Save the Children, 2020-23 Protecting Children Affected by Armed Conflict (III)

The program has been running for four and half years. It has been working with complex processes (for example advocacy, legal and political), complex environments (for example Mali and Somalia) and with a multitude of actors (for example AU, Regional Economic Communities, National agencies and children in armed conflict). Holding this complexity together has been an achievement in itself. Save the Children has demonstrated both operational experience and tools to manage these processes. The results of this contribution can mainly be seen in the processes that the organisation has been engaged in. Save the Children has participated in processes, contributed with knowledge, expertise and networks that has influenced various policies, legal interpretations and awareness raising regarding children in armed conflict. Within the framework of this strategy, there are some particular achievements in the policy domain to be noted: Africa Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) adopted in November 2021 the child participation guidelines. The role of Save the Children was to provide input, participate in committee meetings, advocate and followup as well as disseminate results. Avslutspromemoria Completion Memo Contribution ID: 13148 2 (8) Adoption of a general comment to Article 22 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC). The role of Save the Children was to participate in the drafting of a guidance on the interpretation and application of this article. Once adopted, SC also had a role in disseminating the comment to relevant actors. Strenghtened child protection at the AU level. For example, AU has adopted policies of child protection of AU mandated Peace Support Operations (PSO:s). The role of SC has been in acting as a convenor and setting up platforms for the discussion of child protection issues ahead of the biannual AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) meetings. In addition, SC provided material support to the AU to hire a consultant to draft a policy on Child Protection in PSOs. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) adopting a Youth Policy in 2023. The policy provides guidance on how IGAD and its member states on youth engagement strategies. It is a source document and technical guide for the national level of youth programming and development planning. The role of SC was to provide technical and financial support to the development of the policy. AU developing guidelines, standard operating procedures, for reporting against sexual violence against children and youth in Peace Support Operations. The role of SC was to engage in the process to operationalize the policy. Note that these SOP needs to be validated before being endorsed. On the more practical level, the following results stand out: - Supporting the establishment of the Apala Youth Centre in Uganda. This center offers IT training, vocational skills, and peacebuilding programs. Youth had an important role in developing the centre. The role of SC was to collaborate with other stakeholder, such as COMESA, the Government of Uganda, the Uganda National Youth Council, the Horn of Africa Youth Network, and other partners. In addition, SC participated in providing technical support to the management structure of this entity. - Training of Child Protection in Emergencies. This is a professional development program that SC is responsible for and offers to humanitarian workers. It is a training of theoretical and practicial dimensions that has through this program been rolled out in western and central Africa. Number of participants was 77 in a nine month long train the trainers course. The evaluation report from November 2024 by QData and Mapping Services used the OECD DAC criteria of relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency and impact. Below are key points from this evaluation. Relevance: - There are 152 million children affected by conflict in Africa and a need to adress their need of protection from a number of perspectives, policy development, awareness raising and training. - The report mentioned under this heading the fact that SC has provided tailored training to military personell, embedding child protection in operations. - The military preparations for Peace Support Operations has partly changed and transformed, particularly in the Ugandan Defence Forces. Coherence: - Synergies with key Save the Children initiatives, such as Safe School Declaration. - Partnering with AU and COMESA that led to child protection policies in PSOs. Effectiveness: - Objective 1: Integration of child protection into the AU and REC frameworks, child focused policies for the PSOs. - Objective 2: Advocacy worksshop in Mali, Nigeria, Somalia and Mozambique, partnering with Horn of Africa Youth Network. - Objective 3: Training of local offices to engage with armed actors. - Objective 4: Developing capacities of humanitarians in child protection in Francophone conflict affected countries. - Objective 5: Developing/supporting local organisations to improve their service delivery and access to funding. - Objective 6: Evidence based learning and advocacy. Impact: According to the evaluation, the main impact can be seen in the embedding of child protection in broader policy framework and the training of 193 practitioners. Another impact mentioned in the evaluation is the reduction of violence and exploitation through better training and reporting systems. However, it should also be mentioned that during the review meeting on December 16, Save the Children questioned this finding with the argument that it could not be verified. Sustainability: It comes from the integration of child protection in regional and national frameworks. Sida assesses that significant contributions have been made in relation to the overall objective which is: "All children affected by armed conflict in Africa are adequately protected from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation." This assessment is based on the fact that the contribution has worked in a methodological way of rigid planning routines, consistent follow up, validation and dissemination of results. Result Based Management has been used continuously throughout the intervention. It is assessed that the program has worked particularly well with regards to participating in and contributing to policy processes. The resources, ability to partner with other organisations, knowledge and convening power of the organisation has helped the AU and regional bodies such as IGAD to go forward with its plans. The practical work directly involving children seem to have been more challenging. It is difficult balance to strike between working with children protection issues through institutions and working directly with children. Sida assesses that SC has considered this dilemma and has tried to the extent of its capabilities to include children. For example, it has used child led research tools and included children in processes and in training. Lessons learnt in relation to the cooperation partners capacity: Save the Children has worked well in managing a thematically complex program, involving a