Children make up approximately 50% of those affected in humanitarian crises and are disproportionately impacted by conflict and crisis. Throughout 2020 and 2021, we have seen how COVID-19, conflict and climate change have been impacting children at unprecedented scale, putting them at risk and driving displacement, poverty and violence.
Recognising these trends, this report covers funding for 2020 with a snapshot of the trends and responses for 2021 to map out how the sector is meeting the needs of children to keep them safe and protected from harm.
The research finds that whilst funding for child protection is increasing, child protection consistently remains one of the most underfunded sectors in humanitarian action and funds not meeting increasing needs.
In thinking ahead to solutions, Part 2 of the report explores the current state of play of three key tracks to be increasing support for child protection programming - the localisation agenda, multi-sector and integrated programming and ensuring accurate needs, targets and costing for interventions.
The report sets out a 6-point action plan to change the framing and support for children’s protection and its centrality to humanitarian action. These call for immediate urgent action to:
- Prioritise children and their protection
- Scale up and adapt financing
- Strengthen tracking systems
- Shift power and resources to implement the localisation agenda
- Prioritise the mainstreaming and integration of child protection across sectors alongside specialised support
- Ensure accountability through strengthened measurement, analysis of needs and impact
Closing this gap will require collective action to change the way we think about children’s protection and its centrality to crisis response.
This piece has been created through close collaboration between Save the Children, the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, the Global Child Protection Area of Responsibility (CPAoR) and UNHCR.
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