OPEN Plan: January 2023
This edition of OpenPlan brings you research and evaluation studies from across the organisation featuring disaster risk management (DRM), natural hazards, p…
Child-protection in emergencies
Disasters, conflicts and other crises can have devastating effects on children’s lives. Structures and systems that protect children and support their positive development are often undermined or damaged.
As a result, children are exposed to new threats, such as loss of or separation from their families, sexual exploitation, trafficking, and recruitment into armed groups. Furthermore, existing harmful practices (such as harmful labour and child marriage) can be exacerbated.
Plan International works with children, their families, communities and local authorities to prevent and respond to violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation against children with urgent, life-saving actions. Our programmes ensure the protection needs of children are met, with particular attention paid to the unique risks faced by adolescent girls.
Preventing harm and responding to violence
Our child protection in emergencies work includes:
- Addressing urgent needs: We support national child protection systems to deliver case management services (social work-type support) to children and their families. We ensure children with urgent protection needs are identified and receive timely, age and gender- appropriate services. In many cases, this means searching for separated family members and linking children to caring and protective foster families.
- Strengthening families and communities: Children and their families suffer both physically and mentally in the aftermath of an emergency. In response, we create safe environments for children through child and adolescent friendly spaces where children and adolescents can access psychosocial counselling, support networks, life-saving information, and be referred to other services. Parenting courses are also provided to help caregivers develop skills to cope with crises.
- Strengthening local systems: We partner with civil society organisations, community leaders, local governments, academics, activists and NGOs to meet the needs of children. We provide training for and build the capacity of partners to support existing structures within communities that keep children safe.
- Influencing: Building from lessons learned in programme evaluations, research, needs assessments and contextual analyses, we influence policy, practice, and budgets on child protection in disaster resilience, preparedness, response and recovery at international, national, and local levels.
Jemma’s journey to the world’s largest refugee camp
Jemma* tells the story of her journey from the conflict in South Sudan to the world’s largest refugee camp, Bidi Bidi in northern Uganda.
Tackling emerging issues
In order to meet the needs of the most vulnerable children during disasters, our work is expanding to respond to the growing issues and gaps in emergency responses.
For example, we are working to eliminate the worst forms of child labour, including trafficking, sexual exploitation, forced and hazardous labour.
In addition, we work with and for adolescent girls who are subject to particular risks during emergencies and are not equally equipped with the knowledge, mobility or assets to get life-saving help.
We also work to prevent harmful traditional practices, such as child marriage and female genital mutilation, which are often reinvigorated during emergencies.
Mobile child-protection services keep migrant children safe
In Bogota, Colombia, we’re responding to the needs of migrants and refugees from Venezuela.
Global engagement
Plan International is a core member of the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action in which it takes a leadership role on the Learning and Development Working Groups and the Child Labour in Humanitarian Action and Community-Level Child Protection Task Forces. We are also a member of the Strategic Advisory Group for the Child Protection Area of Responsibility and a new Core Member of the Gender Based Violence Area of Responsibility.
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