Ann Carter from Osman Consulting attended the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action Annual Meeting in Geneva last week. The two-day event brought together a wide range of actors working in the field of child protection in humanitarian settings to consider the theme ‘the humanitarian-development nexus’, and a wide range of contributors considered how humanitarian emergency responses might relate to the longer-term development of child protection systems in different countries across the globe. There was a strong consensus that building parallel processes should be avoided, and that by taking a systems approach, progress can be made to respond to humanitarian emergencies in a way that contributes to strengthening the broader country child protection response.
The meeting also saw the launch of the 2019 Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Action, which have been produced by the Alliance to support actors and practitioners in the ground responding to the protection of children.
The Minimum Standards build on the previous version by strengthening a number of key areas, including highlighting the specific needs of refugee and internally displaced children, the importance of taking a systems perspective, and focusing on upholding the rights of children.
Osman Consulting will take forward the Minimum Standards in our evaluation work to highlight effective responses to protect children and promote their welfare during and after humanitarian crises.
Go to https://alliancecpha.org/en/CPMS_home for further details of the Minimum Standards.