One Plan UN Strategy

violating children’s rights: Harmful practices based on tradition, culture, religion or superstition

ONE

Plan UN Strategy

2012-2016

A report from the International NGO Council on Violence against Children

ONE

Plan UN Strategy

2012-2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Figures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii Acronyms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii Acknowledgements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Foreword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Background.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1. Plan’s Vision, Mission, and Approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2. One Plan One Goal Strategy.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

3. Plan’s Programmes, Advocacy, and Campaigns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

4. The United Nations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

5. Plan UN Offices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

5.1

Country Offices-Regional Offices-UN Offices.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

5.2

National Offices-Liaison Offices-UN Offices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

The One Plan UN Strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

6. Vision, Mission, and Guiding Principles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

6.1 Vision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 6.2 Mission. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

6.3

Guiding Principles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

6.3.1 Do No Harm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

6.3.2 The Best Interest of the Child. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

6.3.3 Child Participation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Goals and Objectives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

7. Overarching Goal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

8. Strategic Objectives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

8.1

8.1.1 Strengthen Relationships with UN Agencies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

8.1.2 Strengthen Policy in Plan’s Areas of Expertise. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

8.1.3 Achieve General Consultative Status.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

8.2

8.2.1 To Become “One Plan” with “One Voice” at the UN.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

External Strategic Objectives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Internal Strategic Objective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Key Policy Areas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

9. Selection Criteria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

9.1

Policy and Evidence-Based Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

One Plan UN Strategy

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9.2 Impact. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

9.3

Added Value. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

9.4 Gaps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 9.5 Partnerships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 9.6 Resources.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

9.7

Global Trends. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

10. Key Policy Areas and Areas of Concentration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

10.1

10.1.1 Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Committee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

10.1.2 Human Rights Council. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

10.1.3

10.1.4 Special Procedures and Mandate Holders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

10.2

10.2.1 Violence against Children. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

10.2.2 Violence in Schools.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

10.2.3 Universal Birth Registration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

10.3

10.3.1 The Convention and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

10.3.2 The Commission on the Status of Women. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Child Rights at the United Nations.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

UN General Assembly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Child Protection.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Non-Discrimination, Equality, and Inclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

10.4 Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

10.4.1 The Empowerment of Girls through Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

10.4.2 Education in Emergencies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

11. Global Trends. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 8

11.1

Post-Millennium Development Goals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

11.2

Youth Economic Empowerment.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

11.3

Children with Disabilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Implementation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

12. Internal Implementation.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

12.1 Roll-Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

12.2

Training/Raising Awareness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

12.3 Reporting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 12.4 Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 12.5 Communication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

12.6

Annual Review and Evaluation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

13. External Implementation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

13.1

Reporting to the Economic and Social Council.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

13.2 Partnerships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 13.3 Communication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

ii

table of figures Figure 1: The UN System as Engaged by the Plan UN Offices.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Figure 2: Plan’s Global Community. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0 Figure 3: Plan-UN Communication Flow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5

ACRONYMS AU

African Union

BIAAG

Because I am a Girl

CCCD

Child-Centred Community Development

CEDAW

Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

CO

Country Office

CRC

Convention on the Rights of the Child

CSW

Commission on the Status of Women

DRM

Disaster Risk Management

DRR

Disaster Risk Reduction

ECOSOC

United Nations Economic and Social Council

EIE

Education in Emergencies

EU

European Union

GVA

Geneva

GBV

Gender-Based Violence

HIV

Human Immunodeficiency Virus

HRC

United Nations Human Rights Council

IH

International Headquarters

ILO

International Labour Organization

KPA

Key Policy Area

LO

Liaison Office

LWF

Learn Without Fear

MDG

Millennium Development Goals

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aCrONyMS (continued) MOU

Memorandum of Understanding

NgO

Non-Governmental Organization

NO

National Office

OCHa

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

OHCHr

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

OP

Optional Protocol

OPaC

The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict

OPSC

The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography

POlt

Plan’s Operational Leadership Team

PU

Programme Unit

rO

Regional Office

Sg

United Nations Secretary-General

Sr

Special Rapporteur

SrSg

Special Representative of the Secretary-General

tOr

Terms of Reference

UBr

Universal Birth Registration

UN

United Nations

UNga

United Nations General Assembly

UN WOMEN

United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

UNDP

United Nations Development Programme

UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNFPa

United Nations Population Fund

UNHCr

United Nations Refugee Agency

UNICEF

United Nations Children’s Fund

UPr

Universal Periodic Review

VaC

Violence against Children

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Acknowledgments The Heads of the Plan International Liaison Offices to the United Nations in Geneva and New York, Anne-Sophie Lois and Fiyola Hoosen-Steele acknowledge with special thanks the substantial work done by Layal Sarrouh, an independent consultant, who drafted the UN Strategy and worked closely with the Heads of Office to its finalization.

This strategy was developed through an extensive consultation process and with the advice and contributions of many people within the Plan family and we extend our gratitude to:

Adam Short

Head of Advocacy, Plan International Headquarters

Amanda Sussman

Director of Policy, Plan Canada

Andrew Adams

Administrative Officer, NY Office

Ann-Kristin Vervik

Senior Child Rights Advisor, Plan Norway

Annika Malmborg

Deputy Program Director, Plan Sweden

Cesar Bazan

Learn Without Fear Campaign Manager, Plan International Headquarters

Chikezie Anyanwu

Pan African Program Specialist, African Union & Pan African Program Office

Delores McLaughlin

Senior Policy Advisor for Economic Security, Plan International Headquarters

Elisa Baldini

Advocacy & Campaign Officer, European Union Office

Emily Laurie

Global Coordinator, Because I am a Girl Campaign, Plan International Headquarters

Giorgiana Rosa

Policy Manager, Plan International Headquarters

Gรถrel Bogarde

Director, Policy, Advocacy & Campaigns, Plan International Headquarters

Helen Kearney

Child Rights Advocacy and Communications Officer, Geneva Office

Hellen Tombo

Advocacy Coordinator, Regional Office of East and Southern Africa

Jacqueline Gallinetti

Program Head of Research, Plan International Headquarters

Laure Abado

Child Rights Advisor, Plan Sweden

Lori Lynch Mooney

Advocacy & Campaigns Officer, Plan International Headquarters

One Plan UN Strategy

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aCKNOWlEDgMENtS (continued) Matthew Carlson

Deputy Regional Director for Programs, Regional Office of the Americas

Melanie Swan

Regional Head of Strategy, Regional Office of the Americas

Monica Darer

Regional Child Rights Program Specialist, Regional Office of the Americas

Nick Hall

Disaster Risk Reduction Specialist, Plan International Headquarters

Nicoleta Panta

Manager, Count Every Child, Plan International Headquarters

Paul Fagnon

Child Rights Program Specialist, Plan Benin

raša Sekulović

Regional Advisor, Child Rights and Protection, Asia Regional Office

ruth Santisteban

Senior Advisor, Development & Human Rights, Plan Finland

Samia Kassid

Child Rights Specialist, Plan Germany

Sarah Hendricks

Global Gender Advisor, Plan International Headquarters

Sarah Stevenson

Global Advisor, Child Protection in Development, Plan International Headquarters

Silje Vold

Child Rights Advisor, Plan Norway

Unni Krishnan

Head, Disaster Response & Preparedness, Plan International Headquarters

Vanina trojan

Child Rights Advisor, Plan Ireland

Veronica Forcignano

Child Rights Officer, Plan Liaison & Advocacy Office, Geneva

Thank you also to the CEO of Plan International Nigel Chapman and the Deputy CEO of Plan International, Tjipke Bergsma for their encouragement and support of the UN Strategy.

Edited: Alison Graham Guidelines for UN Engagement edited by: Helen Kearney Designed by: Kathy Mills, kamildesign.com Printed by: Automation Graphics Published by Plan, January 2013 Text © Plan. All rights reserved. www.plan-international.org

vi

Foreword For seventy-five years, Plan has dedicated itself to improving the lives of children.

Through our programmes around the world, we have helped millions of children realise their full potential and have their rights respected.

In the One Plan One Goal strategy, we commit ourselves to reach more children (including those in the most marginalised groups). We set for ourselves the ambitious goal of positioning Plan as a leading child rights organisation, supported by our expertise and our quality programmes.

To achieve this, it is important that we not only enable children and their communities to have the support and services they need, but that we also carry out advocacy work to change laws, polices, attitudes, and practices, and thus improve child rights on a wider scale. We must use our experience and position as an authoritative, global voice to influence those with power and/or responsibility in order to secure the rights of children. This needs to be done at all levels: community, national, regional, and international.

At the international level, the United Nations is the primary global platform for promoting and protecting human rights, including the rights of children. It is where governments discuss, debate, and define these rights to formulate policies, set standards, express international commitments, and draft human rights treaties.

This is why it is crucial for Plan to engage with the UN in a strategic way. By doing so, Plan can increase visibility and recognition and gain political support for children’s rights.

Our ambition is not only to engage with the UN at the international level, but to lead the dialogue and influence the outcomes so that all children have their rights respected and realise their full potential.

The One Plan UN Strategy will guide the two Plan UN Liaison and Advocacy Offices in Geneva and New York to support and increase the participation of all Plan offices as they engage with the UN at the international level to improve the rights of children everywhere.

The strategy identifies objectives in key policy areas, including child rights, protection, education and non-discrimination and inclusion. It also outlines how Plan offices can work together with the two Plan UN Offices to do that. The Guidelines for UN Engagement, which are released in connection with the strategy, give more detail on implementation. They show how improved coordination and communication can help maximise the efficiency and quality of our work.

I am convinced that child rights can be further enhanced at the national level by using the UN human rights system. I strongly recommend that all offices and every individual staff member take the time to reflect on this document and its implications for our work. It will help us reach the ambitious goals that we have set for ourselves.

Nigel Chapman Chief Executive Officer December 2012

One Plan UN Strategy

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viii

INtrODUCtION

the UN Strategy consists of six sections:

The 2012-2016 UN Strategy is the joint strategy for Plan’s two Plan UN Offices that lead the organization in its work and interaction with the UN. The strategy builds upon the initial UN Strategy developed by the Geneva UN Office for 2010-2012.

It is the result of significant collaboration within the organization to develop a cohesive and unified approach to Plan’s UN work and advocacy. The UN Strategy was approved by Plan’s Programme Leadership Team (POLT) in July 2012 and will be disseminated to all Plan offices, and implementation, while led by the two Plan UN Offices, will require organization-wide efforts. The strategy feeds into the objectives and goals of the One Plan One Goal strategy.

