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Child Protection Area of Responsibility North-East Nigeria, Mid-Year Review Meeting

Attachments

Introduction

The Child Protection Area of Responsibility is coordinating the implementation of the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) 2022 with the ambition of reaching 1.278 million children, men, and women with child protection services, out of the 2 million people in need of humanitarian assistance (child protection services) in the states of Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe (BAY states) by the end of 2022. This is aimed at alleviating suffering of children due to the ongoing insurgency, reach children and communities in hard-to-reach areas with comprehensive high-quality child protection/ cross sectorial services as guided by the Core Commitments of Children in humanitarian Action (CCCs).

In the North-East, the situation is getting dire with continuous increase of child protection concerns ranging from VAC, Trafficking, , CAAG, unaccompanied and separated children, Street children, weak social welfare work force, negative social norms, communal clashes, and low funding to address all the requirements above has left children and communities to resort to negative copping mechanism.

The Government return exercise and camp closure of some IDP camps has posed a different approach to the already existing service provision by adopting more flexible approaches to reach the children in need. Despite all the various challenges, the child protection AoR partners have ensured the continuity and delivery of lifesaving CPiE services.

The CP AoR recognizes the implications of the increased attacks on communities, aid workers and this has impacted interventions in some areas thus calling for fixable modalities to deliver CP services.

Based on the above contextual snapshot, the CP AoR with the Line Ministries of Women and children's Affairs in BAY states reviewed the AoR's and Partners Performance along the HRP Sectors strategic objectives below:

  1. Children at risk (boys and girls) including adolescents, children with disabilities access preventive and comprehensive quality response services in a timely manner.
  2. Parents, caregivers, children, and communities promote positive social norms and adopt behaviors that protect children and women from violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation, and harmful practices.
  3. Capacities of child protection partners and social welfare workforce are strengthened to deliver equitable, quality prevention and response services through a strengthened child protection system,
  4. Leverage on existing partnerships with Donors, Government, Private sector for strategic advocacy and funding for child protection and foster the localization strategies.

The CP AoR, under the leadership of the Adamawa Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, facilitated the mid-year review meeting for child protection actors in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe (BAY states). The meeting was held in hybrid, physically and virtually on Tuesday, August 23rd to 24th August 2022. from 9 am to 5.00 pm at AUN hotel, Yola Adamawa State. The strategic moment of reflection/ mid-year review aimed to achieve the following objectives:

a) Discuss the Milestones against key indicators as of July and agree on processes, strategies to accelerate services to children in next five months to the end of year and recommend actions to address the bottlenecks identified.

b) Take stock of the resource mobilization strategies and available as per July on the GPC/ FTC and brainstorm on how to improve the funding base.

c) Take a quick snap short on the CP AoR Strategy and priorities identified for the next three years and brainstorm on data collection challenges with the (5Ws).

The meeting was opened officially by the Director of Child Development, Adamawa State, Mallam Hassan Mohammed who was delighted to participate in the meeting physically for the first time and thanked all participants, especially those coming from Borno and Yobe from both government and partners' sides. The director acknowledged the good work done by all partners and appreciated everyone for creating time to have a reflection on the progress made so far in achieving the objectives of the CP AoR in 2022 despite shortage of funding. He urged all members to use this opportunity to participate fully in order to meet up with the pending figures and tasks ahead before the end of year.

The Child Protection AoR Coordinator presented a graphic overview of the current situation of children and key child protection concerns in the North-east Nigeria. In summary, social norms, sexual violence, neglect of children with disabilities, child labor, low birth registration uptake, violence against children, child marriage, teenage pregnancy, forceful recruitment, , high MHPSS needs , reports of missing children in camps and communities as some of the key challenges coupled with the current flooding situations impacting on access to communities and loss of lives of some children as they attempt to swim in rivers.

To hasten and add on a positive note the domestication of the Child Protection Law in Adamawa was a big milestone for children in Adamawa that now needs to be widely disseminated and implemented. This year two BAY states Adamawa and Yobe have domesticated the law thus all BAY states have ratified the Child Rights Acts.

Finally, the first standard Nigeria Humanitarian Fund (NHF) has was launched to cater for the gaps identified, local partners NNGOs are encouraged to apply, other important themes are around innovation work for children with disabilities, Accountability to affected Populations and Localization

 

This “Eyes on Trafficking” story is reprinted from its original location.

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PBJ Learning is a leading provider of online human trafficking training, focusing on and prevention education. Their interactive Human Trafficking Essentials is used worldwide to educate professionals and individuals how to recognize human trafficking and how to respond to potential victims. Learn on any web browser (even your mobile phone) at any time.

More stories like this can be found in your PBJ Learning Knowledge Vault.

 

EYES ON TRAFFICKING

This “Eyes on Trafficking” story is reprinted from its original online location.

ABOUT PBJ LEARNING

PBJ Learning is a leading provider of online human trafficking training, focusing on awareness and prevention education. Their interactive Human Trafficking Essentials online course is used worldwide to educate professionals and individuals how to recognize human trafficking and how to respond to potential victims. Learn on any web browser (even your mobile phone) at any time.

More stories like this can be found in your PBJ Learning Knowledge Vault.