Omar’s Dream End Term Meeting

Omar’s Dream End Term Meeting

21 May 2015, Entebbe – Uganda

Summary of Reflections and Recommendations

1. Introduction
   1. Report Summary

This report is a summary of key reflections and recommendations drawn from deliberations of the reflections and looking forward session held on the 21^st of May 2015.

1. Introductory Remarks

In her introductions, Akky de Kort, encouraged participants to draw from their experiences and the various strategies they have used in the past to deliberate on recommendations of how the work done in the Omar’s Dream project can be moved forward. She then asked participants to share some of the lessons they have learnt from each other during the course of project implementation.

1. Highlights of Lessons Learnt:

• The idea of mobilizing women to play an active role in child labour free zones.
• ANPPCAN Uganda attributed their success to the idea of establishing group structures, which can be used in the creation of child labour free zones.
• VSLA and the role that co-curricular activities can play in the elimination of child labour.
• The commitment of Ugandans towards the elimination of child labour as witnessed at the ceremony to launch the handbook.
• How UNATU is collaborating with civil society organizations.
• Engaging policy makers is not easy and requires patience.
• The importance of declaring an area child labour free even though it is not totally child labour free.
• Interest of local leaders in the programme is important for success.
• Women recognize the role men play in the wellbeing of the family.
• Massive community participation in the campaign in Mali is inspirational.
• How community/government structures should be engaged in programming. This presents a sustainable way of doing things.
• How the teams from all the different countries work together and how they have become one.
• Having the same dream makes the coalition stronger.
• All communities want a better future for their children.
• MV foundation’s strategies for sustainability and how to keep on the commitment.
• How the leadership of the teachers’ union in Morocco is committed and engaged in the creation of CLFZ.
• Strong partnerships with civil society can contribute to project success.
• Cooperation with each other to share tools is needed.
• KIN’s story is a demonstration that everything is possible.
• Change begins with me; a testimony of a gentleman was given who had a maid (child) and released her.
• All stakeholders should be engaged in programming and implementation.
• It is important to involve children in implementation so that their voices too can contribute to the cause.
• Teachers in CLFZ should monitor children closely to ascertain how they are progressing.
• Women can play a great role in development. Women saving groups are a great way of mobilizing women.
• The spirit of voluntarism should be strengthened in CLFZ and child labour should be handled from a child rights perspective.
• Engaging the government at every step of implementation is important for sustainability.

1. Lessons from India: by Vikram

In his speech, Vikram indicated that there is a need for all stakeholders to work together and make the CLFZ a reality. He indicated that in India, they recognized the role that women and local leaders can play. They also recognized that it was the enthusiasm of the different stakeholders that will carry the great work forward.

He explained that they too went through a challenging time and almost closed the organization due to lack of funding. What saved the organization however, was careful reflection and deliberation on how they would sustain what they had built. He noted that in communities where they work, people no longer question whether they should take their children to school but rather how they can take their children to school. He pointed out several steps that they took to ensure that the organization was not closed. The steps included:

• Talked to the community and showed them what they had accomplished and what the community could do to sustain the work of the organisation.
• Identified people who were willing to work with the organisation without payment. The volunteers that enlisted were willing to work to change the future of their children and their siblings.
• The volunteers were taken through the movement model and what it would mean for them to be part of the movement.
• The organisation also briefed the government about what had been done and showed them what their role could be in sustaining the movement’s work.
• The organisation made sure that in public schools, child labour was included on the agenda of key issues. Every week, schools would evaluate what they were doing for children at risk of child labour.
• They gradually handed over the work of the movement to the government, local leaders, parents and teachers.

