SUCCESS FACTORS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COMPETENCY-BASED APPROACH
// Political will // Access to quality child protection services requires sufficient leadership and political will to prevent, address, and eradicate child rights violations. This type of political will translates into comprehensive legal, strategic and judicial frameworks, and effectively organised child protection services, policies and budgets. Strategies, plans and policies are essential for providing direction and frames of reference for actors in the protection system. However, the challenge is to ensure that they are contextualised to reflect the realities that children face and adapted to suit local needs and practitioner skill levels. To be effective, strategies must be flexible, context-specific, pragmatic and measurable.
to align competency frameworks, unit workflows and national strategies. Political will also translates into a serious effort to ensure compliance with legal frameworks and policies so that practices truly protect children. Governments must fulfil their due diligence obligations. This means verifying whether public authorities commit errors or omissions in connection with their child protection duties. Political will must also translate into fighting impunity for perpetrators of child rights violations.
“The competency frameworks will be excellent tools to support reflection exercises, guide discussions and put pressure on states.” - Denisse Araya Castelli, Director of Raíces, Chile (2020)
© AdobeStock / yanadjan
Although political will is often tied to funding, governments can also take responsibility by getting involved in professional development programmes and professionalisation plans for the various occupations and units involved in child protection. This can be done regardless of available budgets. Strategies will be more effective, better accepted and applied more rigorously if the persons responsible for their implementation believe that the proposed priorities and areas of action are aligned with their realities, capabilities and skills. This is why it’s important
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