cohesion. Unaccompanied and Separation of children from families is prevented and responded to, and family-based The CCCs, revised in 2020, embrace the 4 separated children care is promoted in the child’s best interest humanitarian – development – peace nexus Monitoring and reporting on grave In situations of armed conflict, grave violations against children and other serious rights and reflect the changing dynamics of 5 violations violations and protection concerns are documented, analysed and reported and inform humanitarian settings, such as addressing programmatic response and advocacy interventions detention and criminal processing of conflict- Children associated with armed Child recruitment and use by armed actors, as well as illegal and arbitrary detention and affected children. In the next decade, the 6 forces and groups and detention of criminal processing of conflict-affected children, are prevented and addressed predominance of counter-terrorism policy, children in the context of armed conflict legislation and interventions will have myriad Mine action The use of landmines and other indiscriminate or illicit weapons by State and non-State effects on child protection, necessitating 7 and weapons actors is prevented and their impact addressed engagement with security and peace actors to bring child rights front and centre Gender-based Survivors of GBV and their children can access timely, quality, multisectoral response violence (GBV) services and GBV is prevented in the decision-making of States and the 8 international community. Protection from sexual exploitation Children and affected populations are protected from SEA by humanitarian workers • 9 and abuse (PSEA) The CCCs reflect the objectives of Community engagement for At-risk and affected populations have timely access to culturally appropriate, gender- supportingDRAFT positive and effective 10 behaviour and social change and age-sensitive information and interventions to prevent and respond to violence, systems (CCC 2 and throughout) and exploitation, abuse, neglect and harmful practices

32 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) promoting social and gender norms CHILD PROTECTION AND DISABILITY that are supportive of child protection (CCC 10 and throughout). Addressing UNICEF’s child protection work is grounded in the CRC and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities harmful social and gender norms is no (CPRD). It is also aligned to UNICEF’s strategies for disability inclusion and focuses on the twin-track approaches of mainstreaming and targeted disability-inclusive child protection in both humanitarian and development contexts. This longer considered the remit of long-term includes work on strengthening child protection systems to make them increasingly inclusive of the specific needs development programming only; crises of children with disabilities, addressing harmful social norms, tackling discrimination, ending all forms of violence – create elastic moments for societal change. including gender-based violence (GBV), sexual exploitation and abuse – and preventing the separation of children from Standards, evidence-based programming, their families on the basis of disability. UNICEF supports the development of global policy and programmatic guidance and provides technical assistance to country offices and partners to strengthen disability-inclusive child protection and good practice across Child Protection policies and programmes. in Humanitarian Action, gender-based violence in emergencies (GBViE) and Key interventions include: developing tools to support the inclusion of children with disabilities within child protection preventing grave violations in armed programming; developing a disability-inclusive social service workforce (SSW) for child protection as well as tools for strengthening the capacities of the SSW to address stigma, discrimination and harmful social norms that prevent conflict all acknowledge the necessity of them from providing child protection services to all children in an inclusive and equitable manner; enhancing the analysing the norms that have positive and knowledge and skills of SSW to prevent, detect, report and respond to violence against children with disabilities; negative impacts on protection. Further, if addressing the specific needs of children with disabilities in the case of violence, abuse, exploitation or neglect, quality response services are accessible including those children whose disability prevents them from reporting those human rights violations and abuses; scaling up disability disaggregation in research and data collection; and rolling out guidance on disability-inclusive and risk assessments permit, protection child-friendly spaces and activities in humanitarian context. interventions can engage in community-led efforts to address social and gender norms in humanitarian settings. Do No Harm, the integrated programming across sectors. As will be more ambitious, building on the centrality of protection, and child-centred highlighted above, this extends particularly trajectory of ‘cash plus’ that recognizes programming are critical principles in the to Education, Nutrition, Health, WASH, the positive impact on protection of cash design, delivery and monitoring of such and Social Protection. Humanitarian programming if both safeguarding and work, which will grow with the sector’s cash programming has invested in case management are integrated into increasing investment in prevention. child safeguarding and risk mitigation, the programme design. UNICEF will put recognizing that crises lead people into protection at the heart of its humanitarian •Embracing prevention as a strategic shift negative coping mechanisms such as cash transfers programmes and work for child protection in humanitarian action child marriage, child labour, trafficking and more ambitiously with social protection in willDRAFT deepen as investment increases in exploitation. However, future programming humanitarian settings.

33 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) PROGRAMMING APPROACHES

Strengthen data and research There is a strong need for Child generation and use Protection Information Management Our vision for the Strategy period to Systems (CPIMS) to support Child 2030 is that partner governments and the Protection actors in both humanitarian UNICEF can play a international community are equipped and development contexts to manage crucial role in supporting with the data and evidence to address protection-related data for case governments to develop child protection adequately in all countries, management, incident monitoring and administrative data systems, including high-income countries. The programming monitoring. UNICEF will especially in countries where these data and evidence landscape for Child work with government and other partners systems are weak or non-existent. Protection is improving but at too slow on CPIMS strengthening, with a focus (UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA a pace. UNICEF will prioritize data and on working with government and other COUNTRY CONSULTATION) evidence generation and utilization over the partners to support the scale up of Strategy period, particularly in those areas Primero™ – an inter-agency digital public where evidence is insufficient to guide good used for case management and policy and programming choices. In incident monitoring for the child protection 2019, UNICEF supported 125 countries to and gender-based violence sectors. improve the availability and quality of data Primero™ modules will be mainstreamed practices in the field. As of April 2020, on violence against children. It will prioritize and centrally supported in an effort to there are currently 33 active installations building evidence on the effectiveness bring programme efficiencies and coherent (‘instances’) of Primero™ implemented in of population-level preventive data standards to the sector. Efforts to 26 countries that have recorded around interventions to reduce the incidence of develop advanced analytics for prevention, 100,000 cases of vulnerable children •child rights violations and negative child including predictive models and quality of safely and confidentially. A significant scale protection outcomes. This will involve care metrics, will be prioritized. Primero™ up, targeting more than 100 installations systematicDRAFT inclusion of risk and protective will be aligned with Responsible Data by 2025, will be made possible by factors in situation analyses, as well as in for Children, an initiative that supports investments aimed at making Primero™ a other data collection processes. the operationalization of rights-based data software as a service.

34 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) Advocate for national Build capacity for scaled-up Strengthen the engagement legislation, policies, budgets child protection prevention and of communities, caregivers, and accountability service delivery across sectors children and adolescents UNICEF will work with partners to undertake UNICEF will work with governments and The Conceptual Framework for the Strategy evidence-based advocacy, including policy non-governmental partners in humanitarian (see Figure 4 in Section II) describes concentric dialogue with partner Governments on and development contexts, to build circles with the child at the centre, surrounded laws, policies, budgets, implementation capacity for prevention and child by the most immediate layers of support: mechanisms and accountability for child protection service delivery, particularly parents, caregivers and families, and protection outcomes as well as global/ trans- in Social Welfare and Justice sectors but communities more broadly. Strategies to national advocacy. In advocating for budgets, also in sectors such as Health, Education, strengthen child and adolescent participation, UNICEF will apply its ‘Public Financing for Social Protection, Nutrition and WASH. parent, caregiver and family support Children (PF4C)’ approach.78 UNICEF will This will include a strong focus on upskilling and community engagement are further work with non-governmental partners to the social services workforce, including described in this Strategy in Section VI under advocate both for government reforms and UNICEF’s internal child protection workforce, Programming Strategy 1: ‘to effectively address for social and behavioural change, including on design and implementation of preventive the social, cultural and economic determinants within the private sector. UNICEF will also approaches. UNICEF’s support to building of child protection violations at scale’. work at the regional and global levels service delivery capacity will include to strengthen frameworks, political and institutional reform, strengthening mandates, • UNICEF has the world’s largest cadre institutional leadership and support for child establishing protocols, training staff, piloting of international experts working on protection. In humanitarian contexts, UNICEF and evaluating innovations in service delivery, social and behaviour change. will particularly support Accountability to and implementation at scale. UNICEF specialists work with Child Affected Populations.79 Protection colleagues to employ a

