Social Policy, Advocacy and Partnerships for Children's Rights
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© UNICEF Egypt/2006 |
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Celebrities like Goodwill Ambassador, Mahmoud Kabil (right) help UNICEF raise public awareness on children’s issues. |
Country Setting
The government and its partners are working together to implement an ambitious range of educational, social and economic reforms. Many of the changes -- including revisions to the Child Law – have major implications for the realisation of children’s and women’s rights. While at the highest level, the GoE has committed itself to addressing children and young people’s rights, this awareness and commitment is often lacking in other levels of the civil service and society. This undermines the degree of commitment to ensuring that the needs of marginalized groups – including children and women – are properly reflected in setting policy and budgetary allocations.
Issues
Many of the key development issues Egypt faces today have a gender and youth dimension; its human development indicators rank it among the lowest performing countries in areas such as women’s empowerment and youth participation.
Issues such as FGM/C, violence in the home and against children have long been considered largely taboo, while others – such as youth participation and decision making in the family and society – remain little explored. Changing this situation poses a major challenge.
It is particularly critical that Egypt improves on citizen’s participation, with a focus on women, young people and children, in order to meet the MDGs.
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© UNICEF Egypt/2006 |
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UNICEF aims at enhancing children and youth participation |
UNICEF in Action
UNICEF seeks to address the implications of development policies and strategies, national legislation and public policies on children and women. The aim is to reform Egypt’s political, economic and social environment to the benefit of children.
In this process, UNICEF and other UN organizations, bilateral and multi-lateral donors have a crucial role to play. UNICEF aims to support policy makers in monitoring and evaluating development activities, identifying policy options related to social safety nets for children, and improving capacity for budgetary analysis and increases in the social sector budget for children, especially in disadvantaged areas.
Socio-Economic Policies and Child Poverty
UNICEF aims to increase understanding of the impact of socio-economic policies on children, and advocates for change in order to advance children’s rights. This will be achieved by developing evidence-based research; knowledge exchange; enhanced engagement with media, and convening national debates in which contributions from children, women and young people themselves are critical.
Research, Monitoring and Evaluation
Policy oriented research will be conducted, providing substantive evidence regarding national policies and their impact on children’s and women’s wellbeing. It will identify causes of insufficient progress and suggest options to tackle them. This research will focus on appropriate mechanisms to meet the MDGs, and identify the resources needed to do so.
Advocacy
Advocacy will be geared towards increasing public awareness on children's issues, strengthening existing partnerships and seeking out new ones. Ties to religious, parliamentary, private sector and other influential bodies and organisations will be expanded to ensure that the situation of children becomes a more prominent focus of public attention. Particular attention will be given to allowing children and adolescents a dedicated media space – in television and other media – in which to raise and discuss issues of importance to them.
Partnerships
UNICEF's programme is part of the UN Development Assistance Framework 2007-11. Partners at the national level include governmental agencies and institutions, parliamentarians, academic and research institutes, religious leaders, private sector businesses, media, NGOs, community-based organizations, and women’s organizations. Youth and children themselves are major partners in this process
