Street children need to be included in the future child rights discourse

Over the past year we have seen a resolution adopted by The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), as well as the publication of a report by the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the protection and promotion of the rights of children living on the streets. These are important developments with wide reaching recommendations, but the question is whether they will bring about lasting sustainable change and ensure that street children are included in the future child rights discourse.

Practitioners, academics and policymakers have been debating for years about how to include street children in the policy agenda. This debate will continue, but we need to re-think how the rights and voices of the most marginalised in our society (that includes children living on the street) are heard. It’s no secret that street children remain on the margins of child centred development priorities. Practitioners and activists recognise that these children are a difficult group to conceptualise on a global scale, which has resulted in a sector with limited capacity to inform policy-makers and the donor community.

The international development paradigm is changing rapidly. The international community’s focus is now on achieving the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) but academics and political leaders are beginning to discuss what to do next. The MDGs have produced significant benefits, helping to co-ordinate development among a wide range of actors and maintaining the political will for foreign aid and development policy.  They have also achieved much for children all over the world through channeling political commitment and investments – bringing about reductions in poverty, child mortality and improvements in education enrolment.

However, many child rights NGOs have expressed concern over the absence of child protection in the current MDGs. There is evidence that the widespread violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation that children face is hindering the progress of the current MDGs, as well as the social and economic development of countries. Critics have also argued that the goals have been largely insensitive to the local context, including dimensions that are not relevant to some countries. The concentration on poverty rather than the poor has meant that the targets did not focus on inequality, social protection, human rights, participation and equity.

The reductionist nature of the MDGs, their limited scope, and the narrow definitions that characterise their goals, has led to a view that 2015 offers the opportunity to redress their weaknesses and shortcomings. Whereas the human rights agenda was rooted in sixty years of articulation through national and international laws, the MDGs never represented a radical departure for international development policy, either rhetorically or with respect to setting development goals. The post-2015 agenda needs to consider the multidimensional aspects of poverty, including vulnerability and the need for protection. UNICEF has often spoken of the need to push the issue of child protection out of the ‘ghetto’. A new development framework will have to pay adequate attention to child protection. Focus will need to be paid to children’s specific vulnerabilities, including age, context and their dependence (or lack of) on adults. Street children’s inclusion will be dependent on strengthening comprehensive child protection services at country level, greater involvement from civil society organisations, and more investment into evidence-based research on the issues that impact street children on the ground.

It has been well documented that there was a lack of inclusion of diverse participants in the MDGs. The absence of participation by civil society, and in particular marginalised groups, is a case in point. Getting governments, civil society and NGOs to recognise groups, such as street children, through a framework will not have the desired impact unless it reflects the call for multi-stakeholder participation that is beyond the engagement of NGOs and policy-makers, and shape a new and radical framework for development. There needs to be recognition that participation must foster a wide range of genuine deliberation and engagement with citizens that facilitates access to key issues and decision-making.

When considering what impact this has for the issue of street children, we have to take into account the rise and impact of citizen participation from the global South that is beginning to help promote pro-poor policy change.  Development frameworks created by government and political parties, elite advocacy NGOs, and development experts may lack legitimacy, particularly if all affected people are not represented in negotiating frameworks. A post-2015 agenda will have to reflect ownership from the global South and accountability to those it is seeking to serve. Shaping the next direction requires experimentation, openness and innovation that should not be simply the job of ‘development professionals’ from the North, but must arise from the work of practitioners and activists and street children from the global South.

Over the past 20 years, too many policies and interventions have failed to take into account children’s own views, and therefore fail to address the context in which street children live and experience their vulnerability.

Street Action, the NGO that I led for seven years, works with partners in Burundi, Kenya and South Africa. Like countless others around the world they are seeking to fight for the rights of street children and to ensure that their voices are heard. Our partner Umthombo Street Children has become well known for its campaign against police round-ups. In 2010, as South Africa celebrated hosting the FIFA World Cup, Umthombo won a major battle with the city authorities to end round-ups and a new era of positive engagement with Durban’s street children was welcomed. This example shows how the most transformative and sustainable models of changing societies perception of street children have occurred, when the commitment to change has come from within, driven and led by the local practitioners, activists and communities, and supported by the international community.

As we look for new leadership from the global South, we must strive towards building new partnerships. These should require adapting to new circumstances, with new ideas that do not always fit a euro-centric way of thinking. We have become driven by overly technical and managerial approaches that have come to dominate the development praxis, designed to create efficiency and accountability one way. These practices have their part to play and shouldn’t be entirely discredited, but at the same time we should not dismiss the need to look for fresh approaches. I fear that the status quo can sometimes pacify our conscience instead of inciting the collective will to pursue radical change within a culture of challenge and achieving social justice; a more radical approach is needed to produce long-lasting and sustainable change.

Although the values and principles embedded in the 2000 Millennium Declaration are timeless, the world has changed too much to claim that the Declaration can serve as a basis for elaborating a new agenda. The rise of the South, the transfer of technologies and communication, and growing inequalities are among a few of the major changes in the global context that cannot be ignored. All of these issues will have an impact on street children, the contexts that they live in, the experiences they face and their increasing vulnerability. Street children must be included in a new development era.

Image taken from: http://latarablanca.org/SCR%20page.html