FIGURE 6. Framework for strengthening the social service workforce for child protection80

PLAN THE SOCIAL SERVICE WORKFORCE DEVELOP THE SOCIAL SERVICE WORKFORCE SUPPORT THE SOCIAL SERVICE WORKFORCE

• • enact policy and legislation for social service work • establish multisector collaboration for education and training • improve recruitment and retention of workers • define types, functions, ratios of social service workers • align education and training to national priorities and standards • support social service work associations and councils •DRAFT undertake costing and financing for social service work • integrate fieldwork and indigenous kowledge in education and • invest in quality supervision of social service workers • establish regulatory framework for education, training • promote career development and progression accreditation and licensing • offer ongoing and continuing opportunities for training and • invest in promoting the image of social service • set human resource policies, practice and standards professional development workers

35 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) mix of social mobilization, advocacy and behaviour and social change CHILD PROTECTION AND ADOLESCENTS strategies related to child protection. There are over 1 billion adolescents in the world, representing a n improved social networks and improved recovery and In working on child, youth and powerful resource for social change. UNICEF works to promote reintegration of survivors of violence. adolescent participation and civic engagement both as a goal in community engagement strategies, its own right – as a principle of human rights-based programming Evaluations have shown that more can be done to integrate child UNICEF ensures that children with enshrined in the CRC – and also as a means to achieve sector- and adolescent participation into UNICEF’s work on child protection. disabilities, as well as excluded and specific results. Positive outcomes of adolescent participation UNICEF will promote the engagement of adolescents in child marginalized children – including from include: protection through: minority and indigenous groups – are n more influence on individual care, protection and justice n empowering adolescents to engage in legal, administrative or included in all processes. Specific decisions statutory processes that concern them; activities range from community- n greater self-confidence, personal development and skills to n increasing adolescents’ access to information on child led participatory initiatives to protect themselves and their peers protection issues; entertainment education, from the n increased collective power and social status to assert and n supporting platforms and youth organizations that amplify civic engagement of young people defend their rights young voices, build skills and agency; including specifically for girls and for young people with disabilities; to online engagement against child n better protection from abuse and exploitation (e.g., reduced exploitation and abuse and from corporal punishment, early and child marriage and other forms n influencing policies that affect the right of adolescents to have positive deviants and bystanders of sexual and gender-based violence, bullying) their voice heard on matters that affect their protection in society, including service provision and the judicial system; approaches to community-based n decreased discrimination and increased gender equality innovations in services. n strengthening UNICEF internal processes for engaging with n more relevant services and policies (care, protection, justice) adolescents and young people. Develop partnerships for coordinated global the media. Eighty-four per cent of respondents Only 32 per cent agreed that UNICEF works and national action to the Strategy survey agreed that UNICEF optimally with private sector companies. Nothing UNICEF does is executed in works optimally with country programme Over the Strategy period, UNICEF will isolation. It works closely with a range of governments, 74 per cent with national identify ways in which the comparative partners, including UN agencies within civil society organizations and 64 per cent advantage of the private sector could •a UN Development System operating with other UN agencies. Internally, the Child be brought to bear on achieving better framework, partner governments, civil society Protection Section (country and global staff) protection outcomes for children, particularly organizations,DRAFT faith-based organizations, will increase our collaboration with colleagues in the area of prevention. The private sector bilateral partners, multilateral partners and working on Disability and on Social Policy is a key stakeholder in Child Protection. global funds and partnerships, academia, the – consistent with the findings of the Survey – Some business assets and practices are private sector, philanthropic foundations and and also with Education and Health colleagues. directly correlated with child protection

36 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) issues, while others are core to accelerate on human rights violations related to Child and scale up solutions. UNICEF will work Protection and the relevant treaty body strategically with business (e.g., through committees, such as the Committee on partnerships or other forms of collaboration) the Rights of the Child. UNICEF also works Academia can play but also on business (e.g., strengthening closely with global platforms ­– including, but a considerable role by policy frameworks on corporate standards not limited to, the Global Partnership to End introducing relevant degree or advocating for alignment of business Violence Against Children, the Better Care programmes and appropriate practices with existing ones). Network, the Nurturing Care Framework, training for young graduates the WeProtect Alliance and the Compact for to address multiple issues •UNICEF’s Child Protection programmes in Young People in Humanitarian Action – based related to child protection. their breadth benefit from close collaboration on comparative advantages and respective (PAKISTAN COUNTRY CONSULTATION) withDRAFT a number of UN agencies, including, mandates, and with regional and sub-regional but not limited to, the ILO, UNDP, UNFPA, bodies such as the African Union (AU) UNHCR, OHCHR, IOM, UN Women and and the Association of Southeast Asian WHO, as well as the UN Special Rapporteurs Nations (ASEAN).

37 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) THEMATIC PRIORITIES

ocusing on the three Objectives eliminate gender discrimination in nationality to detention, diversion schemes and the of the Strategy, UNICEF will and civil registration laws to avoid the risk of integration of MHPSS in juvenile justice deliver on a number of thematic statelessness81, preserve family unity and systems; ending children’s arbitrary and priorities derived from the CRC guarantee access to social services; and unlawful detention, inhumane prison and from UNICEF’s mandates in engaging with governments and industry conditions and impunity for perpetrators humanitarianF and conflict situations. These players to increase investments in safe of child sexual and gender-based violence are briefly described below. and innovative technology to facilitate birth and other serious conflict-related crimes registration and obtain timely, accurate and against children; collaborating with law LEGAL IDENTITY: In line with Articles 7 permanent records82. enforcement agencies; improving support and 8 of the CRC, children have a right to be for child survivors and witnesses of crime; registered at birth and have a legal identity ACCESS TO JUSTICE: Access to justice is and supporting the legal empowerment (SDG 16.9). They also have a right to preserve a fundamental right (e.g., CRC Articles 37, of children and adolescents83 in contact their identity, including name, nationality 39 and 40 and Article 2.3 of the International with justice and welfare systems. This will and family relations. Legal identity is a Covenant on Civil and Political Rights), is protective factor against many child protection essential to the protection of all rights under violations. UNICEF supports governments the CRC and other human rights treaties and CHILD PROTECTION IN to achieve universal birth registration, is critical to achieving the SDGs, particularly HIGH INCOME COUNTRIES close the legal identity gap and increase Goal 16. UNICEF will support, across all In keeping with the universal agenda of the SDGs, and informed by UNICEF’s global strategy of engagement in high-income countries, the availability of data and legal documents types of legal systems, children’s access UNICEF’s child protection programming in these contexts will focus on derived from civil registration systems, to justice by: strengthening legislative two pillars: (i) advocacy, primarily through supporting public dialogue on including for stateless, migrant and refugee and policy frameworks; strengthening the child protection issues, promoting national collective action and legislative children. Key strategies include: ensuring capacity of justice systems to serve children, reform and monitoring the realization of children’s protection rights and (ii) technical assistance, primarily through policy advice, research •birth registration; linking civil registration to including child-friendly and accessible collaboration, promotion of programme innovation and exchange of good other systems, including identity, health, judicial and quasi-judicial mechanisms (e.g., practice. Governments will also be encouraged to demonstrate child socialDRAFT protection and education, as entry- children’s courts, traditional/customary protection leadership on the global stage. While high-income countries points for identifying and registering children; courts), legal aid and gender-responsive tend to have strong emergency response capacities, UNICEF has a key role to play in providing technical support and promoting global child protection reviewing laws and policies to provide for justice services; supporting restorative standards in humanitarian situations. free and universal birth registration and to justice approaches, scaling up alternatives

