Context
Children and youth make up the bulk of the population in developing countries, accounting for up to 70 per cent. The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sees them as ‘critical agents of change’.
Young people have considerable potential and at the same time a great need for protection. Children and youth are particularly vulnerable to becoming victims of abuse and violence, child trafficking and child labour. At the same time, they are key actors with a huge potential for change and should receive special support as drivers of the development capacity of societies.
Although all the partner countries of German development cooperation have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols, the civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights of children and youth are often violated.
The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) set out its strategy in a position paper entitled 'Young people in German development policy – a contribution to the implementation of the rights of children and youth' (2011).
Objective
BMZ and its implementing organisations conduct their development activities in accordance with standards and principles of children's and youth rights in a systematic and strategic manner.
Approach
The project supports BMZ and its implementing organisations with regard to the implementation of children's and youth rights in German development cooperation. It takes a supraregional approach and operates at several levels:
Policy. The project supports BMZ in devising and carrying out an action plan on children's and youth rights. In addition, it helps to ensure that demographic trends and topics relevant to young people’s rights are integrated into development policy steering instruments such as country strategies.
Cooperation. The project assists BMZ in conducting events and in promoting effective cooperation between government and non-governmental actors, for example in BMZ's thematic team on children's and youth rights.
Organisation. Advice is provided to BMZ, implementing organisations and regional training institutions on institutionalising their training concepts on children's and youth rights.
The project also advises individual international cooperation projects and representatives of BMZ's sectoral and regional structure.
Results
• EU-UNICEF Toolkit
In cooperation with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the European Commission, the range of innovative training and continuing professional development possibilities for national and international experts has been expanded. The EU-UNICEF Child Rights Toolkit has enhanced the expertise of more than 600 key actors; children's and youth rights have been mainstreamed into the planning and implementation of projects on a lasting basis.
• Products offered by BMZ's thematic team
In cooperation with civil society, examples of good practices, the website on children's and youth rights in German development policy , several short films and a list of practical instruments have been published. These products enhance knowledge management and hence improve the conditions for implementing young people’s rights.
• PRO-Child: Fight against child labour and child trafficking in Burkina Faso
The project advises and supports the PRO-Child programme, which helps combat exploitative child labour in Burkina Faso. Awareness-raising campaigns and income-generating measures for mothers have prevented around 30,000 children from dropping out of school prematurely and almost doubled the school enrolment rate for girls.
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Downloads
https://www.giz.de/fachexpertise/html/11806.html
Children’s Rights in German Development Cooperation
www.kinder-und-jugendrechte.de
BMZ: Realising children's rights – Safeguarding the future
http://www.bmz.de/en/what_we_do/issues/HumanRights/kinderrechte/index.html
EU-UNICEF Child Rights Toolkit
http://www.childrightstoolkit.com/
UNICEF
https://www.unicef.org/ Related topics
Children’s and adolescents’ rights
https://www.giz.de/expertise/html/11804.html
Empowering children and young people
https://www.giz.de/expertise/html/11000.html
Education and youth
https://www.giz.de/expertise/html/1974.html
Sport for Development
https://www.giz.de/expertise/html/9911.html
Human Rights
https://www.giz.de/expertise/html/5172.html