|
A Report on the Programs, Policies, and People Making an Impact
Volume 6: Summer 2023
|
|
|
Photo credit: Ryan Heffernan/Sesame Workshop
|
|
|
Big Bird and friends have been teaching children for more than 50 years in 150 countries and in 70 languages, while, at the same time, paving the way for educators to see media as an effective teaching tool. Since 2018, Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) have implemented an innovative multi-sectoral initiative that again has broken new ground, this time proving that remote models can be highly effective in teaching young children living in crisis-affected communities. Studies show the results of these efforts to be nothing short of remarkable.
Ahlan Simsim (Welcome, Sesame!) is a transformational program that combines on-the-ground services for families in crisis with engaging educational media, with a focus on marginalized groups, creating a safe space for them to participate openly and honestly in their communities.
Read more about the positive impacts Ahlan Simsim is having on the literacy, numeracy, and emotional development of more than 23 million children across the Middle East and North Africa.
|
|
GUIDANCE, REPORTS, AND STRATEGIES |
|
|
USAID Releases Implementation Guidance for the Global Child Thrive Act
In February, USAID’s Children in Adversity team released Implementation Guidance for the Global Child Thrive Act. The guidance identifies cross-sectoral opportunities to enhance USAID programs and platforms through evidence-based approaches to improve child development outcomes. Primarily, these approaches focus on support that will enable parents and other caregivers to employ nurturing care practices that promote optimal child development, with particular attention paid to the needs of children with disabilities and their families.
|
|
|
Fourteenth Annual Report to Congress: Advancing Protection and Care for Children in Adversity
Did you know that more than 28.6 million children were receiving support coordinated through the APCCA Interagency Working Group? This includes support such as family tracing and reunification and other services to promote child development, protection, and safety. APCCA’s 2022 Report to Congress provides highlights from programs, projects, and activities to support vulnerable children; their families, parents, and caregivers; and the governmental and nongovernmental organizations that support them.
|
|
|
U.S. Department of Labor Works to End Global Child Labor
Globally, an estimated 160 million children toil in child labor. That’s nearly one in ten children. Accountability is key to ending this abusive practice, but special consideration is needed to avoid retraumatizing victims and ensure they receive the services and support they need to return to their families, school, and safety.
On September 26, the U.S. Department of Labor released their annual flagship report on international child labor which focuses on the efforts of certain U.S. trade beneficiary countries and territories to eliminate the worst forms of child labor through legislation, enforcement mechanisms, policies and social programs. Additionally, U.S. DOL’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs updated two tools: Comply Chain:
|
|
|
Business Tools for Labor Compliance in Global Supply Chains and the Better Trade Tool. Comply Chain provides a practical, step-by-step guide on critical elements of a worker-driven social compliance system and is designed for companies that do not have a social compliance system in place or those needing to strengthen their existing systems. The Better Trade Tool empowers users to advance efforts in supply chain transparency as well as strategic sourcing priorities. This innovative tool integrates existing reporting developed by ILAB with U.S. import trade data, including Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes.
|
|
IMPLEMENTING PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: BETHANY CHRISTIAN SERVICES
|
|
|
A Bethany case worker conducts a home visit in Ethiopia. (Irisaida Méndez/Bethany Christian Services)
|
|
|
Since 2019, USAID has partnered in Ethiopia with Bethany Christian Services through the Partnerships Plus program. In addition to working with the Government of Ethiopia to strengthen its national policy framework to prevent family separation and strengthen family care, the program has, since 2020, supported the transition of more than 350 children out of residential care (often called orphanages) and into family-based care. This includes over 50 children who were reunified with their biological families, more than 40 children who were placed into safe temporary foster care, and over 280 children who were adopted by Ethiopian families. Additionally, Bethany is working with local partners to prevent family separation in the first place by providing families with life skills and parenting classes, financial literacy training, business and job training, case management, and other support. To ensure its work is scalable and sustainable, Bethany provides training, mentoring, and other support to local organizations, including the national social service workforce, NGOs, and churches. Bethany has trained nearly 1,000 family-based care service providers to help protect more children from family separation and strengthen more families.
One of the children supported through the partnership is Dejen. Growing up in rural Ethiopia, Dejen was separated from his family at the age of 9, when his parents were forced to send him away from home to work as a shepherd. His father was ill and therefore unable to work and provide for Dejen, his mother, and his sister. For two years, Dejen’s income of $40 a year was just enough to provide food for his family to eat once a day.
After hearing Dejen’s story, Bethany—through its partnership with USAID— immediately began working with Dejen and his family to help him return to his home and family. Bethany provided Dejen’s family with job training, financial literacy training, and micro-business start-up support, and facilitated access to medical care and other basic services. Dejen’s family now raises oxen and sells vegetables. They are working toward financial stability, earning what they need to provide for their children and keeping their family together. Dejen, who used to spend long days working alone and away from home, now attends school and returns each day to his loving family.
|
|
APCCA Observes World Day Against Child Labor
June 12th was World Day Against Child Labor. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs and the Wage and Hour Division hosted a discussion on child labor and decent work in the U.S. and abroad and the power of different actors—from teachers, workers, and survivors, to businesses, governments, and civil society—working together to eradicate this egregious form of labor exploitation. Bama Athreya, Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Hub and USAID’s Inclusive Development Hub, moderated a panel discussion focusing on those successes and promising practices that we can scale up to accelerate progress, acknowledging that this takes continued interagency, civil society, and partner government efforts.
|
|
|
APCCA Celebrates International Day of Families
Throughout the second half of May, APCCA and USAID celebrated International Day of Families, observed annually on May 15. The U.S. government recognizes that nurturing and loving care by parents and families lays the foundation for life-long well-being. The APCCA strategy’s second objective, Put Family First supports programming for the most vulnerable children who are, or are at risk of, living outside of family care. Children, particularly young children, who live outside of family care are at increased risk of developmental impairments and lasting psychological harm. Recognizing and responding to the particular needs of different family structures is critical to strengthening their capacities to nurture and protect children. These family structures include female- or child-headed households, single fathers, parents or children with disabilities, and grandparents who care for grandchildren following the death or absence of the parents.
|
GET TO KNOW APCCA
|
|
|
The Digital Youth Council is a 12-member council of young leaders aged 16–25, who are focused on issues related to digital platforms and safety and interested in reducing digital harm for children and youth, including sexual violence and exploitation, cyberbullying, misinformation, and radical extremism. Members work together to advise, inform, and advocate for greater protection from digital harm as USAID rolls out its Digital Strategy, thereby strengthening the next generation of digital changemakers and advocates. The Digital Youth Council not only serves as an important voice in helping guide the implementation of USAID’s Digital Strategy, but also helps raise awareness of digital harm in their countries and influence national leaders, the private sector, civil society, their communities, and other youth on how best to keep safe while learning, playing, and exploring in the digital world.
The Council is supported by YouthPower2: Learning and Evaluation (YP2LE), a USAID-funded activity focused on building and disseminating evidence on Positive Youth Development (PYD).
|
|
|
|
|