38 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) involve supporting stronger collaboration PREVENTION OF FAMILY SEPARATION: Services should be between Justice and Social Welfare systems In keeping with Articles 9, 18, 20, 21 orientated to facilitate for prevention, mitigation and response to and 25 of the CRC, UNICEF works family-based modalities of care, child protection-related risks across the with national partners to drive forward with a view to progressively humanitarian-development-peace nexus. their national care reform agenda to eliminate the use of residential UNICEF will also increasingly support public prevent the separation of children from care for children. finance for children in the justice sector with families, end immigration detention and (COLOMBIA COUNTRY CONSULTATION) a special focus on diversion and alternatives promote the use of alternatives, end to detention and the provision of legal aid. institutionalization of children and promote family-based alternative care options in the community.86 UNICEF also seeks to ensure protection and care for children CHILD PROTECTION AND travelling alone, separated children and population level to reduce the incidences of ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) children in street situations.87 A growing unnecessary separation. UNICEF recognizes the important role that AI-enabled systems can play body of evidence supports addressing risk to protect children from harm and exploitation, including to help identify and protective factors that can prevent A significant level of consensus has now abducted children and to detect child sexual abuse material. Through the unnecessary child-family separation. A evolved around priority actions to protect Policy Guidance on AI for Children,84 UNICEF advocates for such utilization 88 of AI technologies to safeguard children. However, associated risks need recent review of literature shows that children without parental/family care, to be acknowledged and addressed. For example, AI systems require vast issues such as poverty, unmet basic and UNICEF will work closely with partners amounts of data, including personal and identifiable data on children and needs, lack of a sense of safety, lack of a in implementing these at the national level, their parents or caregivers that, if accessed by predators or authoritarian regimes, can endanger children. It is critical that when utilizing AI systems sense of belonging to a community and including: recognizing and prioritizing the for the protection of children, data on children are ensured the highest alcohol or substance abuse are among role of families and supporting families to protection given their value and unique vulnerability. UNICEF supports common risk factors for separation. The prevent unnecessary family-child separation; this through its Responsible Data for Children and Good Governance of same report suggests that consistent and protecting children without parental care Children’s Data initiatives.85 Further, the developers of AI policies and systems must adopt a privacy-by-design approach and consider the responsive caregiving, the ability to form and ensuring high-quality, appropriate protection of children’s data and privacy at both an individual and group and sustain meaningful connections, the alternative care; recognizing the harm level. This may require• balancing seemingly opposing approaches: for capacity for problem solving and the ability caused by institutional care for children and example, end-to-end encryption offers the highest level of protection for to regulate emotions, among others, are preventing and ending institutionalization; data, but it also stymies AI-enabled technologies that detect child abuse content. UNICEF urgesDRAFT that workable solutions are found to best balance protective factors against several child and strengthening child welfare and the protection, privacy and freedoms of children and their data and will protection violations. UNICEF will promote protection systems and services, including continue to support these efforts through child rights and digital expertise. addressing contextually defined risk factors through ensuring adequate financial and supporting protective factors at the and human resources. At the global,

39 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) CHILDREN ON THE MOVE Children on the Move includes children those who are migrants, migration journey, including in the country of origin, transit refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced, trafficked or and destination. This applies both to cross-border child with human rights, children born through smuggled, whether they are travelling alone or accompanied by protection and collaboration, to internal migration and to such arrangements, especially commercial their caregivers.90 Although many children migrate safely, Children returns and reintegration. At the core of all child protection arrangements, are vulnerable to breaches on the Move face heightened protection risks, especially in transit interventions is the best interests of the child and the need or destination countries where they may be denied entry at borders, to listen to their voices and empower their own agency. This of their rights including the right to an subjected to immigration detention, denied the right to seek should also be complemented by advocacy and programming identity (name, nationality, family relations 91 asylum and excluded from access to essential services. Within to end child immigration detention, promote effective non- and access to origins). Children born from the child protection systems approach, UNICEF has prioritized the custodial alternatives for children deprived of their liberty, these arrangements also face discrimination planning, development and support of the social service workforce provide appropriate care for migrant children and families, to prevent and respond to the exploitation and abuse of all children address xenophobia and discrimination, prevent and respond to due to the circumstances surrounding their at the national level, including children on the move. This includes exploitation and abuse, challenge harmful gender norms, address birth and a greater risk of sale, exploitation, gate-keeping, awareness raising, strengthening national case drivers of unsafe migration and keep families together. While a trafficking and grooming.93 There are also management frameworks and referral mechanisms, and facilitating large population of stateless children and families are in-situ, and developing reception, appropriate care arrangements, access to UNICEF recognizes the important links between the prevention risks for the birth mothers, given that justice, child-friendly asylum procedures, birth registration, health, of childhood statelessness, forced displacement, the right to some of them are adolescents. To this mental health and psychosocial support, education and social a nationality and the registration of a child at birth. It works in end, UNICEF notes the Principles for the protection with the aim of advancing durable solutions. close partnership with UNHCR and IOM and as a member of the protection of the rights of the child born UN Network on Migration at global and regional levels to support through surrogacy (Verona Principles) 94. The focus on strengthening national child protection systems governments in implementing the Global Compact for Migration promotes a continuity of care for children throughout their and the Global Compact on Refugees.

regional and national levels, UNICEF will regular reporting as well as ensuring the full strengthen its engagement with bilateral participation of children without parental and multilateral organizations to advocate or family care are equally critical to care for strengthening international cooperation reform. UNICEF will continue to invest in towards holistic multi-sectoral care reform. developing and implementing data collection Further, it will continue to support the tools to generate accurate information on Committee on the Rights of the Child and children in alternative care. the Committee on the Rights of Persons MENTAL HEALTH AND PSYCHOSOCIAL •with Disabilities to offer guidance related The development of assisted reproductive WELL-BEING: UNICEF’s mandate to the prevention of separation of children technology92 has led to more and more promotes mental health throughout the fromDRAFT families on the basis of disabilities of children born through surrogacy. In the life cycle, recognizing and analysing rights children or their caregivers and to family- absence of national frameworks providing violations, risks, gaps, capacities and based alternative care for children with safeguards for domestic and international opportunities for child, adolescent, parent/ disabilities.89 Improving data collection and surrogacy arrangement in compliance caregiver and community participation.

40 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) CHILD PROTECTION IN URBAN SETTINGS For the first time in history, more people live in urban areas homicides in large cities; in Angeles City in the Philippines, it is Promoting the psychosocial well-being of than in rural areas, including 1 billion people living in slums.96 working with city authorities to strengthen the justice system children and their caregivers is considered a By 2030, the slum-dwelling population is expected to reach to combat sexual abuse; and in Kolkata, India, it has supported 2 billion – one in four people on the planet. Half of these will Ward-level Child Protection Committees to implement the preventive approach, as it is associated with be children.97 Some 60 per cent of refugees and 80 per cent policies of the Government’s flagship Integrated Child Protection reduced risk of other child rights violations, of internally displaced persons settle in urban areas, outside Scheme. Over the period of this Strategy, UNICEF and partners and is a joint endeavour across UNICEF the reach of traditional humanitarian operations.98 Children’s will need to focus increasingly on urban challenges. This will sectors and cross-cutting teams. Mental safety can be compromised in cities in ways unique to the urban require: better data and deeper analysis to understand and act context, including exploitative labour, living and working on the on urban challenges; specific strategies and resourcing for urban health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) is street, trafficking, pollution, unsafe infrastructure, vehicular programming; and new and multi-sectoral partnerships, including a priority response in humanitarian settings, traffic, overcrowding, unsafe passage to school, armed violence, with municipal governments, security forces, urban planners, where child protection programmes are criminal gang activity, unsafe public places, violence in the home environmental stakeholders and the private sector. In urban focused on holistic, community-based and school and environmental hazards. hotspots, UNICEF will prevent and mitigate the impact of armed violence on children and adolescents and their involvement approaches, and included in support Child Protection issues specific to urban environments require in criminal gangs. It will work within the context of the Child 99 for children affected by armed conflict, specific programming responses from UNICEF and from our Friendly Cities Initiative in which child protection issues are separated from families, and survivors of partners. In Brazil, UNICEF has supported studies on adolescent firmly embedded. gender-based violence.95 Going forward, UNICEF will further invest in integrating MHPSS in child protection programming and between women and men – and they policy engagement in development settings, sustain themselves by limiting opportunities including systems strengthening, justice, for girls and women to realize their rights violence against children, parenting, and and full potential in terms of health, Children on the Move. UNICEF’s MHPSS education, income, equality and a life free work uses evidence-based interventions from violence. These practices are often aligned with international standards, and exacerbated in humanitarian settings due to contributes to building evidence and several factors, including sexual and developing standards, such as Minimum gender-based violence, insecurity, gender Services Package for MHPSS in Child inequality, breakdown of law and State Protection. An acceleration initiative HARMFUL PRACTICES: Child marriage authority or social support networks, lack of •is increasing the breadth and depth of and female genital mutilation (FGM) essential services and need for protection. MHPSS programmes, currently in over 100 constitute human rights violations, countries,DRAFT as well as leadership in evidence threatening the lives and futures of girls and Progress is possible – even in high- and learning. women. These practices are rooted in prevalence countries – when the right mix gender inequality and power imbalances of holistic, human rights-based, preventive