Sections I and II – Introduction and Background provide an introduction to Plan, its work, the One Plan One Goal strategy, and the Plan UN Offices. These sections also provide a rationale and overview for the UN Strategy.

Section III – the One Plan UN Strategy introduces the strategy, how it was developed, and explains its vision, mission, and guiding principles.

Section IV – goals and Objectives explains the overarching goal for this and future UN strategies as well as the four strategic objectives that the Plan UN Offices will strive to achieve by the end of the 2012-2016 strategy.

Section V – Key Policy areas details the selection criteria for identifying key policy areas for this and future strategies. It comprehensively covers the key policy areas for the 2012-2016, detailing policy objectives for each area, and examples of how the Plan UN Offices will work to achieve these.

Section VI – Implementation outlines

Photo: © Plan / Dina Torrans

how the Plan UN Offices will lead the implementation of the Strategy, and how Plan, as an organization, can work together to achieve the Strategy’s goals through effective coordination, cooperation, and communication.

ONE PLAN UN STRATEGY

1

BACKGROUND 1. Plan’s Vision, Mission, and Approach Plan is one of the oldest and largest children’s development organisation in the world. It works in over 50 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, focusing on education, health, water and sanitation, protection, economic security, emergencies, child participation, and sexual health, including HIV. Plan has 21 national offices (NO), four regional offices (RO), and four liaison and advocacy offices (LO): one in Addis Ababa for the African Union (AU), another in Brussels for the European Union (EU), and one each in Geneva and New York for the UN. Plan has a vision of a world in which all children realise their full potential in societies that respect people’s rights and dignity.

To achieve this, Plan’s mission is to improve the quality of life of the most marginalised and excluded children in developing countries through a process that unites people across cultures and adds meaning and value to their lives. This is done by: • E nabling marginally excluded children, their families, and communities to meet their basic needs and to increase their ability to participate in and benefit from their societies; • B uilding relationships to increase understanding and unity among peoples of different cultures and countries; and • P romoting the rights and interests of the world’s children.

2

Plan’s work is rooted in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and takes a child-centred community development (CCCD) approach to its work. Plan defines CCCD as a, “rights-based approach in which children, youth, families, and communities are active and leading participants in their own development. It enhances their capacity and opportunity to work together with others to address structural causes and consequences of child poverty at all levels.”

CCCD incorporates both child rights and human rights principles, and builds on Plan’s focus areas and expertise in facilitating the participation of children and communities in their own development. It adopts a multilevel approach to promoting the realisation of children’s rights, in which advocacy and strengthening the capacity and commitment of governments to meet their obligations under international human rights law are key components.

2. One Plan One Goal Strategy One Plan One Goal is Plan’s 2011-2015 strategy. It details how the organisation will work to help realise their rights and opportunities, for every child. The strategy has One Goal: “To reach as many children as possible, particularly those who are excluded or marginalised, with high-quality programmes that deliver long-lasting benefits1.”

1 One Goal as identified in the Plan “One Plan One Goal” strategy, found here: http://planinternational.org/files/global/publications/aboutplan/Strategy-2015.pdf

Plan has identified four key focus areas in its work to reach this Goal: 1. Tackling exclusion;

level, from its work at the country level.

Its advocacy work is thus ‘evidence based’ and reflects the reality on the ground at the national and local levels.

2. Improving programmes; 3. Expanding successful programmes; and 4. Extending its influence.

Plan will specifically use its expertise and experience in the protection and education sectors to speak and act with authority on these focus areas. To accomplish these aims, it will increase its outreach and level of resources; improve its policies, systems, and processes; and conduct more strategic collaboration with partners.

3. Plan Programmes, Advocacy and Campaigns Plan has a strong tradition of working closely with communities, through its CCCD approach, to develop and implement effective and participatory programmes.

These, in turn, become the foundation for Plan’s campaigns, which are implemented in sector-wide ‘gap’ areas, and bring greater attention and action to address needs within the communities with which Plan works and address violations of children’s rights. They also help develop its expertise and capacity to become a leader in these areas.

Plan concentrates its work in eight programmatic areas: education, health, water and sanitation, protection, economic security, emergencies, child participation, and sexual health, including HIV. These programmes form the core of Plan’s work in promoting child rights and addressing child poverty.

Plan develops its advocacy work and policy positions, including at the international

Plan’s campaigns are developed to raise awareness and influence policies at national, regional, and international levels, particularly in programmatic areas that are under-addressed.

For example, the Universal Birth Registration (UBR) campaign (now Count Every Child programme), spanning between 2005 and 2009, helped register over 40 million people in 32 countries, and brought important and much needed attention to the issue.

Similarly, Plan’s Learn Without Fear (LWF) campaign, launched in 2008, brought attention to the violence perpetrated against children in schools – especially sexual violence, bullying, and corporal punishment – in order to help create safe school environments where children can learn without fear and threat of violence.

LWF operates in 27 countries and has contributed to improving legislation and policies covering 485 million children to date.

These campaigns contributed greatly to advancing these agendas and have positioned Plan as a leader in these areas.

Both campaigns have now transitioned to also being incorporated into Plan’s programmes and advocacy.

In October 2012, Plan will launch its newest campaign: Because I am a Girl (BIAAG). The BIAAG campaign will seek to increase the proportion of girls that complete lower-secondary school and

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receive a quality learning experience in the world’s poorest countries. Through advocacy seeking to influence and change legislation, policy, practices, and attitudes, at local, national, regional, and international levels, BIAAG will reach 400 million girls worldwide through 2015, in support of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The advocacy component of the BIAAG campaign is fully integrated into the UN Strategy.

4. The United Nations The UN is an international organization committed to maintaining international peace and security; developing friendly relations among nations; and promoting social progress, better living standards, and human rights. Founded by 51 countries in 1945, after World War II, it now comprises all 194 countries in the world, and several territories and observers. The UN Charter established six principal organs: the General Assembly (UNGA); the Security Council; the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), under which falls relevant bodies such as the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) the Trusteeship Council; the International Court of Justice; and the Secretariat. While many of the UN agencies, programmes, and funds submits report to ECOSOC, their administrative bodies may sometimes fall under the secretariat such as UNICEF .

The UN is the primary global platform for promoting and protecting human rights, including the rights of children.

It is where these rights are discussed, defined, and debated to formulate policies, express international commitments and draft human rights treaties The UN system for promoting and protecting human rights follows a two track structure. One track is the charter based system with

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political bodies (usually inter-governmental bodies thus comprising of state delegations) stemming directly from the Charter.

The primary body in this regard is the Human Rights Council. Reporting to the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, made up of 47 member States, is responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe. This includes drafting new human rights treaties to be forwarded to the General Assembly for adoption. The other track is the treaty based system. The UN human rights treaty bodies have been created in accordance with the provisions of the treaty they monitor. They are committees of independent experts that monitor state parties’ implementation of one specific treaty. So far there are nine human rights treaty bodies concerning subjects such as the rights of persons with disabilities, children, racial discrimination, enforced disappearances and women. Examples include the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee) which monitors the CRC. By engaging with the UN, Plan can increase visibility and recognition, and garner political support for children’s rights. It also provides the opportunity for Plan to work with civil society at national, regional, and international levels, and to apply pressure on governments to uphold their international obligations and commitments to children, thereby linking and raising issues from the local to the global. For these reasons, it is important for Plan to not only engage with the UN, but to lead and influence the dialogue and outcomes that relate to its work for a world in which all children have their rights respected and realise their full potential. Figure 1 outlines a mapping of the elements of the UN system most engaged by the Plan UN Offices.

Figure 1: The UN System as Engaged by the Plan UN Offices

UNITED NATIONS

SECURITY COUNCIL

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

THIRD COMMITTEE

MANDATE HOLDERS

SPECIAL PROCEDURES

UPR

SECRETARIAT

SECRETARY GENERAL

ECOSOC

FUNCTIONAL COMMISSIONS

CSW

UNHCR

SR EDUCATION

UN WOMEN

OCHA

SR SALE OF CHILDREN

UNDP

UNESCO

OTHER MANDATE HOLDERS

UNFPA

ILO

5. Plan UN Offices Plan has two UN Offices. The Plan UN Office in Geneva opened in March 2009; a second Plan UN Office in New York opened in September 2011. The Plan UN Offices are Plan International’s face and voice at the UN. The two Plan UN Offices will work together to implement the UN Strategy, with each office and Head of Office carrying out parallel functions with the UN bodies and fora based in their respective city.

OHCHR

AGENCIES, PROGRAMMES, FUNDS

UNICEF

SRSG VAC

UN OFFICE iN GENEVA

TREATY BODIES

CRC

CEDAW

The UN Office in Geneva will be Plan’s focal point for all Geneva-based UN activities and engagement. Notably, this will include the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the CEDAW Committee and the CRC Committee., and all Human Rights Council (HRC) activities, including the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, and Special Procedures based in Geneva.

Likewise, the Plan UN Office in New York will be the focal point for representing

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Plan at all New York-based UN activities and engagement, including the UNGA, ECOSOC, Special Representatives of the Secretary-General (SRSG) based in New York, UN agencies and bodies with headquarters in New York, and the Executive Office of the Secretary-General (SG).

The two Plan UN Offices will collaborate with all UN initiatives that are not geography specific, or are either split between the two locations. The two Plan UN Offices will coordinate closely with Plan offices and teams engaging UN agencies that are not headquartered in either New York and Geneva, such as United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome. Plan may appoint, as needed, focal points for such agencies.

Similarly, the two Plan UN offices will coordinate with Plan country offices (CO), Regional Offices (ROs), and National Offices (NOs) engaging with UN agencies in their countries, and the African Union (AU) and European Union (EU) Liaison Offices (LOs) with their respective regional bodies.

5.1 Country Offices-Regional Offices-UN Offices Through education and awareness raising, and dialogue and partnerships, Plan works to operationalise the rights, policies, and laws adopted by the UN and regional bodies, like the AU, and make them real within communities.

Improving the implementation of children’s rights in the countries in which Plan works, and for children everywhere, is a complex process involving activities and committed

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cooperation at many levels. Plan Cos and ROs work to achieve this goal daily.

Rights, such as the right of all children to a quality education or the right to protection from all forms of violence, are all developed and debated at the UN. Governments are then obligated to implement these rights and make them a reality Organizations like Plan, by both working in communities and with governments, can play a crucial role in ensuring these obligations are met. Plan has a particularly unique role to play as it works at both the international and national levels, and can influence and strengthen the rights of children at each stage.