multitude of stakeholders and working in difficult environments. The organisation has demonstrated good planning capacities and result oriented approach. The tool called Progress Tracker has been useful support for this. The evaluation report largely supports this conclusion. A key success factor of the program has been the capacity of Save the Children to make strategic partnerships and bridge relationships between AU, MS, civil society, academic groups and thus creating "a platform for coordinated action". These partnerships enabled a pooling of resources, to engage in collaborate planning, use methods such as Train the Trainers. This operational efficiency also provided for a financial efficiency. The evaluation mentions that the activities contributed to the intended outcomes which is of course very important in order to deliver results. It requires a good amount of discipline and planning to enable this. The management structure was complicated, led by Project Management Unit in Nairobi and involving several coordination layers and the Project Steering Committee could foster collaboration and the exchange of best practice. However, it is also mentioned in the evaluation that the collaboration between local SC offices, regional teams and objective management teams presented many challenges such as coordination, communication and sharing of lessons learned. It was mentioned in the evaluation that the program allocated resources to areas of highest impact, costs were analyzed in relation to expected impact. There was also an emphasis on completion times which reduced times and costs. Lessons learnt relating to Sida's management and choice of contribution The reporting financial and narrative was received on time. The narrative reporting was lengthy and wordy and could have benefited from a different presentation so that the reader does not need to engage in decoding the text. According to Sida, some of the lessons learned are : - Sida assesses that the objectives of the intervention are currently formulated as activities. Four out of six ojectives are formulated as "strengthening the capacity" and one is "increased influence" and the other "strenthened role." A more correct way of formulating objectives in the overall theory of change, is to capture the desired change. Objectives are the positive change one would want to see happen through its activities. They are not activities. This point was brought up during the virtual review meeting on the 16th of December, 2024 with the team and the evaluator. Through the ensuing discussion, SC accepted that these objectives could be expressed differently. This point is related to one of the main feedback points of Sida of this program which is that SC has not sufficiently captured the potential for change. The program could and should have argued for what changes it could contribute to and use this narrative of change in the way it presented its information in reports. - Importance of having robust management and follow up systems that take responsability of the fulfillment of objectives. Save the Children acredits its management practice to continuous context analysis and appreciates the donor flexibility as well. In addition, investing in partnerships could mobilize skills, knowledge, expertise and experience. - Pay attention to the partnership and relationship building that help to carry out effecient and cost effective operations. Many times, it is not necessarily the knowledge that is lacking, but the shared platforms and collaboration. - Persist in not forgetting and working with the children and youth that is affected by conflicts in the region. This involved supporting the practical tools for engaging with children but also being open to new creative ways of working. Save the children has done this through investment in tools and staff capacity and sensitizing adults and adult institutions to accept that children has a voice and an agency. In addition, Save the children mention that there has been "acountability followups" with children when children have been engaged meaning going back and giving feedback on the progress. - When asked what SC would do differently, the organisation mentions more onsite trainings for troops through trained officers. Another lesson learned would be to focus more on the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) to complement the engagement with the AU. It was also mentioned that the program would use more resources on "on the ground" field support with the objective of engaging with those actors that seek to control and influence humanitarian access for children. - Possibly the number of subgoals could have been reduced. Apparently, as learned during the review meeting on December 16, 2024 this program was a merger of two different programs one in Subsaharan African and a new Sahel program. This merger partly explains the complexity of the program. According to the evaluation, some of the key lessons learnt were: - Contextual relevance and local ownership: this point underlines the importance of tailoring and adapting interventions to local needs and culture references. As an examaple it was mentioned that a training in BurkinaFaso engaged community elders in child protection dialogues. - Need for comprehensive and continuous training: this point underscored the importance of training all stakeholders such as personell from PSOs, community elders, local NGOs. - Effective collaboration and coordination enhance impact: this point underscores the importance of adressing child protection issues from many sectors that integrate health, education and livelihood programs. An example from Mali was mentioned in which child protection was advocated, adressed and integrated into broader developmental and humanitarian efforts. - Flexibility and adaptability: the ability to adapt according to changing circumstances was seen as a very important factor for the success of child protection programs. With regards to recommendations, the evaluation report mentions eight. Some of these are: Developing a comprehensive advocacy and CAAC awareness toolkit: According to people interviewed, one of the toughest challenges was the lack of knowledge and awareness of child protection. A prepared toolkit would help having unified messages, mobilize support and thereby strengthen coordination. Strengthen predeployment and continuous training for PSO personell: Predeployment training that is standardized and that includes practical, field based exercised is considered very important for the implementation of child protection measures. Increase support for developing and implementing National Action Plans (NAPs) The evaluation found challenges of MS to ensure financial resources to obtain technical assistance needed to participate in the NAP processes. SC has mentioned that Sida's flexibility when it comes to SC financial and operational planning has been an important factor for SC to adapt a changing environment. Sida assesses that the contribution has achieved its goals on a satisfactory level.

The overall objective is that : All children affected by armed conflict in Africa are adequately protected from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.