The goal of Save the Children Sweden’s Civil Society thematic programme is that civil society becomes an active change agent for fulfilling, promoting and protecting child rights.
Promoting rights based programming in civil society organisations
Save the Children Sweden uses a Child Rights Programming (CRP) approach, which puts children at the centre of all programming. CRP aknowledges children as rights holders and engages children as actors in their own development. It recognises governments as the main duty-bearers in fulfilling children’s rights, and promotes accountability to their citizens. Being ‘rights based’ we support civil society organisations that pursue advocacy work to make duty bearers accountable and proactive in ensuring child rights and transparent in policy and law making processes.
Religious leaders and children’s rights
Religious and faith based organisations are critical in forming public opinion and thus their involvement in
forming public opinion and thus their involvement in child rights issues is important. This programme increases cooperation with religious leaders and gathers lessons learned to strengthen the child rights agenda. By involving religious leaders we aim to demonstrate that there is not a contradiction between the concepts of the UNCRC and religious values. We have seen the positive impact of this from our work in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Budget analysis from a children’s rights perspective
When looking at children’s rights and planning, programming and advocacy work, it is important to understand how children’s issues are prioritised in financial terms. The State and local budgets reflect how decision-makers prioritise. Poor allocation of funds to sectors like health, education and child protection has a serious impact on the realisation of children’s rights. This programme facilitates comparative analysis of country budgets and together with local stakeholders agrees on recommendations.
Strengthening UNCRC reporting
Every state that has ratified the UNCRC is required to report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child on how it is fulfilling its obligations. A report is submitted by the State party two years after it has ratified the UNCRC and progress reports are required every five years. An accompanying alternative report can be submitted by civil society actors and is imperative for continous UNCRC monitoring. This programme offers coalitions of local NGOs technical support to improve their ability to monitor the reporting process.
Children’s rights in higher education
Acceptance of the importance of child right’s depends on how social institutions accept and internalise the concept. Academia is one such social institution that can play a valuable role in the realisation of child rights. Academia helps to develop a discourse that creates dialogue in society. This programme aims to formalise children’s rights in academia, create a pool of professionals conversant in children’s rights discourse and develop centres of excellence in children’s rights.
Civil society involvement in emergencies
Many organisations lack the capacity to continue working in an emergency environment. Whenever an emergency occurs, children’s security, protection and development are more at risk. During emergency situations we try to improve the physical and psychosocial conditions of those particularly at risk, with no or little access to civil and social rights. The purpose of this programme is to actively engage with civil society to ensure it is involved in developing and implementing contingency plans together with authorities that ensure and protect child rights in emergency settings.