To improve these laws and policies, Plan at the community and international level helps ensure that the voices and perspectives of children are heard in the UN’s deliberations.

Through cooperation, communication, and collaboration between COs, ROs, and the Plan UN Offices, Plan can use its decades of expertise and experience to strengthen the international and national laws and mechanisms that protect children. Together, we can: ensure that the rights of children are known to the children, communities, and countries where Plan works, and that they are upheld; and help hold governments accountable for their obligations towards children. In addition, advocacy efforts across all levels of government can improve Plan’s country programming, through strengthened partnership and collaboration with governments. By working together, Plan offices will be able to celebrate milestone achievements, incorporate these achievements into their programming and performance frameworks, and collaborate to ensure that these rights are implemented and upheld through actions such as reporting to treaty bodies and complaints mechanisms, enabling the

voice of even the most marginalized child to contribute to improving the rights of children everywhere.

5.2 National Offices-Liaison Offices-UN Offices The Plan EU and AU LOs, NOs, and the Plan UN Offices will have a special relationship stemming from the different structures and focus areas of all these offices. However, these differences provide great opportunities for creative cooperation. The work of all Plan offices will be benefit from the knowledge and access to Governments in different locations and stages of decision-making.

NOs and LOs will be able to create synergy with the two Plan UN Offices on advocacy with Governments (or regional bodies) in capital, as well as their Permanent Missions – the representatives of Governments to the UN – in Geneva and New York to strengthen the human rights reality for children in the countries where Plan works. By working together, these offices can improve the links between international, regional and country level advocacy initiatives, including jointly supporting COs in incorporating resolution implementation2 and rights monitoring into their work, and strengthening the capacity of civil society organizations.

Through the undertaking of joint advocacy initiatives, activities, and events, the NOs, LOs, and the Plan UN Offices will also have opportunities to better position Plan to directly influence Governments and their policies and positions at UN debates.

Governments cooperate in this manner between their New York- and Genevabased Missions and Capital. By paralleling this system and through this collaboration, Plan’s ability to influence and make impact will be extended and strengthened at the UN, as well as in the countries NOs and COs are operational.

2 A UN resolution is like a ‘decision’ or ‘recommendation’ that is made by countries that are members of the UN. For all different issues, matters, and subjects, resolutions are written and often put to a vote. If a country votes ‘yes’ for a resolution, they are saying they agree with it.

Resolutions are not considered to be ‘laws’, but they are seen as being representative of common opinion, and as such, are to be implemented. See ‘What is an omnibus resolution’ for more information: http://plan-international.org/where-we-work/ geneva/resources/child-friendly-what-is-leafletsabout-the-un/what-is-an-omnibus-resolution/

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THE ONE PLAN UN STRATEGY The 2012-2016 UN Strategy is a living document that will guide the work of the two Plan UN Offices. It details what the Plan UN Offices will do and how they will succeed. It explains the vision, mission, guiding principles, overarching goals, and strategic objectives of the Plan UN Offices, and outlines the policy areas in which the Plan UN Offices will pursue their activities to reach their goals, and those of Plan International, at the UN. The UN Strategy aligns with Plan’s central guiding documents and strategies, most notably the One Plan One Goal strategy and Plan’s CCCD approach.

It seeks to create synergies between Plan’s teams and offices, enabling an environment that fosters and encourages internal cooperation and communication on shared areas of work with regards to the UN.

Furthermore, the UN Strategy is guided by international human rights law and standards, primarily the CRC and its three optional protocols (OP), and relevant resolutions and reports of the UNGA and HRC related to child rights. It further pulls from a large range of sources to develop and guide its work, such as: SG, SRSG, and Special Rapporteur (SR) reports; UN agency and non-governmental organization (NGO) publications and reports; submissions to, and concluding observations from, the CRC Committee, the UPR process, and CEDAW committee; internal Plan strategies, policy positions, and reports; and internal and external documents, tools, and guidelines.

Methodology The UN Strategy was developed through a highly consultative, Plan-wide collaborative process that began in October 2011 and culminated in July 2012. The Strategy’s development included two meetings: an initial kick-off workshop held with 14 senior Plan staff representing ROs, NOs, and different teams across Plan’s International Headquarters (IH), to identify the key policy areas in which the UN Office efforts should concentrate and criteria for these; and a second meeting that brought together a team of 28 Plan staff, again from across ROs, NOs, and IH teams ’the UN Strategy reference group’, who commented and advised on the content and shape of the strategy.

Numerous conversations with Plan staff

Photo: Plan/Yuan Gao, © 2008 Plan China

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Figure 2: Plan’s Global Community

LO C A L

COs

G LO BAL

UN OFFICES

NOs

I

ER NT

IH

N AT I O N A L

N AT I O N A

L

PUs

EU/AU

ROs

REGIONAL

took place throughout the process to advise and direct elements of the strategy.

Moreover, the strategy was opened to feedback from key stakeholders within Plan in three rounds, including Plan thematic experts providing substance in their areas of expertise, Lastly, the complete draft was sent out to the UN Strategy reference group for their comment, including a review by POLT in May 2012 and was finally approved in July 2012. The final result is thus the product of the combined efforts of dozens of Plan staff.

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Scope of Operation: Local to Global The UN Strategy operationalises the fourth key focus area of Plan’s One Goal strategy: extending Plan’s influence, specifically on the international stage at the UN, which in turn extends Plan’s influence globally. It is important from the onset to define the terms international and global to distinguish their separate understandings and implementation in operation. The term global is understood as the entire sphere

and setting in which Plan, and the international community, operate: from the local communities to their county, provincial, and state counterparts, to national governments, to regional bodies, and finally, the international community. The international community is encompassed within the global, referring to the stage at which the UN and other organizations work. The global community, as it relates to Plan and its internal structure, is seen in Figure 2, depicting the inclusion of international within the broader global definition.

Within Plan, global refers to the entire organization, all its levels and offices, working together toward a shared One Goal. Just as COs focus on communities and countries, and ROs focus on regional activities, the focus of the work of the two Plan UN Offices will concentrate on the international platform, primarily based in Geneva and New York, and providing support and technical assistance to Plan offices in their internationally-focused activities. In turn, all the work of the COs, ROs, and the collaborative efforts of the NOs and LOs will feed into Plan’s work at the international level as Plan strives to bring a southern perspective, through its CCCD approach, to the UN.

6. Vision, Mission and Guiding Principles Plan established its two Plan UN Offices to help realise its vision, and the offices will play an integral role in implementing and achieving the One Plan One Goal strategy.

To fulfil this role, the Plan UN Offices themselves require a vision of the future, outlining where the Plan UN Offices, and thus Plan at the UN, aims to be in the coming years, and where Plan will seek to position itself.

6.1 Vision The Plan UN Offices have a vision of excellence: to become Centres of Excellence within Plan, and advance Plan’s excellence at the UN.

Centres of Excellence at the United Nations The Plan UN Offices envision Centres of Excellence as places where Plan offices and staff can consult and engage, create and develop, share and be heard. They will provide leadership, capacity and ability, best practices, and support to lead Plan engagement at the UN and be resource centres where Plan staff can obtain technical support and expertise on all matters related to the UN, learn new skills for engaging with the UN, and keep abreast of the latest information and initiatives at the UN. The Plan UN Offices will foster and promote interaction, collaboration, and cooperation within Plan to ensure that it is perceived at the international level as the legitimate voice on child rights presenting information, evidence and analysis from the local and national levels.

The Face and Voice of Plan at the UN The Plan UN Offices see for Plan a culture where all Plan staff believe in the impact that Plan can make on policy internationally, and the importance of their contributions to making that impact. They see a culture of ownership and identity where each staff member feels their work, values, and beliefs are represented at the UN through Plan’s UN Offices, in one voice.

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a Proactive Plan at the UN Working to improve the lives of all children, the Plan UN Offices will extend Plan’s influence and increase Plan’s recognition at the UN through effective and highlevel advocacy.

Finally, the Plan UN Offices see a future where a united Plan, with the policies, capacity, resources, evidence, and quality programmes to strengthen it, becomes a proactive NGO leader at the UN. Plan must be an organisation that not only supports, but leads. It must not only respond, but suggests; not simply reactto different agendas, but help create them. It must push new boundaries at the UN to build a world in which all children, particularly those who are marginalized and excluded, have their rights respected and upheld, and realise their full potential.

6.2 Mission The mission of Plan UN Offices is to extend Plan’s influence on the international stage, and subsequently within the global community, thus contributing toward improving the lives of all children, with a focus on the most excluded and marginalized children and communities. This can be achieved through greater and more comprehensive engagement, and by working toward establishing Plan as a recognized leader on child rights, using an ‘evidence based’ approach.

This work will be instrumental to realising the One Plan One Goal strategy’s four key focus areas.

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6.3 guiding Principles The three guiding principles of the UN Strategy, and thus all the work undertaken in the two Plan UN Offices, are: 1. Do No Harm; 2. The Best Interest of the Child; and 3. Child Participation.

6.3.1 Do No Harm ‘Do no harm’ entered the international aid discourse in the late 1990s after publication of Mary B. Anderson’s book by the same name1. This ‘principle’ or ‘approach’ argues that despite hard work and good intentions, organizations may unintentionally have a negative impact, rather than positive one, leading to harmful consequences on the populations with whom they work. Thus, what has now become good practice, organisations must actively strive to ‘do no harm’ or‘their presence and work may inadvertently have different populations.

Plan’s CCCD approach supports this by working closely with (rather than ‘for’) communities.

For the work of Plan’s UN Offices, in the UN’s human rights arena, do no harm carries particular importance as it encompasses not just Plan’s communities and partners, but Plan’s offices and staff as well.

There are times when the politics at the UN can have a harmful impact on NGOs and their staff. In some instances, for example statements made at the UN may have significant repercussions for persons and

1

Anderson, Mary B. (1999) Do No Harm: How Aid Can Support Peace – Or War. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.

communities on the ground including both Plan staff members and partner organisations. The security and safety of all those involved in Plan’s work will be considered first and foremost. The Heads of the Plan UN Offices will work closely with their counterparts at COs and Management at IH in sensitive situations to carefully determine whether there is more harm or benefit from pursuing certain actions and advocacy activities; staying true to the work and mission, while upholding this principle.

6.3.2 the Best Interest of the Child

“In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.”