Basing on the success of the MV Foundation in India and their experience sustaining the work of the foundation amidst funding challenges, Vikram shared some good practices and recommendations that the CLFZ partners in Africa could emulate. These good practices are outlined below:

1. Identify people who are smart and passionate about CLFZ to spread the movement.
2. Use the handbook to publicise CLFZ.
3. Seek corporate funding as an alternative source of funding. However, it is important to note that corporations have short project cycles and the fact that corporate funding is not rights based but is rather tied to specific targets.
4. Transfer the work to the community. Encourage all stakeholders to talk about CLFZ and ensure that it is integrated in all trending agendas.
5. Utilise the networks available to publicise CLFZ and to attract partners.
6. Identify other funding opportunities.
7. Go bi-lateral. Build momentum within Africa and strengthen cooperation amongst NGOs in the movement. Get governments talking to each other on how they can cooperate on CLFZ.

1. Assumptions

Summary of crosscutting themes drawn from the presentations

• There was consensus that once a community accepts the social norm, they work collectively to ensure that all children in the community go to school. It was indicated that targeting communities is more sustainable than targeting individual parents. Members of a community can play an important role in holding each other accountable and they can decide to put in place by-laws to ensure conformity to the social norm. However, all groups indicated that there is a need to continue sensitizing communities about the value of education.
• It was agreed across the board that children who acquire an education have better opportunities in life. However, emphasis was put on the fact that children need to study in an environment that is nurturing and able to provide a good quality education to ensure that risk factors associated to dropping out of school are eliminated.
• In regards to support to parents, 2 groups agreed that when parents see the value of education, school related fees and other similar requirements cannot deter them from sending their children to school. One group however indicated that in cases where children do not have parents, this assumption does not hold. Another group reiterated that sometimes, even when parents see the value of education, they are unable to send their children to school due to related costs.
• In all groups, it was noted that adults have more work opportunities in areas where children do not work. It came out strongly that when employers no longer have access to cheap labour provided by children; adult workers are in a better position to negotiate for higher wages and decent working conditions.
• It was also widely accepted that for the sustainability of CLFZ, all stakeholders need to be engaged from the early stages of project implementation. This is more so for local government structures and other line government institutions. Engaging stakeholders from the very start of the project contributes to project ownership.
• Conclusively, it was agreed that successful CLFZ are a source of inspiration and can be used as a resource centre by other communities. This is already happening amongst the SCL partners who are visiting each other to learn from each other’s good practices and sustainably replicate them in their own contexts.

The groupwork presentations can be found in annex 1.

1. Sustainability Strategies/Moving Forward
   1. Presentation1: Ghana

Sustainability actions to be undertaken:

1. Have a database of new members of GAWU in all project communities. Encourage members of the communities to ensure that they continue participating in the union and the activities of the union.
2. Link GAWU local executives to the main union educational activities.
3. Improve monitoring of children withdrawn from child labour and integrated into school. Position local people and build their capacity to monitor projects. GAWU has discussed with the ILO to provide funding to further strengthen the monitoring activities by buying a surveillance boat to monitor child labour around the lake by the navy and the local authorities. Furthermore, community young people will be trained in diving and will volunteer to dive and disentangle nets.
4. Forge an alliance between the Omar’s Dream project and the Global March to work together at national and international levels.
5. Explore opportunities for alliances with networks such as the Global March towards common positions at the next global conference on child labour. Identify how both parties can take advantage of the resources and opportunities of each other and work on the campaign against child labour.
6. Work with FNV and HIVOS to identify alternative sources of funding to consolidate the achievements of the Omar’s Dream project and to expand to other areas.
7. Work with FNV and SCL to document achievements and the GAWU model (CLFZ manuals and documentaries) to make the project centres a place of learning for other organizations, unions and countries.
8. Hold sessions when the project terminates to hand over children being supported to their parents so that they know there is no more funding and take responsibility for their children. School related facilities will be handed over to the schools. The concept of CLFZ to the chief to do monitoring and evaluation of projects.
   1. Presentation: Burkina Faso

