Child rights capacity development programme
It has been estimated that 0.5-1.5 billion children experience violence each year and that 150 million girls and 73 million boys are raped or experience sexual violence annually. To respond to this critical issues, the Oak Foundation has a Child Abuse Programme which targets funding to 60 organisations across Eastern Europe and East Africa.
The aim of the programme is to invest in initiatives that improve practice, influence policy and address the sexual abuse and exploitation of children. New grantees are required to address the underlying drivers of sexual abuse and exploitation by tackling gender, health, education inequities and alleviating poverty; engaging men and boys; and undertaking advocacy activities intended to challenge cultural norms which may inadvertently legitimise abuse, and create better child protection systems.
The programme is underpinned by six interrelated and mutually reinforcing principles including:
1. Child rights-based
2. Child participation
3. Non-discrimination
4. Best interests of the child
5. Respecting and building on strengths
6. Do no harm.
The Oak Foundation has given Child to Child a three year grant to develop the capacity of its grantee organisations to: understand the principles; develop the practical skills needed to implement them effectively; and operationalise the six core principles within their child rights-focused work.
After an initial pilot with partners in Bulgaria, the first year of the project supported 15 grantees in East Africa and 15 in Eastern Europe. The introduction of a new cohort of grantees in 2015 has now doubled the number of participating organisations in each region.
What are we doing?
- Using a combination of face-to-face workshops and online courses to familiarise grantees with the six core principles and develop their capacity to apply them in their work.
- Guiding grantees in building an individual capacity assessment tool to assess the baseline capacity of their organisation and establish relevant development objectives for their organisation.
- Developing a Child Rights Capacity Building online platform that comprehensively addresses each of the six core principles to be used by current and future grantees to enhance understanding and improve practice.
- Encouraging grantees to form inter-organisational Task Groups to focus on particular aspects of the six core principles.
- Promoting sharing of learning and experiences via our online Community of Practice.
What have we achieved?
The first cohort of grantees have completed their benchmarking and many organisations have created Organisational Development Plans for the integration of the six core principles into their organisation’s work.
The second cohort have completed or are working on their benchmarking exercises, and are now looking to move forward with this information. This has be done through face-to-face workshops in Arusha (2014), Entebbe (2015) and Sofia (2014 and 2015), as well as with a six-week blended learning course on our online platform.