Using UNCRC Rights in Early
Childhood as a tool for achieving
‘equity from the start’
Clyde Hertzman
Human Early Learning Partnership
Council for Early Child Development
What influences
early child
development?
The experiences
children have in
the environments
where they grow
up, live and
learn.
Which Environments Matter?
Life Course Problems Related to
Early Life Experiences
2nd
Decade
• School Failure
3rd/4th
Decade
• Obesity
5th/6th
Decade
Old Age
• Coronary Heart • Premature
Disease
Aging
• Teen Pregnancy • Elevated Blood
Pressure
• Diabetes
• Criminality
• Depression
• Memory Loss
“Equity from the
Start”
The Early Development
Instrument
Early Development
Instrument
• 104 items
• Extensive validity and reliability
data from several countries
• Not a test
• Teacher at age 5 is respondent
• Five developmental domains,
with sixteen subdomains
• A guide with explanations
available
What Does the EDI Measure?
EDI is:
-a population-based tool
-a mobilisation tool
-a monitoring tool
EDI is not:
-an individual assessment
-a prescription for action
-perfect
Question:
Does the following
represent a rights violation
under the UN-CRC?
BC: 45% of neighbourhood variability in
EDI vulnerability assoc. with SES
High
% vuln
on EDI
Low
Disadvantaged
SES
Advantaged
According to UN-CRC:GC 7
…………the answer is ‘yes’
thus…….
UN-CRC GC: 7 Indicators Group
Who is involved in UN-CRC
GC: 7 Indicators group?
HELP
CRC
UN-CRC
GC-7
Indicators
Group
SOS-K.
Intl
BvL
AKF
WHO
CGECCD
UNICEF
ICC
What is a CRC General Comment?
1989: The Child Right Convention, CRC
2004: General Comment 7 (GC: 7); Implementing child rights
in early childhood
General Comments:
Are usually
developed to
address specific
issues or
overarching
problems with
CRC
Are also meant to
assist the States
Parties with their
analyses of the
problems with
respect to specific
issues and improve
reporting to CRC.
There are 14 GCs
to date in CRC
Why a General Comment on Rights in
Early Childhood?
In response to the
observation that
children<8 were
often overlooked
in States Parties’
reporting
Where discussed,
references were
limited to child
mortality and …,
neglecting the
broad scope of
child right
The States Parties simply
overlooked their
obligations towards
young children
Why indicators? Why monitoring?
Procedural rights
vs
Substantive rights
Why indicators? Why monitoring?
Procedural rights = immediate realization
Substantive rights = ‘progressive
realization’
Why indicators? Why monitoring?
UNCRC:GC7 is mostly about substantive rights
You can only tell if there is ‘progressive
realization’ by monitoring over time.
Monitoring can create a bridge between
population health and human rights.
UN-CRC GC-7 Indicators
• 2005: group approached CRC, arguing that GC:7 is
impractical and underused………..need user-friendly and
useful GC:7 indicators
• 2006: UN-CRC invites us to develop indicators
• 2006-2008: indicators of GC:7 were completed
• May 2008: GC:7 indicators were presented to CRC
UN-CRC GC: 7 Indicators were
meant to:
•Assist States Parties with preparation
of their report to UN-CRC
•Monitor the progressive realization of
rights in early childhood
Report writing at country level
CRC sends comments to the country
The country sends a team to Geneva
CRC Reviews the information
Concluding Observations
Report writing at country
level
CRC sends comments to the
country
The country sends a team to
Geneva
CRC Reviews the information
Concluding Observations
We created15 Indicator Clusters matching CRC
reporting guidelines
•General Measures of Implementation (4)
1. Dissemination of GC7
•Civil
rights and and
freedoms
(1) the positive agenda
2. Constructing
implementing
Birth registration
3. Human Rights training
•Family environment and alternative care (2)
4.
collection
systemdecision making
1. Data
Participation
in household
2. Violence
children
•Basic
healthagainst
and young
welfare
(3)
1. Basic material needs
2. Child survival
and health
•Education,
leisure
and cultural
3. Age-appropriate health education
1. Early education service provision
activities (4)
•Special
protection
(1)
2. Educational
service measures
provision for vulnerable
Inclusive
policy and
provisions
for vulnerable
groups
3. Knowledge
of right
and capacity
to support
it
4.
Play, leisure and rest opportunitites
Structural Components of Indicators
Rationale for Indicator Structure
• they correspond to the duties of state’s
parties, i.e.
• Structure
Respect
Protect
• Process
• Outcome
Fulfill
Child Right Convention
General Comment 7(GC:7)
Implementing child right in early
childhood
GC:7 Indicators
Implementation manual of GC:7
indicators
Indicator
H o w to rea d the flo w chart
5: Birth re gistration
N o : an swer to ind icato r
q u estio n - see su gg estio n s
D o wn ward arro w : answer to the
in d icato r q u estio n y es
NO
Does the State h ave written policy
with
rega rd s to the impleme ntatio n of an
official, na tio nwide , u nive rs al, and fre e of
cha rg e birth re gistration sys tem?