- article 3(1), Convention on the rights of the Child

this principle, and keep Plan Offices updated and informed on interpretations of the CRC and international law that affect its implementation.

6.3.3 Child Participation

“States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.

For this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child, either directly, or through a representative or an appropriate body, in a manner consistent with the procedural rules of national law.”

- article 12, Convention on the rights of the Child The second guiding principle of the UN Strategy is the best interest of the child, as enshrined in Article 3(1) of the CRC. A primary consideration for all child rightsrelated issues, the best interests of the child is an evolving principle, continuously being defined and re-defined as the child rights arena grows and progresses. It requires on-going monitoring and review of the international child rights agenda to ensure that all activities undertaken are currently in the best interest of the child.

The Plan UN Offices will be guided by

The third, and perhaps most important, of the guiding principles for the Plan UN Offices and the UN Strategy is one that guides all of Plan’s work: the involvement of children and the promotion of their voices and perspectives. Article 12 of the CRC enshrines the right of children to be heard and taken seriously, and to participate in proceedings affecting them. This right was

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further elaborated in General Comment 122 of the CRC Committee that strengthened the understanding of what participation means and elaborated on how to ensure better implementation of Article 12 through legislation, policy, and practice.

Children should be heard, encouraged to participate and present their views, and there should be due recognition that their perspectives can enrich the processes developed to protect them and uphold their rights.

The participation of children is fundamental to all Plan’s work and decisions, and the Plan UN Offices will play their part in ensuring that the voices and perspectives of children, a right enshrined to them in the CRC, are brought to, advocated for, and heard at the UN.

2 For the complete text of General Comment 12, and all General Comments, see: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/ bodies/crc/comments.htm

Photo: © Plan

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Goals and Objectives The UN Strategy contains one overarching goal for the Plan UN Offices, four strategic objectives, and a series of sector-specific policy objectives in Plan’s identified areas of expertise, towards which the Plan UN Offices will work during 2012-2016.

7. Overarching Goal The UN Strategy’s overarching goal will carry forward throughout future strategies, and to which all activities undertaken UN Offices will contribute:

Enhance the overall participation of Plan offices in the UN system, in order to enhance child rights globally.

As the Plan representatives and voice to the UN, the Plan UN Offices will work with all Plan offices to help increase their access to the UN and engage them in advocacy vis à vis the UN. It will also help facilitate the participation of Plan staff members and offices in UN events, and the flow of information to and from the UN, all to ultimately help realize children’s rights.

• S trengthen policy in Plan’s areas of expertise; and

8. Strategic Objectives

Achieving these will greatly contribute towards extending Plan’s influence and reach at the UN for the improvement of the lives of children, and establishing Plan as a recognized, leading NGO partner of the UN. They will also support and extend the participation of all Plan offices in engaging with the UN to improve the rights of children.

The Plan UN Offices will work toward this overarching goal through work on four strategic objectives, three external and one internal, to be achieved by 2016.

The three external objectives focus on extending Plan’s influence and leadership at the UN:

• A chieve General Consultative Status with ECOSOC. The internal objective seeks to strengthen and unify Plan’s work with the UN: • T o become ‘One Plan’ with ‘One Voice’ at the UN.

• S trengthen relationships with UN agencies;

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8.1 External Strategic Objectives As Plan works to position itself as a leader in child rights globally, it is important for its expertise and strengths to be known and recognized at the UN. NGOs recognized at the UN as leaders with expertise in specific areas are better able to influence policy and decisions; their perspectives and experiences will be sought out in arenas where invitations are required and extended to those with proven abilities and capacities. Plan is one such NGO and the Plan UN Offices will work to position Plan in this way through three avenues: by seeking General Consultative Status with ECOSOC, by strengthening Plan’s relationships with UN agencies and counterparts, and by strengthening policy in Plan’s areas of expertise.

8.1.1 Strengthen Relationships with UN Agencies Currently, Plan has strong relationships with UN agencies, most notably UNICEF and UNHCR. The Plan UN Offices will continue to strengthen and develop these, as well as newer relationships, such as with the nascent United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). Specifically however the Plan UN Offices will seek to achieve two targets: a global partnership with UNICEF, and a stronger partnership with the UNHCR. UNICEF Plan has held consultative status with UNICEF since 1983. A global partnership with UNICEF would formalize at the international level Plan’s and UNICEF’s mutual commitment to collaborating together to improve child rights. It would further contribute to solidifying Plan’s position as a ‘go-to’ child-rights partner

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of the UN, and facilitate Plan initiatives to work and formally partner with UNICEF COs. Plan and UNICEF currently partner and work together on numerous projects and initiatives. A recently conducted survey on Plan’s existing level of engagement with the UN found that of 55 responding offices, 43 (78%) currently interact with UNICEF, and 22 (52%) of these offices have established partnerships or a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with their UNICEF counterpart. Amongst Plan COs, 97% of offices already work with UNICEF. Yet, for all this existing collaboration, Plan and UNICEF do not share a formal global MOU/ letter of agreement, linking these two leading children’s organizations. The Plan UN Offices will work in collaboration with Plan’s IH to achieve this global partnership to affirm and solidly recognize Plan internationally as a leading UNICEF partner.

UNHCR Building on the existing collaborative efforts between certain Plan offices and the UNHCR, and primarily concentrated on registration and displacement activities, Plan and the UNHCR signed a cooperation agreement on 17 November 2011 to develop a deeper working partnership. Notably, the partnership will concentrate its efforts on achieving improved birth registration rates and reducing statelessness through joint advocacy initiatives and publications, improved communication and coordination at country and IH levels, and working together to engage different stakeholders to address gaps and identify strategies for working towards these common goals.

The Plan UN Offices, particularly the Geneva Office, will contribute to strengthening this relationship.

8.1.2 Strengthen Policy in Plan’s Areas of Expertise For Plan to contribute fully to and influence UN proceedings that essentially determine the establishment and interpretation of children’s rights, it must use its knowledge and experience gained from working with communities at the national level with its advocacy backed up by strong evidence.

These rights are only as strong as the policies in place to implement, uphold, and promote them. The Plan UN Offices will work towards this objective through partnership with other Plan offices to implement the objectives in its key policy areas, outlined in the following section, resulting in sound, evidence-based policy positions the Plan UN Offices can use to advocate from, thereby influencing and strengthening the global policies developed at the UN.

8.1.3 Achieve General Consultative Status General Consultative Status is granted to large, international NGOs who work globally on most of the issues covered by ECOSOC.3 It allows NGOs to make statements and submit information to ECOSOC, its subsidiary bodies such as the Commission on the Status of Women, the treaty monitoring bodies, and the Human Rights Council. Currently, Plan holds Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC, granted in July 2011. NGOs with Special Consultative Status tend to be newer and smaller, with specific identified areas

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of expertise and concern in the areas covered

by ECOSOC. While this status does give Plan access to ECOSOC and the UN, Plan as an organization grossly exceeds this category given its size, the years it has been operating, its current comprehensive engagement with several UN agencies and bodies, and the numerous programmatic areas in which it engages, all of which are covered by ECOSOC. General Consultative Status with ECOSOC is important for two main reasons. Firstly, it consolidates in the eyes of UN agencies, Member States, and its peers that an NGO is of sufficient size, expertise, and capacity to earn such a status. It lends credibility and respect, even amongst those who are not as familiar with the NGO itself. Secondly, it opens opportunities and provides access to discussions and events including speaking opportunities that are not otherwise permitted. In essence, NGOs with General Consultative Status have a greater voice, and subsequently greater ability to influence and affect change.

Plan therefore intends to seek General Consultative Status, as befits an NGO of its size, history, and experience. This status will lend weight and added respect to Plan’s advocated policy positions, knowing they are based on credible data and community programmes. It will position Plan as a leading NGO at the UN, and increase access to opportunities where Plan can exert influence in its areas of expertise and ensure that Southern perspectives, those of the communities in which Plan works, are heard at the highest levels of the UN.

f the over 3,500 NGOs that currently hold O consultative status with ECOSOC, fewer than 150 hold General consultative status. For more information on ECOSOC status and a full list, see: http://csonet.org/?menu=100; http:// csonet.org/content/documents/E2011INF4.pdf, respectively.

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8.2 Internal Strategic Objective Internal efforts for this strategy will concentrate on unifying the organisation in its work and engagement with the UN. Thus, the Plan UN Offices will focus on one objective for the 2012-2016 strategy: to achieve a unified One Plan voice at the UN.

8.2.1 To Become “One Plan” with “One Voice” at the UN

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Photo: © Plan

For Plan to achieve its UN goals, it must be seen and heard as a unified, coherent organisation: “One Plan” speaking with “One Voice”. The Plan brand is strong and increasingly recognized at the UN. Achieving this objective will help strengthen it further.

This strategy will seek to do so through its internal implementation (see Section 12 below), including development of a set of guidelines for all staff in representing Plan when working with the UN. It is particularly through joint efforts to implement Plan’s Guidelines for UN Engagement that the organization will unify its voice and presence at the UN. Although the Plan UN Offices will lead and coordinate these efforts, only by working together, can Plan achieve this objective.

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KEY POLICY AREAS The UN is a place of policy. As Plan’s representatives to the UN, the two Plan UN Offices will engage with the UN on policy in Plan’s areas of expertise, as identified in the One Plan One Goal strategy: child rights; child protection; non-discrimination, equality, and inclusion; and education. What follows are the key policy areas (KPA) in which the Plan UN Offices will guide and concentrate Plan’s UN efforts in the years to come. This section forms the core of Plan’s UN strategy.

Its implementation and full realisation will move forward as resources become available.

However, as many of the areas overlap and are crosscutting, components will be addressed in tandem, pending the growth of the Plan UN Offices and the capacity to address all areas comprehensively.

Under each KPA, the Plan UN Offices have identified particular areas of focus during 2012-2016.

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These focus areas in each KPA were selected according to a list of criteria to systematize the approach and to add a degree of transparency and consistency to the selection process.

Both the KPAs and the criteria will be open to annual review and amendment.

The areas of focus under each KPA were considered to meet these criteria sufficiently to warrant emphasis in this strategy, acknowledging that the strategy, including the criteria and the areas of concentration, will be reviewed annually.

Additionally, a number of global trends have been identified – areas in which Plan may want or need to engage with the UN during the 2012-2016 period, but which at present, do not satisfy the criteria requirements to be a fully developed KPA or focal area within a KPA.