Sustainability actions to be undertaken

1. Communicate what has been done so far and explain what is being done in other countries.
2. Create a network to share learning and opportunities.
3. Document and raise awareness about good practices such as working with women. Successful interventions should be strengthened.
4. Work towards getting child labour on the agenda of the government so that it becomes a priority for the government.
5. Work with formal institutions and offices and not just the local stakeholders to put the issue of CLFZ at the centre of institutions. Additionally, all stakeholders in line government institutions will be trained on child labour and child labour free zones in order to institutionalize the issue of child labour.
   1. Presentation: Senegal

Sustainability actions to be undertaken

1. Get the buy in of local institutions and involve them in the project to ensure that all children are in school and closely monitored.
2. Make sure that the quality of schools and education in general is maintained by involving the government to ensure that they play their role of supporting education.
3. Work towards gender balance in the education system and in schools.
4. Get community buy in and involve them in planning and implementation. After this, involve the local authorities.
5. Encourage stakeholders to work together to ensure that interventions are complementary to avoid duplication and wastage of resources.
6. Continue using the established good practices and sensitizing others, especially in the education sector about the good practices. This is necessary for capacity building and to interest other potential partners into the issue of child labour.
7. Train all involved stakeholders on the concept of CLFZ.

4.4. Presentation: Mali

Sustainability actions to be undertaken

1. Make sure that government institutions own the project by understanding that project continuity is their responsibility. Government institutions should then periodically report on what has been done to ensure sustainability.
2. Make sure all structures to be engaged in implementation of the CLFZ strategy have and know of their mandate to implement the strategy.
3. Build the capacity of government institutions through technical training on CLFZ, and advocacy.

4.5. Presentation: Morocco

Sustainability actions to be undertaken

1. Continue working towards the establishment of CLFZ in Safi.
2. Start bridge schools for withdrawn children and maintain the existing bridge schools. The minister of education has committed to provide funding for the continuity of the bridge schools.
3. Provide extra-coaching for children who are not doing very well in class. Members of the teachers union have volunteered to continue these extra-coaching lessons even after project funding has stopped. In another project, the teachers are already volunteering to do these lessons.
4. The DAWARI: a chief appointed by the minister of internal affairs, has promised to give food to all poor families that send their working children back to school.
5. Use experience from SAFI and other countries to develop 3 CLFZ in 3 other areas in Morrocco before 2016.

4.6. Presentation: Kenya

Sustainability actions to be undertaken

1. Make use of the child rights networks in the 42 counties to ensure that they contribute to policy formation at county level. These policies will then be forwarded to the parliamentary level to enhance discussions on child labour. Furthermore, community child labour committees are already on board and they push child labour issues at county level. These should however be strengthened.
2. Exploit existing supplementary budgets for education to make education better.
3. Leverage other projects targeting child rights and governance to see how they can further the achievements of the project.
4. Promote IGAs for women and communities.
5. Build the capacity of networks in M&E and advocacy.
6. Engage PTAs and SMCs so that they understand their roles and see how they can work together. These committees have child representatives who are empowered to represent other children.

4.7. Presentation: Uganda

Sustainability actions to be undertaken

1. Take off time to reflect on issues on ground by meeting in the near future to look at sustainability structures and come up with concrete actions that will be undertaken for sustainability.
2. Continue with the model of integrating CLFZ in existing projects.
3. Collaborating with various partners who have not been part of the movement and create a consortium to further the CLFZ. The government and private sector should also be involved in this consortium.
4. To critically look at existing structures that can be used to continue the CLFZ movement at community level so that they can continue with the process of keeping all stakeholders and communities energized.
5. Come together in July to create a sustainability plan.

4.8. Presentation: Ethiopia

The Ethiopian representative indicated that they will have challenges when funding is over. The reason given for this is that the project has been short and considering the magnitude of the child labour problem in Ethiopia, sustainability might not be attained.

However, he indicated that they will take measures to strengthen lobbying and advocacy strategies at regional and national level. He explained that they needed more time to promote project ownership although limitations in scaling up still exist.