41 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) CHILD PROTECTION AND CLIMATE, ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT Climate change undermines the rights of children, and magnifies structural and systemic vulnerabilities of women and children, strategies are in place. Based on over a particularly the extreme poor. It is exacerbating child protection risks through resource scarcity, food insecurity, violence, decade of experience and learning from conflict, natural disasters, forced displacement, increased poverty and insecure environments. UNICEF’s work on climate change adopts four approaches, listed here with examples of how they can be structured to contribute to child protection outcomes: the UNFPA/UNICEF Joint Programme on Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation: Accelerating Change and the UNFPA/ i Making children the centre of climate change iii Protecting children from the impacts of disasters, strategies and response plans: advocate for climate change and environmental degradation: UNICEF Global Programme to End Child environmental strategies and standards that specifically address support disaster and climate-resilient services to be informed on Marriage, UNICEF will focus on: enhancing children’s requirements for safety; child protection issues; and work with government and private governments’ capacity for legal and policy sector counterparts to ensure child protection issues are responses to end child, early and forced addressed in shock-responsive social protection measures; ii Empowering children as agents of change: support marriage; supporting adolescent girls’ youth advocacy for climate change; promote inclusive empowerment; promoting girls’ equal rights skills development to ensure young people can carry out iv Reducing emissions and pollution: promote energy environmental solutions; and engage young people in better, more efficient lighting at schools, health facilities and in to education and alternative opportunities; effective early warning systems/ early action; streets; and advocate and build awareness for clean and supporting multi-sectoral coordination and child-friendly cities/communities with a child rights lens. stakeholder engagement to strengthen the accessibility and quality of gender-responsive information services to adolescent girls, promoting gender-responsive parenting; and violence, including power differentials based including sexual and reproductive health; bridging the humanitarian and development on gender inequality and/or age. It will supporting social and behaviour change divide. UNICEF will continue to collaborate ensure that its programming in all contexts communication to influence social and closely with UNFPA and other sister UN is designed and implemented based on a gender norms; and providing global agencies in support of governments and nuanced analysis of these root causes. leadership to advocate for action. civil society partners, including women’s groups, child rights groups and youth-led UNICEF’s programming focuses on both Strategies to end FGM will focus groups that work in this area. prevention and response to violence to primarily on prevention and will include: support States’ accountabilities to protect developing and implementing policies and VIOLENCE AGAINST GIRLS, BOYS AND children from “…all forms of physical or legislation that end FGM; transforming WOMEN: Even though the foundational mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect •discriminatory social and gender norms human rights conventions explicitly enshrine or negligent treatment, maltreatment or that sustain harmful practices; supporting the right to live free from violence, girls, exploitation, including sexual abuse” (art. girls’DRAFT empowerment; ensuring access to boys and women still face violence in all 19, CRC), whether in situations where education and child protection services, settings and contexts. To more effectively adults abuse their power over children or including gender-responsive information uphold these rights, UNICEF will focus on are unable to protect them from harm or on sexual reproductive health services; the root causes that lie at the heart of this perpetuated by other children. With the

42 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) adoption of the SDGs in 2015, the global community has set a number of violence- related targets, including a call to eradicate all forms of violence against children by 2030. It is estimated that 1 billion children endure violence every year. When unaddressed, the experience – indeed, even the witnessing – of violence can undermine children’s emotional, psychological and cognitive development, contribute to the intergenerational transmission of violence and undermine progress at societal level across a range of SDGs. of masculinity and gender norms linked to for survivors as well as their families and violence and dominance are reinforced in boys. communities, and it must be prevented. Alongside power differentials based on age, These factors lead to more distinctly gendered Effective programming requires not only violence against children is underpinned by patterns of violence in the lives of adolescents. dealing with individual incidents of violence social norms that reinforce gender-based but also addressing GBV as a larger system inequalities. Girls and women face specific Gender-based violence (GBV) is a term that disadvantages girls and women at types of violence that are both a consequence that was coined to draw attention to every step of their lives. Unless preventing of this inequality as well as a mechanism to the gendered nature of violence against and addressing this violence is prioritized, maintain their subordinate status in society. girls and women, which is perpetrated the SDGs – with particular emphasis on Gender inequalities impact on children’s overwhelmingly by men and reinforced SDG 5.2 and 16.2 – will not be met, and experience of violence throughout their life by structural inequalities and systems of UNICEF will fall short of meeting its other course and are often embedded into the family oppression that privilege men and boys programmatic goals. structures in which children are born, and over girls and women, affecting girls before exposure to violence in the home – including they are born and continuing throughout UNICEF considers primary prevention of •through violent discipline by caregivers and the lifecycle.100 Experienced by over one violence to be of paramount importance witnessing IPV against their mothers – is a in three women worldwide, and with and will contribute to building a protective commonDRAFT occurrence for children and women adolescent girls at particular high risk, this environment for all children. This will include alike. In adolescence, manifestations of violence is present in every society and scaling up evidence-based violence reduction discrimination, inequality and stereotyping increases in times of crises. It has life- strategies as identified in the INSPIRE against girls intensify and traditional concepts threatening and long-lasting consequences interagency package, increasing investment

