The latest UN report on the MDGs states that progress towards the Millennium Development Goals has been made, but it’s uneven. It looks like the Goals will be missed in most regions.
I’m blaming Madonna for launching her line of MDG sunglasses and not linking them to an MDG promotion campaign (kidding!)
To discuss all this (well, except for the sunglasses part), MDG week is happening in New York from September 20-24, 2010. I’ll be part of some of the activities, including 2 panels. The first panel is on ICTs, Innovation and the MDGs and the second is on Women/Girls and Mobiles. What better way to prepare than to write some blog posts to sort through some ideas?
This post looks at the link between child rights and the MDGs. I’ll write some additional posts and add links at the bottom of this post when they are ready. I would love feedback on which elements would be most important to highlight during the MDG panels next week.
Human rights and the MDGs
If you look at why some countries are more on track than others in achieving the MDGs, the answer often comes down to there being greater accountability and transparency at all levels, more citizen engagement, and more public debate. Human rights are instrumental in ensuring empowerment, access to social services, equality before the law, and poverty reduction. So the link between human rights and the MDGs is clear. There are a number of human rights concepts: shared responsibility, indivisibility, non-discrimination, equality, and accountability that are also necessary for achieving the MDGs.
Due to discrimination, the most marginalized are still not accessing their rights or being included in the MDGs. There are still massive inequalities between rich and poor, rural and urban, men and women, boys and girls, adults and children. Disability and ethnicity also prevent some groups from being included. Until these disparities are addressed, the achievement of the MDGs will be far off for many particular groups. The discussion around the MDGs needs to include and reflect the opinions and concerns of those who have been traditionally marginalized.
Girls and the MDGs
Children, especially girls, and especially girls in poor, rural areas and urban slums, are often the most marginalized in these processes and in general. The MDGs highlight some critical gender gaps, especially in education, but they do not reveal the power imbalances that are an underlying cause of these disparities. Girls are often subjected to harmful practices such as early marriage and sexual violence. In countries where literacy is lowest, girls’ chances of early marriage are highest. Girls spend more time working, shoulder the burden of household chores and are more often not in school. Organizations and entities working towards the MDGs need to do more to ensure that girls and other marginalized groups are not excluded.
MDGs through a child rights lens
Child rights are a set of specific rights for those under the age of 18. They are outlined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Much of the work that child rights organizations are doing is complementary to achieving the MDGs, and 6 of the 8 MDGs are directly related to children.
Working with children and young people to participate effectively in the development of their communities and the realization of their rights contributes directly and indirectly to the achievement of the MDGs. Ensuring that children, especially girls, and other marginalized groups are listened to and heard by decision makers at the local, district, national and global levels is critical in identifying and addressing the hidden power dynamics and the underlying issues that slow the achievement of the MDGs.
Applying a ‘child rights’ lens to the MDGs is helpful in identifying responsibilities for achievement of the different MDGs. A child rights lens can also help ensure the concepts of non-discrimination and the best interest of the child are incorporated into MDG work.
What is a child rights lens? How can it be applied to the MDGs? In a simplified way, it means:
- Identifying and monitoring those persons and institutions responsible for ensuring children’s rights/achievement of the MDGs (the ‘duty bearers’).
- Helping children and adolescents (the ‘rights holders’ in this case), to empower themselves by knowing their rights/knowing the MDGs, and together with supportive adults and institutions, to hold duty bearers accountable for ensuring children’s rights/achievement of the MDGs.
- Supporting children to participate fully in the process. Children’s participation leads to better outcomes and policies, and involving children early in their lives helps them develop skills and attitudes that lead to a better society in the short and long-term. Not only do children have something to contribute to their societies now, but by engaging in community development and developing good leadership skills at a young age, they also become better leaders in the future.
A child rights approach should be central to all programs and funding that are addressing the MDGs, since the MDGs are interrelated with children’s rights to survival, development, participation and protection. In addition, the principles of non-discrimination and the best interest of the child should be paramount in all decisions taken related to the MDGs.
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Resources:
UNICEF’s Narrowing the Gaps to meet the Goals shows that paying attention to equity and the unreached can be a more cost-effective way of pursuing the MDGs in aggregate.
