Developing a Child-Friendly Monitoring Tools for the 3rd National Plan of Action for Children (NPAC) is this year’s topic of the Convention on the Rights of Children (CRC) Coalition’s Annual Children’s Consultation held September 7-8, 2019 at La Breza Hotel in Quezon City.
Attended by children and youth representatives from various children’s rights advocate organizations in the country, the Open Heart Foundation youth was represented by Alexandra Del Rosario and John Christian Valles.
Discussed in this activity is the 3rd NPAC for 2017-2022, a medium-term action plan to achieve and realize the vision for the Filipino Children or Child 21, stating the four goals as follows:
Goal 1: Children have a better quality and improved quality of life.
Goal 2: Children are well-nourished, have healthy lives and are active learners with good quality education.
Goal 3: Children are safe and free from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation.
Goal 4: Children are actively participating in decision-making processes affecting their lives according to their evolving capacities.
Through child-friendly games, workshop and interactive activities, the perspectives of the youth participants and their understanding of the UNCRC children’s rights and NPAC goals were gathered. An additional topic in Understanding Sex and Gender was also discussed by the facilitators from the CRC Coalition.
The participants have identified indicators in determining whether each goal is achieved considering the topics that has been discussed. They have chosen at least two significant issues of concerns in the community and society, as a whole, where they came out with sets of questions that can be used in the monitoring tool.
Participants presented their proposed data gathering techniques, methodologies, schedule and monitoring process that they see effective and applicable for children their age. The types of support they need and from whom was also identified.
The 2-day activity concluded with a consultation meeting with the youth participants of the Children Talk to Children (C2C) facilitated by Ms. Olive of Save the Children. This was in view of the possible changes of C2C program management from SM-ZOTO, the organization who sphere headed this initiative, to CSC-CRC Coalition.
Article prepared by Janette Corollo, RSW
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