Cross-cutting Issue: Children and Child Protection
Subject Brief for the Sphere Handbook Revision 2016-2018
Importance of Children and Child Protection to the Sphere Handbook
In 2016, UNICEF estimated that 535 million children live countries affected by conflict and natural disaster.[i]According to UNHCR,51% of the 65.3 million people in forced displacement in 2015were children and a total of 98,400 unaccompanied and separated children were registered globally in 2015 alone[ii]. These children are at serious risk of reduced access to quality education, disease and malnutrition as well as violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect[iii].
Mainstreaming child protection is a step towards operationalizing the ‘do no harm’ principle enshrined in the Sphere handbook. Children can be exposed to violence and other protection risksin health clinics, during food and NFI distributions, at water points, in schools and inhomes. The risks may sometimes be due directly to the way humanitarian interventions are organised, resulting in unforeseen consequences to children.Inadequate attention to safeguarding measures can also increase risk of exploitation and abuse. Many threats to the safety and wellbeing of children can be diminished or even eradicated through timely and child-sensitive provision of humanitarian aid across all sectors.
Consideringneeds and vulnerabilities of all children in designing humanitarian interventions is also essential to ensure access to humanitarian assistance for all, which is another Protection Principle inthe Sphere Handbook. This must be addressed through core programming, including and especially in the sectors of WASH, Nutrition, Health, Food Security and Shelter.
Key Developments in the Sector
A number of key developments have taken place within the child protection and humanitarian sector since the last update of the Sphere Handbook in 2011 that need to be taken into consideration during this revision:
- Development of the Child Protection Standards: The Minimum Standards for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPMS) were developed in late 2012. Designed to be used in conjunction with the Sphere Handbook, the CPMS contains the more recent best practice for ensuring child protection is considered across the humanitarian project cycle. Standards on mainstreaming child protection in other humanitarian sectors are included.
- Improved tools to assess and monitor the situation of child protection and children: A widely-used child protection rapid assessment toolkit along with guidance on including child protection in multi-sectorial assessments, together with a number of other measurement tools, have been developed since 2011., Thisallowsfor increased understanding of risks to children in specific humanitarian contexts.
- Increased understanding of the life-saving role child protection programming plays: It is now more widely accepted thatchild protection interventions need to be prioritized at all stages of an emergency as a matter of survival. This can include interventions for children who are separated from their families, trafficked, used by armed forces and groups, in contact with the justice system, or facing physical or sexual abuse as a result of a humanitarian crisis.
- Increasingevidence on how to bettermainstream child protection in humanitarian action andimprove interventions within cross sector responsibilities (dangers and injuries, harmful practices, etc.): Evidence has been collected on how risks for children can be reduced and harmprevented through specific adaption of interventions by different sectors. Mainstreaming and integrated programming examples have been documented and disseminated.
Key Revision Recommendations
Ensure revised technical standards on WASH, nutrition, health, food security and shelter are in line with the child protection mainstreaming standards of the CPMS (CPMS Standards 21, 22, 23,24, 26).
Better consider child protection mainstreaming measures to prevent harm in addition to mainstreaming measures to respond and refer when abuses take place.
Adapt or include additional indicators to measure children’s access to assistance that ensures their safety where necessary, using the CPMS and the OCHA indicator registry.
Expand considerations of vulnerability for children outside of unaccompanied and separated children and children associated with armed forces orarmed group within the Protection Principles.
Better highlighting the role that the recognition of children’s resilience, child participation and accountability to children must play in humanitarian action within the Protection Principles.
Useful references
- Minimum standards for child protection in humanitarian action. Child Protection Working Group, 2012.
- Child Protection mainstreaming case studies series. The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, 2016.
Contact Information
Please contact the Children and Child Protection Thematic Expert for 2016-2018 Sphere Revision:
Susan Wisniewski, Child Protection in Emergencies Advisor, Terre des hommes, , on behalf of the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action.
[i]UNICEF, Press release, “Nearly a quarter of the world’s children live in conflict or disaster-stricken countries,” 9 December 2016.
[ii] UNHCR, Global Trends Forced Displacement 2015, 2016.
[iii] World Humanitarian Summit Advisory Group on Children. Putting Children at the Heart of the World Humanitarian Summit, 2016.