N u m b ers in b ox es : th ere are
su gg estio n s after th e flo wch art
Step s towards making
_
su ch po licie s
Is sp ecific p olicy in p la ce to e nsu re non dis crimina to ry u nive rs al acces s to birth
regis tratio n, an d pa rticula rly to facilitate th e
regis tratio n of vu lnera
ble or e xclude d yo un g
children , p re ferably a s s oon as p os sible a fter
birth, e.g . within th e firs t 2/3 mon ths o f life ?
NO
Step s towards
making su ch
Are p olicie s is in p lace to e ns ure an d/or
facilitate th e late reg istra
tion o f ch ildren
no t co vered by exis ting reg istra tion
systems ? Is this sys te m also free of
cha rg e?
NO
Step s to wa rd s making
su ch po licie s
_
po licie s
_
Are th ere po licy co mmitme nts in p lace to
raise awarene ss with p arents , ca re givers,
pros pe ctive paren ts an d profe ssio na ls on th e
be ne fits and ad van ta ge s of b irth regis tra tio n?
NO
Step s to ma ke
su ch po licy
commitmen ts
NO
Step s towards
making su ch efforts
_
Have e fforts, action s, an d alloca tio ns of
reso urce s be en ma de to imple ment n ew
systems o r imp rove on existin g systems
to e nsu re natio nal b irth reg is tra tio n
?
Have th ere be en e fforts to raise
awaren es s amo ng st ke y au dien ces,
pa re nts ?
NO
Step s tow ards
NO
St ep s towards
imple me nting an d
evalua tin g the se
prog ra ms
_
Have th ere be en i mple mente d an d e valua ted
prog ra mmes to p ro actively fa cilitate
regis tratio n of a ll n ewbo rns an d you ng
children for pa re nts and ca re give rs ?
awaren es s ra ising
_
_
No
Steps to have
such policies in
place
Are there policies in place to
promote
birth registration?
Yes
Policies on
awareness
raising
Suggestions
Policies to
facilitate late
registration
No
Are there programs in place to provide universal non
discriminatory access to birth registration?
Steps to have
such programs
Conditional
Cash
Suggestions
Mobile Birth
Registry
Facilitating
late
registration
Steps to
investigate lack
of response
Has there been any decrease
in the percentage of unregistered children?
Investigate
improvements in
reporting system
Suggestions
Look at the
disaggregated
data
Retrospective cash transfer of Peru
http://www.unicef.org/files/Conditional_Cash_Transfers_In_Peru__Tackling_The_Multi-Dimensionality_Of_Poverty_And_Vulnerability.pdf
Mobile brigades in Mozambique:
http://www.unicef.org/mozambique/protection_4904.html
Retrospective birth registration of Senegal:
http://www.planusa.org/stuff/contentmgr/files/d9ee355af9fc9e39564ba31f686
miscdocs/countmein.pdf
Experience of Senegal
Sample flowchart:
www.childrightsimpact.info/ecrim/flowchart5
Child Right
Convention
General
Comment
7(GC:7)
Implementing
child right in
early childhood
GC:7
Indicators
Implementation
manual of GC:7
indicators
Pilot
testing
the
manual
Tanzania as a suitable pilot country
• Has ratified CRC in 1991
• Suitable reporting timeline (next report due 2012)
•
National awareness to invest in ECD (Integrated
ECD strategy, Child Act and…)
• Number of on-going projects by international
agencies to build up ECD capacity (CRED-PRO,
EFA of WB…)
Objectives of the pilot
•To test the relevance and feasibility of each indicator
•To further refine the indicators and the flow charts
•To understand whether or not the process serves as an
effective means of report writing as well as a national,
institutional self-study
What was our pilot testing
strategy?
•To achieve maximum government & civil
society buy-in for the pilot.
•To strengthen initiatives around the early
childhood policies, training, services and
rights.
How did we structure the
pilot?
Steering Committee
Off-site Task
Force
On-site Task
Force
Sequence of the events:
•Feasibility assessment, February 2009
•Face-to-face meeting of the team to finalize the
pilot country and plan the pilot, April 2009
•Identifying the stakeholders and bringing them around
What should our pilot testing strategy
one table, September
2009
be?
•Establishing the project team in the country, Sept 2009
•Formation and training of the task force, Dec 2009
•Face validation of the flow charts, Jan, 2010
Sequence of the events….
•The pilot, January-May 2010
•Mid-term evaluation, March 2010
pilot
testing strategy
•Review of the What
pilotshould
data,our
May
2010
be?
•Informing CRC on the outcome of the pilot, June 14th 2010
•Informing the country on the outcome of the pilot and
wrapping up the pilot, June 22nd 2010
Benefits for pilot country
Awareness raising
How many “No”s, how many “Yes”s in the system?
Capacity building
How to turn “No’s to “Yes”s?
•
Better reporting system
How to use “Yes”s and “No”s
• to describe the status of child
rights in the country and communicate it to UN-CRC?
The Forward Plan
• Revise Indicators and Manual in light of Tanzanian
pilot
• Identify 2-3 middle and upper income countries
for second stage implementation…Canada????
• Complete second stage implementation in
2010/2011
• Present final Indicators and Manual to UN-CRC
Monitoring Committee
• Have Indicators promulgated for use in all 193
signatory countries
For further info:
visit the Global Knowledge Hub for ECD at :
http://www.earlylearning.ubc.ca/globalknowledgehub
or contact -ziba.vaghri@ubc.ca