3 ways to integrate ICTs into development work
5 ways ICTs can support the MDGs
7 (or more) questions to ask before adding ICTs
Related posts on Wait… What
Child participation at events: getting it right
Child protection, the media and youth media programs
Community based child protection
Excellent post, Linda! Two areas you may want to think about highlighting in your presentations: (1) For the organizations & communities that have begun effective programs for empowering girls and youth, what has led to their success? What conditions must be in place to be effective? What can others learn from their experiences; and (2) What can the developed world learn from the developing world vis a vis the use of ICTs and mobiles for social change? I heard a well known US speaker on technology comment the other day on the “growth and role of mobiles going forward” as a seemingly new area to focus on. But as you well know, many developing country communities lead the way on this, having more or less ‘skipped’ the landline infrastructure to go right to mobiles. Lessons from the developing world for the developed world usually get people’s attention!
Thanks so much for the feedback Bonnie! I will work those points into the panels for sure.
Another great and timely post. Looking forward to your talk at UN week.
A few thoughts on the MDGs and human rights and how well they go together. In early responses to the MDGs, or for that matter other global development goals, a lot of focus was put on to achieving the goals in aggregate, and focussing on the “low hanging fruit” as a means to get there. In practice this often meant extending services first to the middle classes, those close to urban centres, those in the dominant ethnic/religious group etc. since this was easier to do. Similarly an emphasis was put on reaching those goals that were seen as easier to reach.
But while this approach might appear to lead to faster progress towards the goals, it has a serious downside. Those groups that are hardest to reach, most excluded or most discriminated against remain left out while others advance – thus exacerbating existing disparities and tensions.
Taking a human rights approach and applying the principles of universality and non-discrimination means that this approach is not an option. Special attention needs to be given to seeing whose rights are not being met and to reach those who are the most marginalized.
Luckily a recent study by UNICEF “Narrowing the Gaps to meet the Goals” http://www.unicef.org/media/files/Narrowing_the_Gaps_to_Meet_the_Goals_090310_2a.pdf shows that paying attention to equity and the unreached can indeed be a more cost effective way of pursuing the MDGs in aggregate. But from a human rights perspective, I think we should be paying attention to equity and the excluded in pursuing the MDGs even if this wasn’t the most cost effective way of reaching them.
Thanks Ian! Really helpful background and good information on how UNICEF it tackling this. I’ve updated the post to add a link to the study you cited. Totally agree that whether most cost effective or not, children, women and other marginalized groups should be included, otherwise we will just continue to widen gaps, and everyone will pay the price for that in the long term.
Hi Linda – good post. I’d like to support Ian’s feedback, but add that the UN has made a commitment to apply human rights based approaches in their work; all major UN agencies have developed strategies on how to make this reality (just like many NGOs). De facto it seems though that they keep on struggling with putting this into practice and little documentation and evaluation work is available from within the UN on progress made in this sense. (to my knowledge WHO for example has still no human rights strategy in place – urgently needed given their power to advance children’s and adolescent’s health). And we know ourselves how NGOs keep on struggling too with shifting to a rights based approach! There are many reasons for this – external and internal:Institutions are affected from the same power dynamics and prejudices that exclude most marginalized groups (women, children and people with disability); their programs are shaped by state priorities (which don’t always put human rights upfront and even less so those of children); and finally: major donors have not made the shift to integrating a human rights perspective into their funding mechanisms. There are some exceptions to it, luckily, but still it’s a long way to go. The internet and mobile phone technology offer invaluable tools to create greater public pressure on governments, donors, UN and NGOs to fulfill their commitments.
Great point Stefanie! And I like the last sentence especially, because you don’t only say ‘governments’ but you mention public pressure on donors, UN and NGOs. I’ll add the private sector to that, as they have a role to play as part of MDG 8. 🙂
Really cool stuff and I agree with Linda about using the private sector more. If you want to do try and get this done in practice perhaps you should check out ONE’s Baby Campaign. This internet viral message is pretty clear and entertaining with talking baby heads and a clear message it will likely generate some internet buzz as babies get sent around threatening to ‘Throw the bottle out of the Pram’ or ‘Put us on the naughty step’ unless we show some support. Check it out at
http://www.one.org/international/actnow/babyprotest/
and let others know so we can do something to fight extreme poverty and save babies from being born with a death sentence.
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little did i knw that child partispation espercially girl child have positive impacts in developing their skills and society as a whole.Futhermore it can help children to be better leaders in future