Strategy
A child registered thanks to Plan's universal birth registration campaign
Plan’s strategy in Guinea-Bissau works to ensure that all children access their rights to survival, development, protection and participation.
In Guinea-Bissau, insufficient numbers of qualified primary school teachers limit the effectiveness of efforts to improve the quality of education. High illiteracy rates among parents and a lack of information on their roles has lead to low parental involvement in school management.
Guinea-Bissau also suffers from low numbers of qualified health technicians, a lack of health centres and community based health units, high infant and maternal mortality rates, high rates of malaria and little knowledge of the growing impact of HIV and AIDS.
Furthermore, communities are unaware of the importance of child rights issues - especially birth registration, which provides a legal identity and access to key social services such as education and health care.
Key goals
To address these issues, Plan has set the following goals:
- increase primary school enrolment and reduce dropout rates and repetition
- support local efforts in expanding the reach and use of effective preventive health care, including child survival and reproductive health services
- increase access to safe water and sanitation
- increase and promote child rights and build relationships through an environment of full and effective participation of children in the development process of their community.
Progress
Since the launch of the country strategic plan in 1999, Plan has implemented a range of programmes which have significantly improved the quality of children’s lives in Plan programme areas.
For example, school attendance rates have improved, school enrolment rates - especially among girls – have increased, while dropout rates are falling.
Through Plan’s community management projects we ensure that children and their communities are more involved in the development process.