43 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) in family and parenting support and tackling As part of its gender-transformative The challenges posed the social and behavioural drivers of violence. approach, UNICEF will focus on ensuring through online behaviour are The RESPECT Women framework also that gender-responsive parent and caregiver already creating a major impact on calls for child and adolescent abuse to be support is universally available, and will scale the behaviour of children, with parents prevented, including via “strategies that up interventions that challenge restrictive or and even teachers mostly being ignorant establish nurturing family relationships”. In harmful gender norms conducive to violence about how to tackle this challenge. This order that no child is left behind, UNICEF in adolescent peer and intimate partner has changed significantly since the time will focus prevention programmes on those relationships. With due attention to the the SDGs were drawn up, and will do children in situations of greatest risk. It full range of factors that may intersect to so even more in the next decade. will do so through building capacity for the increase children’s vulnerability to violence, (INDIA COUNTRY CONSULTATION) provision of coordinated services for children, UNICEF will strengthen integration of gender women and families, particularly those dimensions across its violence programming. experiencing discrimination, disabilities, mental ill-health, violence within the home UNICEF’s work on gender-based violence and other adversities, such as war or in emergencies (GBViE) will focus on three safe, accessible and accountable to women humanitarian crises. Finally, UNICEF will programmatic objectives: (i) preventing and girls by mitigating the immediate risks of strengthen child protection systems to GBV by addressing underlying conditions violence, including those related to climate respond where children are experiencing and drivers, particularly gender inequality, change, and (iii) responding by delivering violence to prevent further harm, as well as (ii) ) leaving no one behind by ensuring comprehensive quality and age-appropriate to support recovery and access to justice. programming across all UNICEF sectors is services for survivors, including sexual and reproductive health. In parallel, UNICEF will continue investing in innovations and CHILD ONLINE PROTECTION evidence generation, working with and for Child protection-related human rights violations are pervasive digital marketing practices and (v) children are aware of their organizations led by women and girls. in the digital environment. To address risks and harms linked digital rights and have the necessary information and knowledge to children’s use and offenders’ misuse of digital technologies, to protect themselves from possible harms and risks that they may Outside of crises, UNICEF will build on UNICEF will work with industry, governments, parents and encounter in the digital world. UNICEF recognizes that children • the experience of COVID-19 and other other caregivers, educators, children and young people towards are best protected through strong national child protection five main outcomes: (i) digital technologies are not misused to systems that integrate both the online and offline dimensions emergencies to apply and adapt our facilitate sexual exploitationDRAFT and abuse of children, (ii) children of these harms and that children’s right to protection needs successful programming to support use digital technologies free from bullying and harassment, to be considered alongside children’s other rights in a digital systems-strengthening for the prevention (iii) children are protected from inappropriate collection and environment, such as privacy, participation, freedom of expression of, and response to, violence against girls, processing of their data, (iv) children are protected from harmful and access to information. boys and women.

44 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) Protection from Sexual Exploitation FIGURE 7. Child Protection viewed through a life cycle approach and Abuse (PSEA) – a particular facet of violence against girls, boys and women – PREGNANCY BABIES & INFANTS YOUNG CHILDREN SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN OLDER ADOLESCENTS (0–2 YEARS) (2–5 YEARS) (5–18 YEARS) (14–19 YEARS)

is a corporate priority for UNICEF. Sexual LIFE STAGE

exploitation and abuse, in this specific BIRTH REGISTRATION context, is the abuse or attempted abuse of POSITIVE PARENTING a position of vulnerability, differential power VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN or trust for sexual purposes, or the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual PREVENTION OF FAMILY SEPARATION nature, by UN personnel, their implementing CASE MANAGEMENT

partners or other aid workers against the HARMFUL PRACTICES (FGM & CHILD MARRIAGE) people they serve. Children and women MENTAL HEALTH & PSYCHO-SOCIAL WELLBEING are disproportionately at risk of sexual CP SYSTEMS abuse and exploitation across multiple GRAVE VIOLATIONS IN ARMED CONFLICT settings, particularly within humanitarian VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN & GIRLS IN CRISES

contexts. While this is an organizational JUSTICE SOCIAL WELFARE LEGAL IDENTITY responsibility at all levels, child protection ACCESS TO JUSTICE provides several critical contributions to this agenda: (i) scaling up safe, contextualized ECD (NURTURING CARE; STIMULATION; ECD SERVICES; POSITIVE PARENTING PROGRAMMES) and accessible channels for reporting

sexual exploitation and abuse, (ii) providing HEALTH (VITAL REGISTRATION; SCHOOL HEALTH; VIOLENCE PREVENTION AND CASE DETECTION, CARE AND SUPPORT; BEHAVIOURAL survivor-centred assistance based on our AND REGULATORY ISSUES RELATING TO SAFETY; PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH) GBV and Child Protection programming EDUCATION (SAFE AND PROTECTIVE SPACE; ADDRESSING BULLYING AND VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS; LEARN ABOUT THREATS AND and (iii) strengthening accountability PROTECTIVE FACTORS; IDENTIFICATION AND REFERRAL; SAFETY OF STUDENTS AS THEY TRAVEL) for child survivors, including related to

child-sensitive investigations. Our Child NUTRITION (UNETHICAL MARKETING OF FOOD AND BEVERAGE PRODUCTS; PREVENTING CHILD MARRIAGE AND ADOLESCENT PREGNANCIES) •Protection programming work is guided by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s WASH (GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE; CLIMATE CHANGE AND WATER SCARCITY; MENSTRUAL HYGIENE MANAGEMENT) priorityDRAFT outcomes, the UN Protocol on Assistance to Victims of Sexual Exploitation CORE ACCOUNTABLITIES OF CORE ACCOUNTABLITIES

CHILD PROTECTION OUTOMES SOCIAL POLICY & SOCIAL PROTECTION (PUBLIC FINANCING FOR CHILDREN; CASH TRANSFERS AND OTHER SAFETY NET MECHANISMS;

and Abuse and the CCCs. Making access to OTHER SECTORS TO DELIVERING CHILD PROTECTION AND SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEMS STRENGTHENING) child-centred reporting, response services

45 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) and legal recourse safe and universal in countries where UNICEF operates is our agenda for the next decade, and our contribution to affecting the needed culture change to end sexual exploitation and abuse by our own personnel and our partners.

GRAVE VIOLATIONS IN ARMED CONFLICT: UNICEF will work with UN partners to monitor and report on grave violations of children’s rights in situations of armed conflict: killing and maiming of children; recruitment and use of children by non-State armed groups and by armed forces; attacks on schools or hospitals; rape or other sexual violence against children; abduction of children; and denial of humanitarian access UNICEF will work jointly with governments 11 on Children Associated with Armed to children. As a co-Chair of the Country Task and others to prevent the recruitment of Forces and Armed Groups103 and child justice Forces on Monitoring and Reporting, UNICEF children by non-State armed groups and by frameworks. will advocate for adoption and implementation armed forces and aid their release, repatriation of concrete measures to prevent grave (where relevant) and reintegration. In addition, Across these thematic priorities, there violations and protect children from the recognizing their resilience and opportunity are milestone moments and programme impact of armed conflicts. UNICEF will also to contribute to peace and social cohesion, approaches that support a child to make pursue work on unexploded ordinances UNICEF will engage with children, particularly key transitions successfully across their and explosive weapons. Children represent adolescents, as peacebuilders and agents of life course. UNICEF will support age- and more than half the civilian casualties of change. This will include working with the gender-appropriate programming that •landmines and explosive remnants of Special Representatives of the UN Secretary- recognizes the differentiated needs of war.101 UNICEF will prioritize risk education, General, including within the framework UN children at different stages. Furthermore, emphasizeDRAFT child-focused victim assistance, Security Council Resolutions on Children and programming approaches will also recognize promote universal acceptance of the Mine Armed Conflict and the Secretary-General’s the evolving capacities of the child to Ban Treaty and advocate against the use prevention agenda.102 Work in this area will be participate in decisions that affect them, of explosive weapons in populated areas. guided by Child Protection Minimum Standard particularly in adolescence.

46 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) CORE INPUTS FIGURE 8. Expenditure by region

SAR mplementation of the Strategy will To implement the Strategy, UNICEF will 9% be driven by country and regional seek increases in both regular and thematic WCAR contexts, with programming choices resources. It will seek longer-term and more 20% and partnerships determined by local unrestricted funding, including funding that needs and strategies. The Strategy it can deploy for child protection system MENAR will be supported by three core inputs: (i) strengthening rather than narrow thematic I 24% EAPR financial resources,(ii) human resources priorities. There was a 129 per cent increase 7% and (iii) performance and impact in spending on systems-related expenditure

monitoring. from 2014-2019. ECAR 8%

Financial Resources Human Resources LACR 6% ESAR Child protection annual expenditure As of the beginning of 2021, UNICEF had 22% has remained just below 13 per cent of 894 full-time staff working in the area UNICEF’s total expenditure for the last six of Child Protection – its largest single years (2014-2019), reaching $708 million in workforce and the largest cadre of child 2019. The largest increases in expenditure protection specialists in any international HEADQUARTERS 4% have been to emergencies, violence against agency – though the share of UNICEF staff children, systems strengthening and, has remained constant at 18-19 per cent work in Child Protection, reflecting the geographically, to the Middle East and North of specialist staff. Child Protection staff human resource-intensive nature of this Africa (MENA) region. The MENA region work in tandem with other specialist staff work. In the survey, only 49 per cent agreed accounts for almost one quarter of Child to deliver child protection outcomes: both that UNICEF has the appropriate skill sets to •Protection expenditure for the period 2014- ‘cross-cutting’ staff (e.g. Social Policy, successfully execute its work, emphasizing 2019, while sub-Saharan Africa accounts Gender) and staff working on sectors such the need to identify resources for staff forDRAFT 42 per cent (see Figure 8). Yemen, the as Education and Health. Only 24 per cent development and training as well as to Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon of respondents to the Survey conducted sharpen recruitment processes and profiles and Iraq were the top four in order of child for this Strategy agreed that UNICEF has in order to attract and retain appropriately protection programme expenses in 2019. enough staff to successfully execute its qualified and experienced professionals.