Sustainability actions to be undertaken

1. Support and strengthen existing structures such as community care coalitions. The activities of the project will be handed over to these coalitions.
2. Strengthen the child development promoters forum.
3. Search and identify alternative sources of funding with different partners to enable the scale up phase of the project.
4. Mobilize resources at the community level (domestic) with other stakeholders to continue the project activities.
5. Lobby government at the higher level to ensure project sustainability. This will be done through different organizations including the ILO, and the Ministry of labour and social affairs.
6. Formation of networking platforms at different levels to further the project dream.
7. Looking at child labour as a crosscutting issue that can be mainstreamed in other programmes. This means that child labour activities will be integrated into programmes of partner organizations.
8. Documenting successes and achievements and disseminating them to attract stakeholder engagement.

4.9. Presentation: Zimbabwe

Sustainability actions to be undertaken

1. Work with national frameworks such as the child protection committees by building their capacity to get a good understanding of the child labour free zones concept, appreciate the need for education, and to put in place watch dogs to oversee progress.
2. Village registers have been given to traditional leaders to monitor the status of children. These registers can be accessed by other programmes to assess progress and measure what more needs to be done.
3. Promote and conduct monitoring exchange visits to continue to learn from each other and to continue being inspired by each other’s progress made in as far as containing child labour.
4. Community evaluation of the project will be conducted to measure progress.
5. The organization has prepared for government take over through the department of social services which gives needy children school fees; the relief programme and the school psychological project.
6. Plans are in place to develop the curriculum for incubation centres. This will be developed in conjunction with the teachers union.
7. The teachers union will continue to lobby and work with government to monitor progress.
8. The organization has created linkages with other NGOs which can continue supporting the women’s groups. These linkages will further be strengthened.
9. In 2014, a symposium on child labour was held and it was suggested that a national steering committee on child labour be formed. The establishment of this steering committee will further contribute to sustainability.

1. The future of the Stop Child Labour Movement: by Sofie Ovaa

Sofie noted that there is strong leadership in Africa and organizations in the CLFZ movement should attract strong leaders and more government support to continue the expansion of CLFZ and the Stop Child Labour Movement. She also noted that organisations should invest in linking and learning to be able to sustain momentum. She indicated that Stop Child Labour is still in existence and would like to continue working with the SCL implementing partners.

She called on the implementing partners to strive to sustain and further sustain the achievements of the Omar’s Dream project. She shared with partners some of the actions they could undertake to ensure sustainability.

What organizations can do?

• Lobby and raise awareness at the global stage, for example, by using the handbook and through international platforms such as the Global child labour conference.
• Continue lobbying governments, the ILO and all relevant stakeholders.
• Work with companies on corporate social responsibility.
• Utilise the Stop child labour website to publish research and share relevant documentation and learning on child labour.
• Continue to look for opportunities for funding. She encouraged the organizations to share any ideas on how they can further the CLFZ agenda. She also promised to share funding opportunities with the partners and to help them sharpen their proposal writing skills.

