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Children who cross borders in Southern Africa - A regional seminar
Save the Children (UK)
May 27, 2010

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http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/54_10789.htm

Introduction

From 25 to 27 May 2009, Save the Children UK, in collaboration with the Forced Migration Studies Programme (FMSP) of the University of Witwatersrand, hosted a southern African Regional Seminar on Children Who Cross Borders. The seminar was funded by Irish Aid and USAID.

The seminar was prompted by the urgent need to bring together key stakeholders in the region to share and exchange knowledge, experiences and learning on children on the move. The seminar was also designed to respond to the felt need to better establish coordination mechanisms across organisations and agencies who often find themselves with inadequate information on and understanding around children who migrate in the region.

Sixty-eight people representing government departments and agencies, donors, INGOs, UN Agencies, local NGOs, national and regional networks, media, academia and children attended. Participants came from several countries in the SADC region including Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Presenters from other regions, namely West Africa and South East Asia, were also in attendance. The Irish Ambassador to South Africa opened the seminar by emphasising the commitment of the Irish government to assisting vulnerable children. He noted the needs of children who were particularly disadvantaged by their gender, ability and poverty; and the importance of strengthening the family. Through their partnership with Save the Children, Irish Aid has encouraged child participation in decision making as well as a review of legislation and policy for orphans and vulnerable children.

Whilst the mornings focused on presenting lessons learnt and experiences working on issues linked to children who move, much of the seminar was devoted to working intensively in thematic working groups which addressed a different theme each day:

Day One: Who do we mean when we talk about children who cross borders; and what are their key issues in the region?

Day Two: What work is being done around migrant children's issues in the region; and what are the gaps?

Day Three: What are the barriers to providing effective support and assistance to migrant children; and what are our key recommendations?

In addition to the seminar, a two-day migrant children's workshop was held over the preceding weekend. The workshop aimed to enable a group of 12 girls and boys to address the same thematic issues using ar t as their medium of expression. In this way, they told their stories of migration as well as developed a powerful statement, which was incorporated into the recommendations of the seminar. The process that was used to enable children to par ticipate meaningfully in the seminar is described in Appendix 3.

The seminar culminated in a series of action-oriented recommendations in four interwoven areas, which are discussed in more detail in this report:

• Access to Services
• Advocacy and Information
• Prevention of Child Labour
• Protection

Preliminary general recommendations, as well as the children's statement, were also circulated soon after the seminar concluded.

This report aims to provide a fuller account of the rich discussion and debate that took place over the three days of the seminar. In order to facilitate dissemination of the workshop recommendations, a steering committee was set up in the planning stages. Not only have recommendations been circulated in the region, but also they will feed into a global conference on children on the move in March 2010 in Barcelona, Spain.

The working groups produced many observations, opinions and in some cases disagreements about children on the move. Whilst we have done our best to capture the discussions from the plenary sessions and summary reports provided from the working groups, Save the Children UK and FMSP acknowledge that the report is not exhaustive with respect to all of the discussions and debates that took place. Nevertheless, every effort has been made to incorporate the range of contributions participants made.

This report will help form the basis of future activities around children on the move for Save the Children UK's programmes in the southern African region. The report highlights priorities for service delivery, advocacy, information gathering and child par ticipation.

Likewise, we encourage you as stakeholders to help translate the recommendations into concrete action in your own advocacy and programming work; and to distribute this report widely to your colleagues in other organisations.

The opinions expressed by participants during the seminar do not necessarily reflect the official positions and views of Save the Children UK, the Forced Migration Studies Programme, Irish Aid or USAID.

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