47 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) tracking UNICEF inputs, outputs and Monitoring and progress reporting of this Performance and outcomes. Performance monitoring Strategy will be done primarily through: (i) •Impact Monitoring through such strategic indicators will be performance monitoring of Child Protection UNICEF has invested heavily in supplemented by an annual results report priorities and commitments in UNICEF four- performanceDRAFT and impact monitoring on Child Protection, internal audits, year Strategic Plans covering the Strategy for child protection in recent years. Annual evaluations and reviews (see Annex 2 period to 2030 and (ii) SDG tracking at the performance monitoring is conducted for what UNICEF has learnt from recent Goal level of the Strategy. through Strategic Monitoring Questions, evaluations of its work in Child Protection).

48 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) RISKS AND RISK MANAGEMENT

TABLE 4. Risks and Risk Mitigation Measures

RISK MITIGATION MEASURES

Pandemics such as COVID-19 erode child protection rights, and the • Work with partner governments and the international community to support pandemic preparedness and fast and restriction of services inhibits the delivery of Child Protection interventions flexible child protection response strategies, based on international human rights standards and principles, with adequate budget allocations

National Governments give insufficient priority to Child Protection, resulting • Build and support public understanding and create popular pressure for change in weak leadership, insufficient resources and lack of accountability for • Build evidence on both the costs of inaction and the potential to make progress outcomes • Advocate to governments and other decisions-makers

Limited commitment from the Education and Health sectors to invest/ • Prioritize a whole organization approach to child protection with clear accountabilities for programmes areas engage in Child Protection • Advocate with governments and decision-makers

Online risks to Child Protection increase faster than regulatory and other • Increase work with national and global bodies to provide effective regulation, education and other mitigating measures mechanisms are implemented to address them • Continue to promote Child Protection systems strengthening, recognizing the interface between offline and online prevention and response

Inadequate coordination between partners undermines alignment to • Clearly communicate inter-agency mandates and leadership government priorities and programme effectiveness • Commit adequate resources to partnership work • Seek more opportunities for joint programming, including through United Nations Development System (UNDS) reform

UNICEF fails to secure financial resources for Child Protection at an • Advocate for more and better financing for child protection at country, regional and global levels adequate level and of the optimum type (long-term and unrestricted) • Develop evidence-based analysis of the impact of the lack of resources

UNICEF staff lack the right skills and capabilities • Engage in proactive talent management and invest in a sectoral learning pathway

A growing narrative against human and child rights, together with • Increase public understanding of human and child rights, including through formal education • misinformation, undermines the priority given to child rights violations related • Support advocacy towards duty bearers to Child Protection

ChildrenDRAFT or communities face collateral harm by our people or partners • Engineer UNICEF systems to minimize the threat of collateral harm to children, and sexual exploitation and abuse, arising or work from its people, partners and work, in accordance with best safeguarding international standards and practices

UNICEF and partners are not able to access remote and at-risk populations • Join up across the UN systems to lobby for access, particularly in humanitarian situations

49 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) A focus on Safeguarding: The actions adolescent participation. In the context of build capacity for their implementation in of UNICEF and its partners carry risks of Child Protection work, UNICEF will: assess all organizations that work with directly unintended consequences to the children risks; establish or apply protocols and with children (in person and/or via digital and communities we serve, including standards to mitigate risks; prevent harms technology). These include State and non- possible risks to their safety. Threats to through vetting, training and managing State organizations such as schools, health safety from UNICEF’s people, partners and personnel and partners; promote methods centres, care facilities, sports clubs and work – including child maltreatment and for detection and reporting of concerns; religious institutions as well as organizations abuse, sexual exploitation and abuse and respond appropriately to incidents to reduce involved in child participation and research. other safety risks – can compromise child harms (and provide institutional knowledge UNICEF will work with businesses to •and human rights, our strategic goals and about referral pathways organization- promote their responsibility to respect our organizational effectiveness. These risks wide); and monitor, evaluate and learn children’s right to protection in all activities areDRAFT accentuated where UNICEF engages from our safeguarding work. Through its and facilities, including the proprietary digital directly with children and adolescents Child Protection programmes, UNICEF platforms that children use for play, learning in its programming, including in light of will promote the establishment of child and socialization. the increased focus of the Strategy on safeguarding policies and procedures and

50 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) ANNEXES ANNEXES

ANNEX 1. UNICEF Child Protection Strategy survey findings: Summary of approach and key findings

NICEF hosted an online survey between 6 February and • There was consensus that UNICEF’s involvement is particularly 2 March 2020 to inform the development of the Strategy. critical in the areas of institutional strengthening of national There was a total of 404 participants – 303 internal and child protection systems in fragile, low- and medium- 101 external – with a good balance across the seven capacity contexts and in service delivery in emergency, U UNICEF regions. Key findings were as follows: fragile and low-capacity contexts. ​Programmatic priorities UNICEF performance • There was strong commitment to realizing the rights • 91 per cent agreed that UNICEF is one of the established of children, with particular support for CRC articles global leaders in Child Protection. emphasizing protection from violence, child labour, drug • Most internal and external respondents agreed that abuse and exploitation. UNICEF is best in class in institutional strengthening of • There was strong commitment to achieving the SDG national child protection systems, policy engagement targets, with 74 per cent of respondents asking UNICEF and influencing through partnerships and advocacy; to do more on SDG 16.2 (ending abuse, exploitation, but least effective in fostering, piloting and evaluating trafficking, violence against and torture of children) and innovations and in social/ behavioural change 73 per cent requesting more on SDG 5.2 (elimination of communication and community engagement. violence against women and girls). • With respect to Child Protection in Humanitarian • There was strong support for UNICEF to do more on child Action, 69 per cent felt there was effective leadership online protection (67 per cent), children on the move (64 and coordination; less than 50 per cent felt there was an adequate response in: mental health and psychosocial • per cent) and ending detention of children (60 per cent), with less support for surrogacy (24 per cent). support; child recruitment and use by armed actors; gender-based violence; landmines and other DRAFT• The top emerging issues in the child protection landscape indiscriminate or illicit weapons; behaviour and social were identified asconflict and humanitarian crises (22 change interventions. per cent), climate change (21 per cent) and digitization / connectivity (17 per cent). • With respect to inter-sectoral working, internal respondents

51 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) recommend more engagement with Children with society organizations; 64 per cent with other UN agencies; Disabilities (78 per cent) and with Social Policy (73 per cent). and 32 per cent with private sector companies. • 55 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement that • 24 per cent agreed that UNICEF has enough staff to all genders and/or people with different capacities are successfully execute its work in child protection. included in UNICEF Child Protection programming. • 49 per cent agreed that UNICEF has the appropriate skill • 47 per cent of respondents agreed that UNICEF Child sets to successfully execute its work. Protection programmes encourage meaningful engagement • 18 per cent agreed that UNICEF resources are allocated and participation of adolescents and young people. efficiently across countries for child protection. • 90 per cent agreed that UNICEF is valued as an important • 41 per cent agreed that UNICEF’s peers are changing more partner in Child Protection programming. and improving faster than UNICEF. • 84 per cent agreed that UNICEF works optimally with country • 47 per cent agreed that UNICEF needs to fundamentally programme governments; 74 per cent with national civil change the way it operates.