9. Selection Criteria The seven criteria used to identify the specific focus areas for each KPA within the 2012-2016 UN Strategy, are as follows:

9.1 Policy and Evidence-Based Research Policy positions are required to drive advocacy and programming at the UN; research and evidence is required to inform and formulate these positions.

Thus, for any identified KPA, Plan must have clearly articulated policy positions and recommendations, backed by solid evidence, from which to advocate.

To achieve this level of evidence-informed policy positions, a three-step process is envisioned: i. Evidence is collected in a systematic manner on a global level throughout Plan; ii. Thorough analyses are conducted of the applicable international human rights standards; and iii. Information is diffused and used for Plan’s policy and advocacy work.

Photo: © Plan

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Areas where Plan is still collecting evidence and/or developing policy may be placed ‘on hold’ and considered during the annual reviews for inclusion in this strategy.

9.2 Impact

system that overlap with Plan’s strengths and niche areas have more strategic value in pursuing.

9.5 Partnerships

Impact as a criterion requires a clear understanding of the KPA, the type of impact it has, and on whom. This includes determining at what stage within the global community the impact is felt – recognizing that impact at the international/UN level, and what is required to achieve it, may differ strongly from that of impact on a child at community level. For the Plan UN Offices, the impact of their work in a given policy area must be felt (at least) within Plan at the country and regional level, as well as contribute to change at the international level.

Collaboration with partners is essential.

Unity and cooperation on issues at the UN can be a source of strength in achieving advocacy goals. The ability to foster strong partnerships at the UN, and with other NGOs and networks, is therefore considered an important working criterion. Related to effective partnering is the participation of the communities and community organizations within them. The Plan UN Offices will work to support, through technical advice and guidance, Plan COs partnering with civil society organizations on engaging with UN processes.

9.3 Added Value

9.6 Resources

Closely related to impact, ‘added value’ stands alone as a criterion with the understanding that all KPAs should have a clear ‘value-added’ for Plan in relation to realising child rights at the national level, as well as contributing to discussions at the international level.

In all key areas of work, possessing the resources necessary – particularly in staff, capacity, partnerships, and time – to successfully work in a KPA is imperative. Wellaligned existing resources and expectation is critical to this. Accordingly, the ratio of resources to expected output must be improved within the Plan UN Offices to ensure the full and effective implementation of the UN Strategy. Until that time, the two Plan UN Offices will not be able to fully engage or implement the strategy, which in turn does not help attain optimal results for Plan. The need for adequate resources must be addressed.

9.4 Gaps Within international development, there are some areas that receive the attention, resources, and programmatic focus of many organisations, and there are others – gap areas – that though equally important, tend to be over looked for many reasons.

Gap areas provide opportunities for Plan to strengthen its leadership role. However, not all gap areas can be filled, nor would it be strategic to attempt to do so. Contrarily, addressing gaps can help strengthen the impact and added value. Gaps in the UN

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9.7 Global Trends Most global trends are taken up by the UN agenda. The Plan UN Offices, guided by thematic experts within Plan, will work to identify those likely to persist - and in which Plan can

play a leading or supportive role - to help identify and assess KPAs on an on-going basis.

10. Key Policy Areas and Areas of Concentration For the period of 2012-2016, Plan has chosen to concentrate its UN-focused efforts in four KPAs, based on the One Plan One Goal strategy. These four areas are: child rights; child protection; non-discrimination, equality, and inclusion; and education. As each of these KPAs comprises a multitude of issues, specific focus areas within each KPA were identified by the input of senior Plan staff, based on the selection criteria, and on Plan’s current work and expertise. Selection was based on those areas that would best support the successful implementation and achievement of both the UN Strategy and the larger One Plan One Goal. Under each area, Plan’s policy objectives and expected roles of the Plan UN Offices will play are listed.

Work on all KPAs will be led by the Plan UN Offices, each leading in their respective city. They will work in close collaboration with country, national, and regional child rights, protection, and advocacy advisors and officers, including the following specific Plan focal points and offices: • T eams and Offices: Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns team at IH; EU Office; AU Office; and relevant, COs, NOs, and ROs. • P lan Internal Task Forces/Working Groups/Reference Groups: the UNGA (Third Committee), the Commission on the Status of Women, the Full Annual Day on the Rights of the Child at the HRC, the CRC Committee’s Days of General Discussion, Education in Emergencies (EiE), Global Child

Protection, Global Gender Equality Reference Group, BIAAG Advocacy Team, and disabilities.

• A dvisors and Coordinators: Child Protection in Development; Gender; Education; Economic Empowerment and Security; LWF; Count Every Child; BIAAG.

10.1 Child Rights at the United Nations Children, both girls and boys, are at the heart of all Plan’s work. To help full realise the rights and potential of all girls and boys, Plan takes a rights-based approach to its work through its CCCD approach.

Built on a foundation of the CRC, CCCD ensures that child rights are at the core of Plan’s work, and its working methods.

It transcends all technical and sectoral boundaries, providing a strong and unifying basis for all of Plan’s activities. CCCD relies on the collective action of civil society to help empower children to realise their potential, and on the actions of states to meet their obligations under the CRC. It understands that achieving meaningful change for children requires change across many settings – social, political, economic, and cultural – and levels, from the local to the international community.

Thus, child rights nurtures the development and growth of all Plan’s work, including all areas of this strategy.

At the UN, in addition to forming the foundation for its work with children, child rights and the CRC have highly functional application through policy, debates, and activities across various UN bodies. In both the UNGA and the HRC, the rights of children is a stand-alone agenda item and is accorded significant time and attention,

One Plan UN Strategy 23

including annual resolutions and plenaries specifically devoted to this issue. Similarly, as already stated the CRC has its own committee devoted to monitoring its implementation.

For this reason, child rights, as it is discussed and worked on at the UN, forms the first KPA of the strategy. It details the specific ways Plan will engage in the area of child rights at the UN, while recognizing that these rights are the umbrella under which all of Plan’s work, and other policy areas, fall.

For the 2012-2016 strategy, Plan’s UN child rights engagement will relate to four main areas of the UN: • T he Convention on the Rights of the Child, and its Committee; • The Human Rights Council;

with the most comprehensive coverage of the rights of the child.

Additionally, the CRC has three OPs that further extend protection and increase participation of children in the realisation of their rights: i. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (OPSC); ii. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in armed conflict (OPAC); and iii. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure5.

• The UN General Assembly; and • S pecial Procedures and Mandate Holders.

10.1.1 Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Committee The CRC was adopted by the UNGA on 20 November 1989, and entered into force 2 September 1990. The CRC contains 54 articles that detail the civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights of children, and their realisation. It became the first legally binding human rights instrument to incorporate this full range of human rights. The CRC has been ratified by all UN Member States, except Somalia, South Sudan, and the United States4. It is currently the most ratified international treaty, and the treaty

4 As of 8 July 2012: http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV11&chapter=4&lang=en.

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The Committee on the Rights of the Child – Implementation and Monitoring of the Convention on the Rights of the Child The CRC Committee monitors implementation of the CRC and its OPs. Based in Geneva, it consists of a group of 18 independent experts who are elected to serve four-year terms. Member States are required to submit initial reports two years after ratification and then periodic reports on the status of implementation and upholding of child rights in their countries every five years.

Periodic reporting for the CRC and its OPs can be combined and submitted jointly after the initial reporting. NGOs may submit alternative reports with additional

5 As of 8 July 2012, The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure has not yet entered into force. It opened for signature 28 February 2012, and currently has 23 signatories. It will enter into force three months after ratification by ten states.

information for consideration by the CRC Committee.

The CRC Committee holds three sessions per year in Geneva. The purpose of these sessions is to review States parties’ reports, hold pre-sessional working group meetings, and engage in constructive dialogue. These meetings result in the adoption of concluding observations, including recommendations for further improvement and action. Member States are entitled to comment on these concluding observations, and are required to provide feedback on their implementation in their next periodic report.

Moreover, the CRC Committee produces General Comments to further clarify and interpret the content of the rights within the CRC6; as well as, hold Annual Days of General Discussion on thematic topics related to the CRC. The outcome of these is the adoption of recommendations specific to that aspect of the CRC7. The CRC Committee also submits an annual report to the Third Committee of the UNGA. Plan’s UN Offices and the Convention on the Rights of the Child Plan’s work with the CRC Committee will help further establish and build on Plan’s commitment to working towards the realisation of the rights of all girls and boys.

Already, Plan is heavily engaged in this work An internal survey, undertaken to

6 The Committee on the Rights of the Child has issued 13 General Comments, which can be found here: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/comments.htm 7 A list of the recommendations from the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s Days of General Discussion can be found here: http://www2. ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/discussion.htm

better understand the level of involvement within Plan in monitoring, reporting, and follow-up of the CRC, indicated that 47% of all Plan offices are providing information to State parties’ reports and that 65% are involved in the alternative reporting to the CRC. In addition, Plan has produced a guide to support CRC monitoring, reporting, and follow-up efforts.

The Plan UN Offices have identified two main objectives in undertaking their work on the CRC and with the CRC Committee to help increase Plan’s profile and position of expertise as a leading child rights development organization:

• Encourage States to uphold their CRC reporting obligations; and call on States that have not already done so to sign and ratify the CRC and its three OPs. • Influence the CRC Committee and its interpretation of the CRC through contributions and guidance on Days of General Discussion, General Comments, and other related avenues, following thorough research of the needs and further legal guidance.

As the CRC Committee and OHCHR, its secretariat, are based in Geneva, the Plan UN Office in Geneva will lead on work with the CRC Committee. It will also engage with other UN entities to work towards the realisation of these two objectives, through advocacy, policy, activities, and events, including, but not limited to, the following:

One Plan UN Strategy 25

• A ctively engage with the CRC Committee on the development of themes for Days of General Discussions and General Comments, and in the nomination process of new CRC Committee members.

• P articipate actively as a steering group member in the newly established International Coalition for the Ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a Communications Procedure.

• R aise awareness and knowledge of the CRC and its OPs, including information on their implementation, reporting and monitoring procedures, and sharing of best practices.

• G ive strategic support to COs in their preparation of alternative reports, including an increase in number of alternative reports that focus on KPAs, and in following-up of CRC Committee concluding observations, linking both, where possible, to the UPR and other mechanisms.

10.1.2 Human Rights Council The HRC was established by the UNGA with Resolution 60/251 in March 2006, and consists of 47 Member States, with a rotating Presidency. It is tasked with addressing human rights situations and formulating recommendations through mechanisms such as the UPR; establishing human rights bodies, mechanisms including the Special Procedures; and mainstreaming human rights throughout the UN system.

