Evaluation of the Child Rights Governance Regional Programme in West Africa: 2009-2014

All countries in West Africa have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC). However, these instruments are not widely known at the national level, and the states do not usually respect their commitment to submit periodic reports to the mandated reporting mechanisms. Most countries have overdue reports to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (the UN Committee) and other human and child rights mechanisms, and reporting to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Children (ACERWC) is still not considered to be a priority. Resource allocations for child rights are often lower than any other sectors and are not used efficiently.

Save the Children Sweden (SCS) began its work in West Africa in 1977 providing support to maternal and child health services in Cape Verde. The work of SCS developed progressively from 2002 onwards from a quite fragmented child rights promotion project with individual partner organisations in a few countries to a child rights governance (CRG) regional programme supporting child rights coalitions at both the national and regional levels. The overall objective of the regional CRG programme has been to push states in West Africa to implement the UNCRC, the ACRWC, and other international and regional human rights instruments related to child rights by supporting civil society in its watchdog role and empowering children to claim their rights.

SCS has initiated this evaluation to assess the impact of the Child Rights Governance Regional Programme as well as to analyse issues that might undermine the programme’s sustainability. The main focus of this evaluation is on the results that were achieved during the period 2009 to 2014. The evaluation is expected to provide Save the Children (SC) with lessons learned and with evidence of the added value and limitations of the CRG regional programme as well as to feed into the discussion with Save the Children International (SCI) and its partners and stakeholders on the strengths and weaknesses of the regional approach taken by the CRG regional programme.