ANNEX 2. What UNICEF has learnt from recent evaluations of its work in Child Protection?104

Alignment and Conceptual Clarity Sustainability of Results • The Child Protection programmes covered in the evaluative • UNICEF and national governments face challenges in exercises were found to be well aligned with UNICEF’s mandate bringing national child protection policies and programmes to and global priorities. However, conceptual clarity around the scale and ensuring national coverage. programme areas assessed was a concern throughout, and theories of change setting out the programme-impact pathway Reaching the Most Vulnerable were limited or absent resulting in a lack of shared understanding • With regard to equity and gender, many programme of key concepts by staff and stakeholders. documents demonstrate adequate strategic intent. In practice, however, it is less clear that UNICEF is actually able to deliver •Programme Performance on its ambitions to reach the most vulnerable in its Child • The effectiveness of UNICEF Child Protection programmes, Protection programmes. Gender analysis of population-level DRAFTwhere evaluated, appears to vary strongly by programme data, needs assessments and impact measurement are scarce. context and type of intervention. Overall, however, the Overall, evidence suggests that children and adolescents with contributions of UNICEF and partners rarely add up to disabilities continue to be a largely overlooked population. functioning service-delivery systems. UNICEF also lacks evidence related to children on the move.

52 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) Joint Programming Strengthening (CPSS) and GPECM evaluations signalled • The Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child persistent weaknesses regarding the use and dissemination Marriage (GPECM) and the Joint Programme on the of data/information. Limitations in the monitoring capacity Abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation: Accelerating of CP staff and implementing partners at country level were Change were supportive of child protection frameworks, also noted. However, mobile applications for field monitoring targets and accountability mechanisms. However, they and child protection information management systems are operated largely outside the child protection systems- providing new and cost-effective opportunities for data strengthening approach and discourse or in parallel to it. collection on field-level results. Overall, evidence suggests that joint programmes bringing together the complementary mandates and expertise of Resourcing and Capacity UNFPA and UNICEF made critical contributions to the • Challenges around funding are mainly linked to the difficulty agendas to end child marriage and abandon FGM. However, in building resource partnerships, including government- there are opportunities to increase synergies and improve led coalitions at the national level, and in securing lengthier coordination between these agencies at country level. funding cycles from donors. Regarding staff capacity, UNICEF field-based personnel would benefit from Monitoring and Learning additional technical support to operationalize the systems- • Since 2018, UNICEF Child Protection has invested heavily strengthening approach as the skillset needed goes in improving its monitoring and reporting frameworks. beyond what is typically found in child protection staff. The The early results of these initiatives were noted in leadership and guidance from regional offices was found to various evaluative exercises. The Child Protection System be mostly effective.

APPENDIX. Programmatic Guidance on Child Protection

The compendium of Programmatic Guidance on Child Protection – both UNICEF-specific and inter-agency – covers areas of this Strategy in much more detail. The link will be updated through the course of the Strategy period as guidance is updated and new guidance developed. • DRAFT

53 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) ENDNOTES ENDNOTES 1 The General Comments of the CRC Committee also provide 9 United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 20 See: World Bank, ‘The World Bank in Middle Income Countries’, 2020, interpretation and analysis of specific articles of the CRC or deal Population Division, World Population Prospects 2019: Highlights, , accessed 20 May 2021. with thematic issues related to the rights of the child. General United Nations, New York, 2019, , accessed 20 May 21 Save the Children, Stop the War on Children: Protecting children in is expected of States parties as they implement the obligations 2021. 21st century conflict, 2019, , accessed 20 addressed in the Optional Protocols to the CRC on the involvement 10 United Nations Children’s Fund, Division of Data, Research and Policy, May 2021. Generation 2030 Africa 2.0: Prioritizing investments in children to reap of children in armed conflict, and on the sale of children, child 22 Ibid. prostitution and child pornography. the demographic dividend, UNICEF, New York, 2017, , accessed 20 May 23 See: United Nations Children’s Fund, ‘Child Displacement’, April 2021, 2 The CRC Committee’s Reporting Guidelines for States Parties define 2021. , accessed 20 May 2021. specifically to child protection are: Violence against children (arts. 19, 11 United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 24, para. 3, 28, para. 2, 34, 37 (a) and 39); Family environment and Population Division, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 revision, 24 Mercy Corps, The Facts: How climate change affects people living alternative care (arts. 5, 9–11, 18, paras. 1 and 2, 20, 21, 25 and 27, United Nations, New York, 2018, , accessed 20 May 2021. mercycorps.org/en-gb/blog/climate-change-poverty>, accessed 20 37 (b)–(d), and 38–40). See: United Nations Committee on the Rights 12 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, ‘News: May 2021. of the Child, ‘Treaty-Specific Guidelines Regarding the Form and Latest migration trends revealed’, 19 December 2019, , accessed 20 May 2021. files/Feb2019_FH_FITW_2019_Report_ForWeb-compressed.pdf>, Child’, CRC/C/58/Rev.3, 3 March 2015, , accessed 20 May 2021. the period 1990–2000 to 33 million in 2019. See: United Nations 26 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140- Children’s Fund, ‘Child Migration’, April 2021, , accessed 20 ‘The Costs and Economic Impact of Violence Against Children’, May 2021. 27 See: World Health Organization, ‘Improving the Mental and Brain Overseas Development Institute and Child Fund Alliance, London, Health of Children and Adolescents’, 2021, , uploads/2014/10/ODI-Policy-Brief.-The-cost-and-economic-impact-of- Forced displacement in 2019, UNHCR, Copenhagen, 2020, , accessed 20 May 2021. www.unhcr.org/globaltrends2019>, accessed 20 May 2021. 28 See: World Health Organization, ‘Suicide: Key facts’, 2 September 4 See: World Vision, ‘It Takes a World to End Violence Against Children’, 15 International Monetary Fund, ‘World Economic Outlook: Update’, 2019, < www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/suicide>, 2021, , accessed 20 IMF, Washington, DC, 20 January 2020, , accessed 20 29 See: World Health Organization, ‘The WHO Special Initiative for 5 United Nations Development Group, ‘The Human Rights Based May 2021. The slowdown has been even more pronounced across Mental Health (2019-2023): Universal health coverage for mental Approach to Development Cooperation Towards a Common emerging market and developing economies, including Brazil, China, health’, 2019, , accessed 20 May 2021. unsdg.un.org/resources/human-rights-based-approach-development- cooperation-towards-common-understanding-among-un>, accessed 16 Ibid. 30 See: World Health Organization, ‘Mental Disorders: Key facts’, 28 20 May 2021. November 2019, , accessed 20 May 2020. 6 Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility, The Inter-Agency unicef.org/social-policy/child-poverty>, accessed 20 May 2021. Minimum Standards for Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies 31 Plan International, State of the World’s Girls: Free to be online? 18 See: UN News, “New UN Poverty Report Reveals “Vast Inequalities” Programming, United• Nations Population Fund, New York, 2019, Girls’ and young women’s experiences of online harassment, Plan Between Countries’, 11 July 2019, , accessed 20 May 2021. International, Woking, UK, 2020, , accessed 20 May 2019. publications/freetobeonline>, accessed 20 May 2021. 7 International Disability Alliance, IASC Guidelines on Inclusion of DRAFT19 The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, Save the 32 United Nations Children’s Fund, Division of Data, Research and Policy, Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action, 2019, , accessed 20 May 2021. Hidden in Plain Sight: A statistical analysis of violence against children, Protection: Working together to protect children from the impact of UNICEF, New York, 2014, , RES/1612 (2005), 2005, , default/files/2020-12/social_protection_and_child_protection.pdf>, accessed 20 May 2021. accessed 20 May 2021. accessed 20 May 2021.