The HRC holds at least three sessions per year in Geneva. During the March session, a Full Annual Day on the Rights of the Child is organised, focusing on a different theme each year. The HRC submits an annual

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report to the UNGA Third Committee for the purpose of having the recommendations contained therein approved and endorsed by the UNGA. The HRC conducts the UPR, the process by which the human rights records of UN Member States are considered every four and a half years, and recommendations are made to improve the human rights situation in all countries. There are three sessions per year. States submit their own reports, UN agencies, Special Procedures, and Mandate Holders submit another report, and relevant stakeholders, including NGOs, may also submit written information (individually or through coalitions) that will form part of a summary of stakeholders’ information report, compiled by OHCHR, for consideration during the review. All information submitted is public. NGOs may also attend the review and make statements. States can accept and or reject recommendations and must report back on progress to the HRC every four and a half years. The first cycle of the UPR was completed in 2011. The second cycle covers the period of 2012-20168. By taking part in this process, Plan can ensure that child rights are not left out of the UN’s human rights analysis of the countries where Plan operates.

8 For a list of countries under consideration during the second cycle of the UPR during the period covered in this strategy, 2012-2016, please see: http://www2.ohchr.org/SPdocs/UPR/UPRFullCycleCalendar_2nd.doc

Plan’s UN Offices and the Human rights Council As the HRC is based in Geneva, the UN Office in Geneva is the Plan lead on interactions with the HRC, and has already been advocating and engaging with the HRC since March 2009. Plan’s policy objectives will focus on two primary areas:

• Influence themes for the annual Full Day on the rights of the Child and give input to the subsequent resolution adopted by the HrC. • Advocate for inclusion of child-specific recommendations within the UPr and relevant Special Procedures and resolutions made by the HrC.

submission of statements, development of advocacy strategies, and support for lobby activities in Geneva.

• S upport effective follow-up of UPR recommendations and HRC resolutions.

• C ontribute to relevant HRC sessions through providing appropriate language for resolutions, written submissions, and oral statements based on programmatic evidence in Plan’s area of expertise.

• P articipate actively in relevant HRC sessions, debates, discussions, and informal meetings, including the UPR plenaries and the Full Annual Day of the Rights of the Child.

• H ost and/or participate in side events during HRC sessions focused on Plan’s KPAs and in support of the child rights agenda.

10.1.3 UN general assembly These objectives will notably support the mission of the Plan UN Offices by contributing to increasing Plan’s profile and influence at the HRC to help get results for children. Working toward these objectives will require directly engaging with the HRC, Permanent Missions in Geneva, international NGOs, and the working group of the NGO Group for the CRC. It will also require coordinated efforts with the Plan UN Offices and Plan COs, NOs, and ROs. Some of the efforts and engagements to be undertaken at both levels include:

The UNGA is the main deliberative, policy-making, and representative body of the Uncovering the full spectrum of international issues covered by the Charter.

All 193 UN Member States are represented at the UNGA. The UNGA has six main committees. Of these, the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee – commonly known as the Third Committee – covers a large range of social, humanitarian affairs, and human rights issues, including deliberations on two standing agenda items key to Plan’s engagement with the UN:

• K eep Plan offi ces informed about relevant developments.

1. The Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Children; and

• S upport COs involvement in the UPR process, including preparation and

2. Report of the Human Rights Council.

ONE PLAN UN STRATEGY 27

It is the UNGA that adopted the CRC and its OPs and many other rights-related conventions. It has also requested the establishment of the SRSGs on Violence against Children (VAC) and regularly renews its mandate; and adopts an annual Omnibus Resolution on the Rights of the Child and a bi-annual Omnibus Resolution on the Girl Child 9.

The Third Committee considers the annual reports of both the HRC and the CRC Committee.. The annual Rights of the Child omnibus resolution, drafted by the European and Latin American groups, is also presented and considered by the entire Third Committee for eventual adoption by the General Assembly. Each year, the resolution highlights a different thematic area within the child rights arena.

Plan’s UN Offices and the General Assembly The Plan UN Office in New York will lead all engagement with the UNGA and New York-based Permanent Missions. Its work will primarily focus on the Third Committee, with two objectives: • T o influence the Third Committee agenda item “Promotion and Protection of the Rights of the Child”, and influence the resolutions under the agenda item, such as the annual resolution on the Rights of the Child, the bi-annual resolution on the Girl Child, and other relevant resolutions.

9 An omnibus resolution is a lengthier, more detailed resolution that can cover multiple issues related to the given topic in more depth, all under one resolution. http://planinternational.org/where-we-work/geneva/resources/child-friendly-what-is-leaflets-aboutthe-un/what-is-an-omnibus-resolution/

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• T o influence and advocate for the approval and endorsement of appropriate HRC resolutions, pertaining to children under the agenda item: Report of the Human Rights Council.

These agenda items involve numerous resolutions and activities that will require strong engagement and advocacy from the Plan team, including actions and contributions to: • P articipate actively in the Third Committee including through sharing Plan’s policy and engaging in advocacy with Member States, including contributing language to resolutions.

• I nfluence other areas of strategic relevance to Plan within the UNGA through providing a child rights perspective.

• C o-organise and/or participate in side events during the Third Committee session focused on Plan’s KPAs and in support of the child rights agenda.

10.1.4 Special Procedures and Mandate Holders Special Procedures and Mandate Holders are appointed independent experts tasked with investigating, monitoring, reporting and advising on human rights situations in either an identified thematic area or country. They may hold the title of Special Rapporteur, Independent Expert, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, or Special Advisor. The HRC establishes and appoints SRs and Independent Experts, referred to as Special Procedures, which are supported by the OHCHR and regularly subject to renewal by the HRC. Alternatively, establishment by the SG of

SRSGs or Special Advisors, referred to as Mandate Holders, is at the request of the UNGA, the Security Council, or the HRC, at times based on the findings or recommendations of a previously appointed independent expert. SRSG mandates are reviewed by the UNGA and supported by UN agencies as identified at the time of their establishment.

There are currently 48 Special Procedures assumed by the HRC: 36 thematic10 and 12 country mandates11. The SG has 37 country and regional representatives and envoys, and 27 thematic mandates 12. Special Procedures and Mandate Holders submit reports to the HRC and/or the UNGA. While all the mandates can address the situation of children, some have more relevance and weight in upholding the rights of children. Of the nine Special Procedures assumed by the HRC with country mandates, Plan currently works in four: Cambodia, Haiti, Myanmar, and Sudan. Of the 37 country and regional mandates of the SG, Plan works in ten: • A frica: Great Lakes Region, GuineaBissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan and South Sudan, and West Africa; • Americas: Haiti; and • A sia: Myanmar, Pakistan, and TimorLeste.

10 For a full list of thematic mandates, see: http:// www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/Pages/ Themes.aspx 11 For a full list of country mandates, see: http:// www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/Pages/Countries.aspx 12 For the full list of special representatives and envoys of the Secretary-General, see: http://www. un.org/en/peacekeeping/sites/srsg/table.htm

Plan’s UN Offices and Special Procedures and Mandate Holders The Plan UN Offices already work closely with certain SRs and SRSGs whose work concentrates on children. Each UN Office will be the Plan focal point for the Mandate Holders and special procedures where their office and/or support staff is located.

Thus, in general, the UN Office in Geneva will primarily liaise with the HRC SRs, and the UN Office in New York will primarily liaise with the SRSGs in New York.

The Offices will focus their policy efforts with Special Procedures and SRSGs to:

• Influence Special Procedures and Mandate Holders to include children and Plan’s thematic areas, when appropriate, in carrying out their mandates.

Given the large number of SRs and SRSGs, and the particular country focus of some, the Plan UN Offices will collaborate with relevant COs, ROs, and NOs as needed to work towards strengthening the child rights focus and agenda in the work of the relevant Special Procedures and Mandate Holders. Approaches to this work include activities such as: • C onducting advocacy and activities in support of the establishment or renewal of mandates and appointment of experts.

• E ngaging with country-focused Special Procedures and Mandate Holderss and in collaboration with COs. • E ngaging with relevant thematic Special Procedures and Mandate Holders

One Plan UN Strategy 29

and coordinate Plan’s contribution to their reports.

• K eeping Plan’s offices informed about country visits and developments in the Special Procedures’ and Mandate Holders’ work.

10.2 Child Protection Child protection as a thematic area grew out of the larger protection sector, with the specific focus on protecting children from violence, exploitation, neglect, and abuse across all settings. Though the UNHCR is the UN agency lead for the UN protection cluster, UNICEF is the child protection lead. A multitude of issues fall under the child protection umbrella, such as child labour, birth registration, VAC, children on the move, child marriage, gender-based violence (GBV) and sexual violence, to name a few. Some child protection issues are considered more humanitarian- or development-focused in nature and so the work to address these, and the subsequent activities of lead agencies may differ. This distinction can be both helpful and detrimental to the sector and its work. To ensure that different approaches do not undermine each other, addressing child protection issues requires holistic approaches involving prevention, protection, and response interventions, with an underlying systems-strengthening approach building on community-based child protection mechanisms, sometimes referred to as creating a ‘protective environment’.

Child protection is a main impact area for Plan. While no universally agreed upon definition of child protection exists; Plan understands child protection to be “the right to protection from all forms of abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence”.

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Plan works towards realising this environment where children feel safe and protected through: • T he provision of quality and effective prevention, recovery, and reintegration services provided by the State; • A n adequate legal protection framework at all levels; • Strong family and community support; • P ublic awareness of and respect for the right of all children to protection; and • A ccess to skills and knowledge that contribute to their own protection.

For 2012-2016, Plan has chosen, through a consultative process, to focus its UN child protection efforts in three areas: 1. Violence against children; 2. Violence in schools; and 3. Universal birth registration.

10.2.1 Violence against Children In 2006, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, an Independent Expert appointed by the SG, presented The UN Study on Violence against Children to the UNGA. The study found shocking levels of violence, including sexual violence, taking place across five settings: the home, schools, care and justice institutions, the workplace, and the community. Conflict settings, and the violence children experience in them, had already been addressed in the Machel Study on the impact of armed conflict on children. At the UN, VAC and children and armed conflict are separate issues, like two sides of a coin.

