ANPPCAN, child rights giant in Africa

ANPPCAN is a pan African network that promotes child rights and child protection in Africa. It was founded in 1986 in Enugu Nigeria, at the first Child Labour Conference, and has national chapters in 22 African countries. It is headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.
Its mission is to enhance, in partnership with others, the prevention and protection of children from all forms of maltreatment, thus, ensuring that the rights of children are realized.

Goals/objectives

To achieve its mission, ANPPCAN works to:

• Provide a forum for the exchange of scientific information on the problems affecting children in Africa.
• Encourage and assist the creation of local Country Chapters in ever African country concerned with the promotion and defence of children’s rights.
• Generate funds and other resources for research and action in the field of Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect.
• Conduct a periodic situation analysis on the state and nature of child abuse and neglect in Africa and publish the results periodically.
• Offer advice and assistance to credible International bodies and organizations working in the field of children’s rights, prevention and protection against child abuse and neglect.
  Carry out advocacy for children’s rights.
• Advice and work with African Governments and the African Union and other regional organizations to take action and other measures to improve the material and legal conditions of children, particularly, in the monitoring of the implementation of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (The African Charter) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

ANPPCAN may do and undertake any work or action not specified in the above objectives but which, notwithstanding, would be useful in the fulfilment of these aims.

Scope: geographical and thematic areas of coverage:

ANPPCAN’s work on children is currently spread in 22 countries in Africa. The chapters respond to the specific needs of children in their countries by developing appropriate program interventions. The Head Office, on its part, implements national and regional interventions on children that include direct program intervention, advocacy on specific issues, and networking and partnership building of the chapters and stakeholders.

National chapters of ANPPCAN are as follows:

Benin, Cote D’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Main areas of focus include: child labour, street children, abandoned and neglected children, physically and sexually abused children, children in situation of armed conflict, displaced children (internally and externally), children with disabilities, orphaned children and child trafficking

ANPPCAN is governed by the following organs:

General Council/General Meeting
Executive Committee/Board
Secretariat

The organization has a patron, trustees and goodwill ambassadors.
Organizational membership is encouraged and any African individual or professional dealing with children’s rights and or their welfare is eligible to become a member of a national chapter in the country of residence.

Reason for Establishment:

The establishment of ANPPCAN in Africa in 1986 was informed by the widespread situations of child abuse and neglect, the inadequacies of existing legal, socio-economic, and institutional remedies, the common occurrences of armed conflict, the underdevelopment and natural disasters which inflict great hardships on millions of African children on the continent.
The founders, hence, were of the view that no effort should be spared in the struggle for the proper and adequate upbringing of African children as a guarantee for Africa’s regeneration and future prosperity: and of other international efforts to improve the rights and welfare of the world’s children.

Achievements of ANPPCAN:

One of the most celebrated early achievements of ANPPCAN in the history of the continent is the role it played in developing, lobbying and pushing for the ratification and adoption of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Today the Charter remains the benchmark for child protection and support policies of governments across the continent.
ANPPCAN has played a leading role in the implementation and supporting continental policy, advocacy and social programs addressing child rights and child protection.
They include:

• Actively lobbying for the ratification and implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Chld (UNCRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) and their domestication on the African continent. This has led to review and enactment of laws and policies in some countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Nigeria.
• Establishing twenty two chapters spread across the continent, each addressing unique and relevant national issues in child labour, child neglect and child protection. These programs include children’s help desk and programs addressing child trafficking, child prostitution, education, community support and child soldiers.
• Since 1997 ANPPCAN has been part of an international movement aimed at supporting over 280 million children worldwide who are forced to work for their survival.
• In her efforts in the fight against child labour, ANPPCAN established networks in 10 English speaking countries in Africa under the umbrella of Global March against Child Labour. The Chapters and the Global March networks contributed a great deal to the formulation and ratification of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour.
• Several scientific, researches and social studies have been carried out and shared at various conferences under the auspices of ANPPCAN. Key among this is the Conference on human trafficking in Eastern and horn of Africa, a conference that resulted in African Organizations realizing the need for increased networking, information sharing and in-depth research among Organizations working to combat human trafficking. Recently, ANPPCAN held the First International Conference in Africa on Child Sexual Abuse to re-awaken nations and stakeholders on the need to protect children from the vice.
• The ANPPCAN Child Labour program that involves working with schools in Income Generating Activities to support children under situations that would lead to neglect and school drop outs, has been one of the most successful interventions in the world.
• ANPPCAN played a critical role in the development and pushing for the adoption by African Governments, of ILO Convention 182 and its accompanying recommendations 190 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour.
• ANPPCAN, more than any other Organization across the continent, has been instrumental in lobbying governments to ratify conventions on children while encouraging education of children through its slogan Adults to Work, Children to School.
• In the last five years, ANPPCAN has shifted its focus to train and mentor youth to be able to protect and promote children’s rights. This is done through an ANPPCAN – FK Exchange of Personnel programme that takes place amongst ANPPCAN Chapters. This has led to growth and experience- sharing of the chapters involved, and personal growth of the staff participating.

The achievements of ANPPCAN were recognized when in 2004 the Organization received the Kellogg’s Award and in 2006 it was selected from a field of over 50 Child Rights Organizations throughout Africa, and emerged the winner of the first ever African Union Children's Champion Award.

At the National level, ANPPCAN has been instrumental in both social interventions and in bringing policy and legislative changes addressing child labor, education, conflicts, street children and other child related issues. Chapter programs on Managing Education seek to address broad issues that lead children to drop out of school and be engaged in child labor. They include access, affordability, transition and policies on technical training institutions.

Since the promotion of the rights and welfare of children involve different groups including, children and their parents, ANPPCAN has been helping countries to develop strategies that are all inclusive. In Kenya, for example, ANPPCAN created a Coalition on Child Rights and Child Protection which was instrumental in training various child rights professionals in handling of children issues and in facilitating efficient delivery of services to children.

Also in Kenya, ANPPCAN worked with the Police department and Ministry of Education to develop curricula on child rights for inclusion in the training of police and teachers. ANPPCAN has assisted in setting up Child Help Desks where cases of child abuse are reported and attended. Advocacy and training materials have also been produced for service providers.
It has helped different professionals to set up lobbies to support children’s rights. For example, this has seen the creation of child protection teams in 40 districts in Kenya.

Among others, ANPPCAN helped in the creation of Children’s Legal Action Network (CLAN), an organisation of lawyers that offer free legal services to children whose rights have been violated. Another area that ANPPCAN has excelled in is the creation of alliances between government departments and other groups at district and community level to address child labour. This model, popularly known as Child Labour Committees, has been developed in Kenya and is widely used by other groups supported by ILO/IPEC all over the world. ANPPCAN has prevented many children from getting into child labour; withdrawn many from worst forms of child labour and supported the children back to school and vocational training. Many schools and youth polytechnics have been supported to undertake income generating activities whose produce have been used to keep children in school.

ANPPCAN has been involved in many research activities on children’s rights. In Kenya, a study that ANPPCAN conducted on street children, following a request by the Attorney General in 1991, led to a National Hearing on Street Children. This led to review of laws affecting children, culminating in the enactment of the Children’s Act in 2001. Currently ANPPCAN is conducting a study on Trafficking of Children and Young Women in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Challenges:

• For over two decades ANPPCAN has relied on donor funding for all its programs. In some instances, some programs have had to be scaled down, changed or abandoned completely because of a shift over donor funding mechanisms.
• The Regional office has found it difficult to scale up her interventions as donor funding is often specific, time-bound and sometimes based on indicators that may not fully address the root causes of child neglect and abuse.