54 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) 33 Ibid. 43 See: United Nations Children’s Fund, ‘Protecting Children from 58 See: United Nations Children’s Fund, ‘Female Genital Mutilation Violence in School’, 2020, , accessed 21 May 2021. protection/female-genital-mutilation>, accessed 21 May 2021. 2020, , accessed 21 May 2021. 44 Ibid. 59 See: ‘Child Marriage: Latest trends’. 35 See: Girls Not Brides, ‘Where It Happens’, 2000, , accessed 21 May 2021. review in the context of COVID-19’, Innocenti Research Brief 2020- 61 See: United Nations Children’s Fund, ‘Child Marriage’, April 2020, 16, UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti, Florence, 2020, , 36 United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Entity for Gender unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/IRB-2020-16-Impacts-of-Pandemics- accessed 21 May 2021. Equality and Women’s Empowerment and Plan International, A New and-Epidemics-on-Child-Protection.pdf>, accessed 21 May 2021. Era for Girls: Taking stock of 25 years of progress, New York, 2020, 62 See: ‘Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)’. , accessed 46 Ibid. 63 The human rights principles include universality and inalienability, 21 May 2021. 47 United Nations Children’s Fund, Ending Violence Against Children: indivisibility and interdependence of human rights, equality and non- 37 Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, Six strategies for action, UNICEF, New York, 2014, , accessed 21 May 2021. 64 See: United Nations Children’s Fund, ‘Gender Action Plan society on an equal basis with others. See: United Nations General 48 See: United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment 2018–2021’, , accessed 21 March 2021. RES/61/106, 13 December 2006, , accessed 21 May 2021. women/facts-and-figures>, accessed 21 May 2021. protection contributes, including those relating to education, health, nutrition and poverty reduction. 38 See: Pan American Health Organization, ‘Children with 49 See: United Nations Children’s Fund, ‘Child Marriage: Latest trends Disabilities More Likely to Experience Violence’, undated, and future prospects’, July 2018, , accessed 21 May first time, unanimously adopted a resolution on the rights of the child cle&id=6998:2012-children-disabilities-more-likely-experience- 2021. dedicated to the issue of children without parental care. See: United violence&Itemid=135&lang=en>, accessed 21 May 2021. 50 See: United Nations Population Fund, ‘Female Genital Mutilation Nations General Assembly, ‘Rights of the Child’, A/RES/74/133, 18 (FGM) Frequently Asked Questions’, July 2020, , accessed 39 See: World Health Organization, ‘Children with Disabilities More 21 May 2021. Likely to Experience Violence’, Media Centre, 12 July 2012, org/resources/female-genital-mutilation-fgm-frequently-asked- , accessed 21 May 2021. 67 Department for International Development (DFID), et al., violence_20120712/en>, accessed 21 May 2021; and Jones, Lisa, et 51 See: International Labour Organization, ’40 Million Children in Modern Advancing Child-Sensitive Social Protection, June 2009, , accessed 21 May Lancet, vol. 380, no. 9854, pp. 899–907, July 2012, https://www. news/WCMS_574717/lang--en/index.htm>, accessed 21 May 2021. 2021. thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(12)60692-8/ 68 See: End Violence Against Children, ‘Safe to Learn’, undated, , accessed 21 May 2021. 40 Hughes, Karen, et al., ‘Prevalence and Risk of Violence Against , accessed 21 May 2021. adolescent participation and civic engagement, UNICEF, New York, observational studies’, The Lancet, vol. 379, no. 9826, pp. 1621–1629, 2020,

55 UNICEF CHILD PROTECTION STRATEGY (2021-2030) 72 See: United Nations Children’s Fund, ‘Evaluation Reports’, undated, 83 See, for example: Child Rights Connect, ‘CHRDs, UN and Civil Society 94 See: International Social Service, ‘Principles for the protection of the , Experts Agree on a Roadmap to Move Forward the 2018 DGD Outcome rights of the child born through surrogacy’, , accessed and-civil-society-experts-agree-on-a-roadmap-to-move-forward-the- 21 May 2021. 73 See: The Safe Schools Declaration, 2015, , accessed 21 May 2021. protectingeducation.org>, accessed 21 May 2021; and reports from 95 See: United Nations Children’s Fund, ‘Operational Guide on the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, , accessed 21 May 2021. Children’, UNICEF, New York, September 2020, , accessed 21 May 2021. based-mental-health-and-psychosocial-support-guidelines-2019>, major contributions to nutritional outcomes for girls who are yet to accessed 21 May 2021. complete their physical growth and whose children would be at a 85 See: Responsible Data for Children (RD4C), , higher risk of low birthweight and undernutrition in early childhood. accessed 21 May 2021, and United Nations Children’s Fund, 96 See: United Nations Department of Economic Affairs, Statistics ‘Good Governance of Children’s Data’, undated, , accessed 21 May safe, resilient and sustainable’, undated, , accessed 21 May 2021. index.htm>, accessed 21 May 2021. 86 United Nations General Assembly, ‘Guidelines for the Alternative Care 97 United Nations Population Fund, State of World Population 76 Jensen, Celina, Understanding Risk and Protective Factors in of Children’, A/RES/64/142, , accessed 21 May 2021. publications/state-world-population-2012>, accessed 21 May 2021. in Humanitarian Action, 2021, , accessed 21 May 2021. Results for Children in Street Situations in the Decade of Action twenty-first-century front line’, World Refugee Council Research [2020–2030]: Technical guidance’, June 2020, , accessed 2018, , accessed 21 May 2021. London, 2020, , accessed 21 May 2021. 88 Jensen, Understanding Risk 99 See: Child Friendly Cities Initiative, ‘Make Your City Child Friendly’, UNICEF, 2021, , accessed 21 May 78 See: United Nations Children’s Fund, ‘Public Finance for Children’, 89 Of relevance also are the two joint general comments of the CRC 2021. undated, , accessed Committee and the Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers and 21 May 2021. Their Families on the rights of the child in the context of international 100 Inter-Agency Standing Committee, Guidelines for Integrating Gender- migration. See: , accessed 21 May 2021. 2015, , accessed 21 May 2021. , accessed 21 May 2021. unicef.org/media/62986/file>, accessed 21 May 2021. 101 Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, ‘Landmine Monitor 2019’, International Campaign to Ban Landmines – Cluster Munition 80 United Nations Children’s Fund, Guidelines to Strengthen the Social 91 Marcus, Rachel, Amina Khan, Carmen Leon-Himmelstine and Jenny Coalition, 21 November 2019, , accessed 21 May 2021. 2019, , accessed 21 May 2021. assessment, UNICEF, New York, 2020, , accessed 21 May 2021. undated, , accessed which UNICEF co-leads with the United Nations High Commissioner 21 May 2021. for Refugees, , accessed 21 May 2021. been born to date through assisted reproductive technologies. See: 103 Jensen, Understanding Risk; and The Paris Principles: Principles De Sutter, Petra, ‘Anonymous Donation of Sperm and Oocytes: and guidelines on children associated with armed forces and armed 82 See: United Nations• Economic and Social Council, ‘Introduction Balancing the rights of parents, donors and children’, Council of groups, February 2007, , accessed 21 May 2021. to civil registration, vital statistics and identity management’, E/ Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=25439>, accessed 21 May 2021. CN.3/2020/15, 2020, , accessed 21 May 2020. 93 See: United Nations Human Rights Council, ‘Sale and Sexual in the field of Child Protection, 2019. Exploitation of Children: Annual report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, including child prostitution, child pornography and other child sexual abuse material’, A/HRC/43/40, 21 January 2020, , accessed 21 May 2021.

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