The report resulted in the establishment of the SRSG on VAC in 2007, and appointment in 2009. The SRSG VAC is primarily responsible for overseeing implementation of the recommendations of the UN Study, and moving forward the VAC agenda.

Plan takes its definition of VAC from Article 19 of the CRC that defines violence as: “all forms of physical or mental violence, injury and abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse.” General Comment 13 of the CRC Committee on the right of the child to freedom from all forms of violence13 identifies the main forms of VAC and those that have evolved since publication of the UN VAC study.

Plan’s UN Offices and Violence against Children Plan is already heavily involved at all levels in the VAC agenda, particularly through its work with the SRSG’s office on both the LWF campaign and the BIAAG campaign, as well as its work and efforts as a member of international NGO groups working on VAC and implementation of the UN Study.

In Plan’s collaboration with the SRSG VAC, the UN Office in New York will take the lead. All work with the SRSG VAC’s office will be coordinated through the New York Office.

For the 2012-2016 period, the Plan UN Offices will concentrate on two primary objectives: • Urge Member States to implement the overarching recommendations from the UN Study on VAC, and other relevant UN documents.

• Influence the annual work plan of the SRSG VAC and the selection of annual themes.

The Plan UN Offices will achieve these objectives by continuing and building upon the existing work on VAC through: • Actively

participating in the International NGO Council on Violence against Children and Children and Violence Working Group under NGO Group for the CRC. • Supporting SRSG VAC mandate renewal.

• Hosting

and/or participating in side events in support of the VAC agenda.

• Collaborating

with the Office of SRSG VAC on annual theme and expert consultations.

10.2.2 Violence in Schools

13 For the full text of General Comment 13, please see: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/ comments.htm

Violence against children in schools was one of the five settings reported on in the UN Study on VAC. Children experience cruel and humiliating forms of physical and psychological punishment, GBV, and bullying at school. Every child has the right to a safe school environment. Plan’s programming on violence in schools is led by its LWF campaign with the aim

One Plan UN Strategy 31

to end all VAC in schools. Building on the success of LWF, Plan has launched BIAAG, a second education campaign focusing on girls’ education and ending violence against girls in schools.

Plan’s UN Offices and Violence in Schools The UN Strategy will concentrate its UN engagement on violence in schools in two main areas: 1. Lessons Learned from Learn Without Fear; and

The Plan UN Offices will collaborate and work closely relevant Plan offices to seek to engage the UN to: • S upport inclusion of violence in schools in alternative reporting to CRC and UPR. • Advocate

for the elimination of all forms of violence in schools.

Because I Am a Girl Plan’s BIAAG campaign was launched for the very reason articulated by the UN SG:

2. Because I am a Girl.

Lessons Learned from Learn Without Fear Plan’s LWF campaign targeted three of the most common and damaging forms of violence in schools: sexual violence, bullying, and corporal punishment. It incorporated both programming and advocacy aspects for its implementation, including working with the UN to hold events and lobby for greater attention to end violence in schools.

The Plan UN Offices will contribute to advocacy and engagement at the UN through policy objectives seeking to:

• Encourage member states to include in UN resolutions and documents language on ending child marriage and other harmful practices, and on ending GBV in schools.

• Advocate for the implementation and strengthening of international legislation, consistent with international human rights obligations, to prohibit non-consensual marriage before the age of 18.

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“Education is a right, but it is not a reality for too many women and girls …”

The campaign has a specific focus on girls’ education, with the overarching goals of ensuring equal access; transitioning of girls from primary to secondary education; and addressing barriers to education that hinder girls from attending school.

To achieve these goals, the campaign identified two barriers, child marriage and GBV in schools – both protection issues – that hinder girls from attending school, and thus require greater efforts to address and eliminate them.

The Plan UN Offices will contribute to advocacy and engagement at the UN on the priorities through policy objectives seeking to:

• Encourage member states to include in UN resolutions and documents language on creating safe school environments, reducing violence in schools through holistic approaches, including better data on violence in schools, and other recommendations as set out in lWF. • Encourage and promote greater collaboration between UNICEF, UNESCO, and SrSg VaC to achieve violence-free schools.

The Plan UN Offices will collaborate and work closely with the BIAAG team to achieve Plan’s violence in schools policy objectives by pursuing avenues at the UN to: • Encourage Member States to work toward the adoption of a UN resolution to end child marriage and other harmful practices.

• Collaborate with SRSG VAC, UNICEF, and UN Women, member states, and civil society to raise awareness and promote Plan’s policy priorities on addressing the barriers to education such as child marriage and gender based violence.

10.2.3 Universal Birth registration Article 7 and 8 of the CRC stipulate the rights to birth registration, an identity, and a nationality14. They further oblige States to especially ensure their implementation where the child would be otherwise stateless. Yet, millions of children each year go unregistered. Registration, and having an identity and a nationality, is necessary to enjoy many other rights enshrined in the CRC, including the right to education, health, and the right to vote. Furthermore, it provides proof of one’s age, giving children added protection from abuses such as inter alia: child marriage, trafficking, and child labour.

However, the efforts to achieve UBR face many challenges, including access, fees and problems related to late registration, discriminatory laws towards minorities or women giving birth outside of wedlock, and a lack of resources both of government and families, staff capacity, efficient and functioning systems for birth registration, adequate storage of documents, and suitable technology.

Plan’s UN Offices and Universal Birth registration Plan is already an established leader in the work to achieve UBR, recognized by UN bodies and Member States alike for its technical expertise in this area. At the UN, the Plan UN Offices will compliment this work and seek to:

• Support Plan’s work with the UN, including organising and participating in events, and developing advocacy materials.

14

Article 7 and 8, Convention on the Rights of the Child: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc. htm#art7

ONE PLAN UN STRATEGY 33

• Advocate for larger participation and collaboration between the UNHCr, UNICEF, and other UN agencies and networks, in order for them to better support governments in their endeavours to ensure UBr. • Advocate for inclusion of language regarding birth registration in relevant resolutions and UN policy documents.

The Plan UN Offices will work in close collaboration with the UBR coordinator, protection advisor, relevant Plan offices, and the NGO working group on universal birth registration which Plan is co-leading to carry out this work, and engage with the UN to: • Advocate and support endeavours for the inclusion of language on birth registration in UN resolutions.

• Advocate through partnerships and networks to encourage UNICEF and the UNHCR to maintain birth registration as a priority focus within their protection and policy activities with government.

• Strengthen birth registration partnership with the UNHCR, following a cooperation agreement signed between Plan and the UNHCR in November 2011.

• Host and/or participate in events with UNICEF, the UNHCR, and other partners focused on achieving UBR. • Effectively mobilize interested NGOs working on child rights and other

34

relevant stakeholders to support the advocacy for UBR.

10.3 Non-Discrimination, Equality, and Inclusion Non-discrimination, equality, and inclusion are amongst the foundational tenets of human rights. Enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, explicitly in Articles 1 and 2, and throughout all subsequent human rights conventions and treaties, including Article 2 of the CRC, the ideas of equal and fair treatment of all individuals, with equal enjoyment of their rights, without distinction of any kind, underlie all human rights, including the rights of the child.

The two Plan UN Offices will concentrate their efforts in this area through its engagement with the CEDAW Committee and the CSW.

10.3.1 the Convention and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was adopted by the UNGA on 18 December 1979; the culmination of 30 years of work to promote women’s rights and highlight all the areas in which inequality between women and men occurs. The Convention entered into force in September 1981; to date, it has been ratified by 187 countries15.

CEDAW is the body that monitors implementation of the Convention and its OP. CEDAW consists of 23 experts who meet

15

As of 8 July 2012. For a full list of signatories and parties, see: http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV8&chapter=4&lang=en

three times a year in Geneva or New York to review States parties’ reports, which are submitted every four years16. NGOs, like Plan, can submit written alternative reports, suggest recommendations, and make oral statements. CEDAW makes recommendations and addresses concerns raised during the session in the form of concluding observations. CEDAW also produces General Recommendations on issues it feels States parties should devote more attention. Since 1986, CEDAW has issued 28 General Recommendations 17.

CEDAW submits an annual report to the UNGA. Plan’s UN Offices and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women The Plan UN Offices will seek to: • Engage with CEDAW to further Plan’s policy and priorities on the empowerment of girls.

The Geneva Office will lead efforts with the CEDAW Committee, including: • Support

CO involvement with the CEDAW Committee.

• Foster

and enhance collaboration with the CEDAW Committee and Plan’s participation in other relevant UN platforms.

10.3.2 The Commission on the Status of Women The Commission for the Status of Women is a functional commission of ECOSOC established in June 1946 to promote women’s rights in the political, economic, social, and education fields through policy recommendations and evaluations of the current status of women around the world. The CSW is held annually in New York to deliberate on issues related to the rights, advancement, and empowerment of women and girls, and adopts a set of Agreed Conclusions on these rights and advancements. Plan has an opportunity to utilize the CSW platform to pursue its policies in a direct manner that influences the negotiations and the outcome documents/ resolutions of the CSW. Plan’s UN Offices and the Commission on the Status of Women In leading Plan’s involvement at the CSW, the Plan UN Offices will seek to: • E ngage in the CSW to further Plan’s policy and priorities on the empowerment of girls.

The New York Office will be the Plan focal point for the CSW, and lead all Plan interaction with the CSW, including: • C oordinate Plan’s participation in the CSW.

16 A list of countries that will be reviewed by CEDAW during the period of this strategy can be seen here: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/ bodies/cedaw/sessions.htm

• Foster

and enhance collaboration and Plan’s participation in the CSW, including with relevant UN agencies.

17 A full list of the General recommendations issued by CEDAW can be found here: http:// www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/comments.htm

One Plan UN Strategy 35

10.4 Education The second MDG concentrates on the achievement of universal education, specifically the achievement of a quality primary education for all girls and boys, and links closely to MDG 3 on eliminating gender disparities in education at all levels 18.

Plan has comprehensively engaged in work contributing to both MDGs 2 and 3, through its work on girls and education.

Education is a major focus area for Plan.

Plan’s 2010-2013 education strategy concentrates on three areas: access, quality, and governance. Education also overlaps Plan’s work on gender equality and child protection; as well as emergencies, where Plan’s disaster risk management (DRM) team includes education as a critical component of their work. While access and barriers to education are clearly education issues, some specific barriers are protection problems as well. Thus, the attention dedicated to these areas crosscuts the KPAs, and the Plan UN Offices will approach them in this way.

The UN Strategy will concentrate its UN engagement in education in two areas: 1.

The empowerment of girls through education; and 2. Education in emergencies.