5.1. Summary of Partners’ Reactions to Sofie’s Speech

• There is a need to expand the resource mobilization base to cover the private sector. Approaching companies should however be done cautiously by asking what working with the private sector might mean for the CLFZ campaign to ensure that the principles of CLFZ are upheld and not compromised.
• East Africa partners can learn a lot from each other especially on the role that women can play in CLFZ. Women at work campaigns are already strong in East Africa and these networks can be exploited. Furthermore, organizations can consult HIVOS East Africa to guide them on how to partner with the women at work campaign.
• Distribute handbook and share impact stories to interest potential partners. Furthermore, take advantage of global opportunities such as conferences and other meetings on children rights and child labour. These can be used to raise awareness on CLFZ
• ANPPCAN intends to address the dynamics leading to the 10-20%gap in the CLFZ by working with the districts. Fundraising will be done to get resources to address the gap. However, even when other funding sources can be identified but HIVOS will continue to be acknowledged for having funded the programme to achieve the 80% CLFZ.
• The development of the handbook was acknowledged as a landmark achievement which should be applauded. However it is just a start. There should be a booklet of case studies of efforts put in so far.
• Partners were called upon to seriously reflect on what needs to be done next considering the results of the evaluation to make Omar’s dream a reality.
• There is need to reach a clear understanding of what the stop child labour movement is and what it wants to be. It is important to establish whether it is a movement that is new and spreading worldwide or a project implementing organization; who should be part of the movement and the process that should be used to strengthen the movement.
• Partners were encouraged to share concrete ideas on how they would like to move the movement forward and to share proposals with HIVOS. HIVOS pledged to support the full conceptualization of the ideas. Partners were encouraged to work together and put ideas on paper.
• A case of progress in lobbying political leaders in West Africa was shared. In West Africa, the Unions invited a member of parliament to an event. At the event, the unions indicated that they wanted to form a union of West African parliamentarians against child labour. The MP picked up this idea and shared it with other West African parliamentarians. To-date, they have already done parliamentary discussions on child labour. Partners were therefore encouraged to start.
• Partners were encouraged to use the different categories of child labourers to mobilize for funding. Categories mentioned were: children from child-headed households, early marriages, migrant workers, domestic, street beggars, former street children and children in movement.
• Exploit the linkages with decent work with adults, youth livelihoods improvement, but remain in the framework of child labour.
• A participant from Kenya shared an idea of a concept he has been working on about using agriculture to protect children. The idea is to support families and communities to enhance agriculture and consequently be able to take care of their children.
• It was suggested that the handbook needs to be translated in other languages to break communication barriers. Languages suggested included Spanish, Portuguese and German, among others. To this effect, the SCL team encouraged organizations to share proposals to translate the handbook into local languages.

6. Summary of reflections – Guided by Vikram

To wrap up the reflections, Vikram noted that the stop child labour network is one of the strongest in the world and this is something to be very proud of. He explained that to be able to strengthen the movement in India, the movement had to develop an implementation criteria to guide thought processes and planning.

He indicated that the stop child labour movement is a human rights based movement and human rights take time to change. He encouraged all partners to be patient as they wait for change to happen.

He further indicated that the SCL movement is fronting an agenda that has a global appeal. He explained that it was necessary to show others what has been done and what more needs to be done to make the lives of children better. This will attract more people and partners to join the movement.

Furthermore, he encouraged the use of technology to build the SCL network. He indicated that social media can greatly be exploited to raise awareness. He further explained that there is a need to create a platform where all partners in the movement can share their experiences and ideas. This platform should be free and should be used maximally. Facebook was cited as one of the avenues that could be used to this effect.

In addition to the above, he indicated that members of the movement should not stop talking to each other and their respective governments. He noted that there is a need to know how to talk to the government and what they should ask for from the governments. He emphasized that maximum impact will be achieved when all partnership in the movement start demanding for the same thing from their respective governments.

Vikram explained that CLFZ theory is a strong one, and that it is good to be evaluated against a strong theory. He encouraged members to continuously evaluate themselves against this theory since it supports sustainability. He said that whereas they may fall short several times, they should never give up.

He concluded by saying that the partners in Africa work well together and they should continue working together to achieve the dream of freeing children from child labour. One of his hopes was that we would all meet as a movement in 3-5 years again and still share the same vision.

6.2. Summary of concluding reactions

Question: What do we have as a movement that can keep connecting us.

Answer (Sofie): We have the declaration on Child Labour Free Zones, which has been signed by all partners and should be used to keep the momentum.

Answer (Vikram): We should select a phrase that we can continuously refer to. It should feature in all communication on child labour. In India, our phrase is the non-negotiables. It is also important to continue spreading the word and using the handbook.

Annex 1: Group Work on Assumptions

Presentation of Group 1: West Africa and Morocco

Presentation of Group 2: Kenya and Zimbabwe

Presentation of Group 3: Uganda and Ghana

Presentation of Group 4: Ethiopia and India