Save the Children has mounted a campaign for real and lasting change in children’s lives as well as to reach more beneficaries in Ethiopia than it does anywhere else in the world, so disclosed Save the Children in Ethiopia.
At the panel discussion, hosted in Addis Ababa, head of Child Right Governance Advocacy and Campaign, under Save the Children, Azmeraw Belay said that Save the Children’s work in Ethiopia focuses on health, nutrition, education, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), child protection, child rights governance, livelihood and resilience, women’s empowerment, youth, job creation and migration, both in humanitarian and non-humanitarian contexts.
As to him, during the last three years alone, its work in Ethiopia has out reached more than 23 million Ethiopians, mainly children.
The organization values its partnership with the government of Ethiopia and other stakeholders. And it acknowledges and appreciates the impressive steps the government is taking in enacting legislative and policy changes for children and promoting access to education, primary health care and protection services.
“Our country team in Ethiopia is one of Save the Children’s biggest globally, and engages in direct program interventions,
advocacy and campaigns. Save the Children campaigns for and with children based on their experiences, opinions and priorities,” he added.
He further pointed out that however, despite this good work, there are still millions of children who are left behind and need our collaborative support to enable them to become productive and responsible citizens. Hence, “ we call on the government to invest further in children, to ensure they have access to social services they need to become productive members of their society. This is a grand cause that we share with the government and we are ever determined to support.”
Adding he said that Save the Children celebrates the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UN CRC), the most widely ratified Human Rights treaty in history that has played a central role to improve the lives of children around the world.
He further pin pointed that Save the Children believes that the 30th Anniversary of the United Nations convention of the rights of the child provides a unique opportunity to put children’s rights first in the organization’s programming.
The Convention of the Rights of the Child, along with its Optional Protocols, has already achieved much in terms of fostering peaceful development and co-existence.
This has been instrumental in driving global actions in assessing the status of child rights, and strengthening awareness and understanding of children’s rights in Ethiopia and around the world.
According to him, the Anniversary provides a new opportunity to take stock of progress in implementing the rights of the child, set in motion new actions to further strengthen the child rights movement in the national context, and step up collaboration with government, NGOs, UN agencies, local civil society organizations, communities and children to further contribute to the progressive realization of children’s rights.
“We use evidence-based knowledge generated through the direct work we and our partners do with children, their families and their communities to inform our programs, and make sure our work is meaningfully responsive to the rights enshrined in the United Nations convention of the rights of the child,” he noted.
He remarked that the anniversary is historic for Save the Children as it coincides with our 100th Anniversary in which we have been able to mark our century of hard work ever since Eglantyne Jebb founded Save the Children in 1919 as a global movement that works for the rights of all children.
Jebb also drafted the Child Rights Convention which was adopted into the 1924 Declaration on the Rights of the Child, and then into the UN CRC in 1989. Save the Children is proud of its crucial role in the development of the CRC, a convention that embodies Eglantyne Jebb’s dedication towards ensuring the specific and unique rights of children.
According to him, they celebrate Jebb and her revolutionary ideas in the 30th anniversary of this visionary framework in which they find her indelible mark. Let us seize this opportunity and amplify the moment to create a dialogue and to bring about a measurable improvement in the lives of the most vulnerable children in Ethiopia.
In relation to Save the Children briefing story, regional meeting is hosted by Save the Children, with one of the thematic departments of Save the children called Child Right Governance.
The meeting is aimed to create a learning platform for all Child Right Governance’s members and CRG partner’s. And the objectives of the meeting are to improve the members to understand and apply generated knowledge and evidence related to Child Rights Governance. And also it shares, learns and documents innovative approaches as well as improves networking amongst practitioners including, Save the Children and Civil Society partners, across Africa and beyond.
The Ethiopian Herald January 5/2020
BY MEHARI BEYENE
