Child Rights & Advocacy

The government and the donor agencies are seriously concerned about the CRC issues and the problem of child labour.  A prominent feature of UCEP is that it implemented a project on advocacy of child rights named ‘Let Children Speak’ through 16 partner NGOs in eight districts (Dhaka, Narayangonj, Jessore, Khulna, Rajshahi, Bogra, Noakhali, Chittagong) throughout Bangladesh from March 2004 to May 2007 with the financial assistance of Manusher Jonno Foundation. The main objective of that project was to raise the voice of the children against all sorts of abuse, exploitation and discrimination affecting their lives. With the tremendous success of the project, the demand to expand the program to other districts of the country came to the limelight. UCEP started to believe that expansion of this advocacy program to other areas of the country will create an outstanding impact. With this in mind, the program has been mainstreamed and a new section "Child Rights & Advocacy" came into being from project Phase-VI. This section is now implementing the Advocacy of Child Rights Program as "Let Children Speak Phase-II" in 10 districts (Gazipur, Sherpur, Sirajgonj, Kurigram, Sylhet, Barisal, Satkhira, Bagerhat, Cox's Bazar and Rangamati) through 24 partner NGO's.

The interventions of the project are divided into three parts. The parts are mentioned below:

Inception Period (1st Year)

Selection of local partner NGOs and development of their capacity to work with children and stakeholders at the local level.

• Select at least two partner organizations each from 10 districts and build their capacity so that they can work as watchdogs against violations of child rights at  the local level.
• Develop the capacity of 24 partner organizations on child rights, rights based programming, lobbying, advocacy and networking at the local level and related Management Information Systems (MIS).
• Set up a “Child Resource Centre” at the district level for campaign, advocacy and policy development.
• Motivate local electronic and print media especially daily newspapers to be strategic partners for realizing child rights.
• Develop the capacity of partner NGOs to conduct research in order to find out current situation regarding the violation of child rights at the local level.
• Initiate the formation of Zonal Child Council.

Intermediate Period (2nd Year)

Community support for the children, develop network with other institutions and build capacity of the children in order to enable them to participate effectively in Advocacy at the local and national levels.

• Raise awareness on CRC issues among employers, parents, community leaders, local government representatives, UP members, and children at the local level.
• Establish networking for advocacy to protect children from all sorts of discrimination and abuse.
• Establish a link between the parents, community, employers, GO/NGOs  and local government to promote and protect child rights.
• Establish District Child Councils in 10 districts.

Final Period (3rd Year)

Activate Child Councils so that these could be replicable in the other districts and establish linkage among the local level NGOs and the duty bearers to promote and protect child rights.

• Establish National Child Council at the national level.
• Improve children’s capacity so that they can participate effectively in advocacy activities at the national level.
• Document lessons learnt and explore the possibility of replicating the project in other districts.

Name of the partners NGOs are :

District	Name of NGO’s
Gazipur	i. DISA     ii. ARAM Foundation
Sherpur	i. SEDO, Nalitabari     ii. CAP     iii. SNKS
Sirajgonj	i. MPUS      ii. FHD
Kurigram	i. Kirara No Kai      ii. RISDA Bangladesh
Barisal	i. SUT       ii. SUK      iii. ASED
Sylhet	i. Srimongal Foundation     ii. Rupsha Mohila Kallyan Sangstha          iii. RWDO
Satkhira	i. Shusamaj Foundation    ii. AAD    iii. MKS
Bagerhat	i. GMF       ii. Agrodut Foundation
Cox's Bazar	i. BBF      ii. JANTA
Rangamati	i. RDA      ii. OPCA

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