Save the Children’s Child Rights Situation Analysis Guidelines

A Situation Analysis is an important link in the programme cycle to formulate an intervention or organisational strategy. A Child Rights Situation Analysis (CRSA) incorporates principles of the rights of a child in planning child-based programmes. Save the Children’s approach to a CRSA involves mapping the level of violations of children’s rights, analyzing the underlying causes of the violations (including legislation, implementation, cultural practices and attitudes) and identifying duty bearers and other main actors, giving due consideration to the views of the child throughout situation analyses.  The current guidelines reflect Save the Children’s accumulated experiences and best practices over the last two decades in carrying out such analyses. Written for Save the Children staff and partners responsible for managing the development and maintenance of a CRSA, the guidelines seek to provide the tools and resources needed to develop a CRSA. They describe the components and sequencing that will result in a good CRSA, and include tips on how to manage the process in particularly complex or challenging situations.

Section 2 of these guidelines describes key child rights concepts and principles and draws on a wide range of CRSAs undertaken in the past decade; Parts 1 and 3 are primarily aimed at senior management teams, and provide overall guidance and tips on the CRSA process; Parts 4 and 5 give detailed descriptions of the CRSA data-gathering and analysis processes and are aimed at teams charged with designing a good CRSA process.