18 Full details of MDG 2 and 3 can be seen here, respectively: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/education.shtml; http://www. un.org/millenniumgoals/gender.shtml

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10.4.1 The Empowerment of Girls through Education Plan pursues the right to education for all children, girls and boys, through its CCCD approach. Central to this work on education is the basic understanding that gender inequality is an underlying cause of child poverty, and that gender equality in education (or otherwise) depends on the empowerment of girls. The Plan UN Offices will work toward further empowering girls through education via two avenues: one through BIAAG’s advocacy work and the other through collaboration with the Education First initiative.

Plan’s BIAAG campaign is built around addressing inequalities in education through girls’ empowerment. However, girls in many places encounter additional obstacles to boys in accessing education, particularly in transitioning to the secondary level. While many of the efforts to address these challenges occur at local and national levels, the UN can be engaged at the international level to contribute to the removal of these barriers.

Education First launched by the SG in September 2012, is the new global education initiative, focused on access, quality, and global citizenship. Under the auspices of the UN SG’s office, the initiative will bring key governments, UN agencies, foundations, private sector, and civil society actors together to work towards increasing political attention, resources, and action toward improving education globally. There is thus potential for collaboration between the BIAAG campaign and Education First on the education and empowerment of girls.

The Plan UN Offices will thus work to:

•

Engage with UN agencies, Special Procedures, Mandate Holders and Member States to support the creation of an enabling environment that ensures equal access to education, as well as the transition of girls from primary to secondary education.

•

Explore opportunities for collaboration with the UNSg’s Education First initiative towards the empowerment of girls through education.

10.4.2 Education in Emergencies EiE is a key pillar in Plan’s DRM Strategy19.

EiE provides access to quality education during all types of emergencies, including those caused by natural hazards (eg. earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis) and/ or human activities. EiE is essential to all children’s20 physical, psychosocial, cognitive, social, developmental, and emotional needs.

Traditional EiE responses have emphasized only the acute response phase. However, with an increasing number and severity of all types of emergencies, and a growing evidence base on effective ways to mitigate their effects, the EiE sector needs to ensure a preparedness and disaster risk reduction (DRR) lens throughout its work. To promote the vision of access and quality of education to all children in emergencies, Plan’s UN Offices will:

Advocacy, research, and engagement in this area will overlap with other KPAs, extending both the reach and impact of efforts, and will include to:

• Support the DRM team in engaging with UNICEF, the UNHCr, and other UN agencies (such as the UN Office for Disaster risk reduction)

• E ncourage UNICEF to include a focus on access and provision of secondary school education in their programming.

• C ooperate with the SR on the Right to Education.

• H ost and/or participate in events and activities focused on girls and education, including annual launch of the BIAAG State of the World’s Girls report or other BIAAG campaign highlights.

19

The term Disaster Risk Management in Plan includes disaster response, disaster risk reduction, conflict risk management, and environmental risk management.

20

EiE responses should include support for children between 0-24 years old. This is to ensure that early stimulation and education can start before a child enters the formal education system and is therefore prepared to succeed in that system. Further, EiE interventions should expand its scope to include young people up to 24 years as many children/adolescents miss out on years of education due to emergencies and so need catch up or accelerated education programmes.

ONE PLAN UN STRATEGY 37

The Plan UN Offices will work closely with Plan’s EiE Specialist and members of Plan’s DRM team to:

Preliminary information on each at the time of development of the strategy is listed below.

• Support

DRM team in advocating for EiE as a crucial priority response with an emphasis on the inclusion and consideration of DRR and the needs of marginalized children.

11.1 Millennium Development Goals and the Post 2015 Agenda

• Support

the participation of the team in UN events and activities focused on EiE and DRR and education.

• Support

the DRM team, as needed and requested, in establishing new connections with other UN agencies engaged in EiE and DRR, such as the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

11. Global Trends In addition to the aforementioned KPAs, the strategy has taken into account the rise and fall of trends at the international level.

These trends do not yet require full attention from the Plan UN Offices because they do not sufficiently meet the KPA criteria.

In addition, they may require additional resources – both time and energy – that are not currently available.

During the development of the current strategy, three areas were identified as timely for the 2012-2016 period. However since Plan is still currently developing its capacities and approach in these areas, they are included in the section on Global Trends rather than KPA. The three areas are: 1.

Millennium Development Goals and the Post 2015 Agenda;

Although three years remain until the 2015 ‘deadline’ for the MDGs, it is clear even now that some of the goals will not be met, and that a ‘post-MDG’ gap exists that needs to be filled. As it took ten years to develop the first set of MDGs, discussion and work has begun within the development community on what follows the MDGs in 2015.

The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs released a report to the SG entitled, “Accelerating Progress towards the Millennium Development Goals: options for sustained and inclusive growth and issues for advancing the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015”, highlighting the needs and considerations for any post-2015 agenda, and created a UN MDG Gap Task Force to address the issue21.

Further to this, the SG will establish a High-Level Panel to advise on post-MDGs and to provide the UN with a set of recommendations to take forward, all of which will culminate in the Review Conference on the MDGs by Member States at the UNGA in 2013.

Civil society has also begun its own campaign to accelerate discussion on the post-MDG agenda. The ‘Beyond2015’ campaign now includes hundreds of organizations globally, trying to ensure that the process is started, and that civil society has a voice and role

2. Youth Economic Empowerment; and 3. Children with Disabilities.

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21 For a copy of the report, see: http://www. ipc-undp.org/pressroom/files/ipc629.pdf

to play within it. In addition to this, UN agencies such as UNICEF and UN Development Programme (UNDP) will also provide a platform for civil society engagement in New York and at country level.

Plan is engaged in the Beyond 2015 campaign through various NOs and its EU office, and is also engaging in the discourse through the Berlin Civil Society Center at the level of Plan’s CEO and the UN Office in New York. Further to this, the UN Office in New York has been tasked with following all UN processes related to the post-MDG debate, with support from IH and the Plan Task Force on Post-MDGs. The Plan UN Offices may likely become more involved as the post-MDG process becomes clearer and Plan develops its position from which to advocate and engage at the UN.

11.2 youth Economic Empowerment Youth, and youth economic empowerment in particular, is an issue that is on the rise on the UN’s agenda in an effort to address the global economic and financial crisis.

The importance of this issue was elevated recently when the SG announced his intentions to appoint a new Special Representative for Youth.

Youth economic empowerment is composed of various elements including employment, entrepreneurship, and political participation.

Youth employment and underemployment is recognized as a rapidly emerging issue that is being discussed at political and highlevel arenas at the UN, without one particular forum for its detailed discussions and lacking clear outcomes and Plan of Action.

going forward, Plan intends to focus on the issue of youth economic empowerment as a key area of work and there is a need to begin an initial information and fact-finding engagement with the UN.

Accordingly, the Plan UN Offices will work with the Plan focal point around this issue to support, dependent on resources and capacity, the development of Plan’s position from which to advocate and engage at the UN, in particular the ILO, on issues relating to children and youth’s economic rights.

11.3 Children with Disabilities The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol was adopted on 13 December 2006, and entered into force in May 2008. The Convention is a human rights instrument with an explicit social development dimension. It adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons – including children – with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Convention has been ratified by 117 countries22.

UNICEF is increasingly focusing on the issue of children with disabilities, and is interested in working in partnership with Plan in this area. Mappings carried out on disability inclusion within Plan have

22

As of 8 July 2012: http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV15&chapter=4&lang=en

ONE PLAN UN STRATEGY 39

showed that there are pockets of experience and expertise in some COs on this. Further, some have done advocacy on this issue.

There has however been little strategic thinking and sharing of learning and good practice across the organisation. To fill this gap, a working group on disability inclusion has been established by a group of NOs. It is currently led by the Norwegian NO and composed of 20 Plan NOs, ROs, and COs, working to develop and build Plan’s capacity in this area, and provide input into Plan’s international advocacy work. There is a specific push to have Plan solidify research, policy, and knowledge in this area in advance of the UN high-level meeting on disability and development in September 2013. The Plan UN Offices will work in support of these efforts in relation to the UN high-level meeting.

Photo: © Plan

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One Plan UN Strategy 41

IMPLEMENTATION Implementation of the UN Strategy will take a three-pronged approach, and will require the efforts and participation of all levels of Plan to fully realise its objectives and goals as laid out above. Only through a unified approach will Plan achieve its mission of being an influential and recognized NGO leader at the UN. To achieve this, a thorough implementation plan has been developed focusing on the needs and approaches for internal implementation and external implementation, including the implementation of the Guidelines to be followed at the UN.

12. Internal Implementation Each Plan office and staff needs a clear understanding of how their work relates to the UN, and vice-versa, and how their engagement contributes to enhancing Plan’s visibility, leadership, and operational capacity from the UN to the communities where Plan works. The Plan UN Offices will seek to achieve this through internal implementation of the UN Strategy.

Internally, implementation will focus on the needs and approaches to implementing the strategy that will be carried out within Plan, starting with how the UN Strategy will be rolled-out within the organization, to training, reporting, research, and communication requirements for implementing the strategy within Plan, and finally, the annual review process.

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Building on the One Plan One Goal strategy, effective implementation of the UN Strategy will require strong collaboration between Plan offices and teams to help ensure Plan acts and speaks with one voice at the UN, portraying a consistent and unified global identity: One Plan.

This close collaboration is made only more important given the limited capacity due to staff numbers at the two Plan UN Offices, each currently having only two staff members. While these offices grow and build in the coming years, the cooperation and support of all Plan offices will be crucial to implementing this strategy.

12.1 Roll-Out The UN Strategy roll-out will begin in Q4 of FY12. The heads of the Plan UN Offices will travel to all four regions during FY13 to meet with ROs and COs staff and directors to introduce the strategy to Plan staff, and to discuss its implementation and identify region-specific support on certain activities. Meetings with the National Directors Team and the National Program Directors Team are also planned for this time period.

The roll-out meetings will be used to explain what the strategy is, why it is needed, why it is important for Plan, and how Plan offices can and will engage. Discussions will be held on how the Plan UN Offices can and will collaborate and cooperate with the

Plan AU and EU, LOs, COs, ROs, and NOs to effectively implement the strategy, but also to improve Plan’s engagement at the UN at all levels.

At the end of these roll-out meetings, it is envisioned that all Plan offices will have a clear understanding of the purpose and work of the two Plan UN Offices, how to engage with them, and will be committed to making One Plan at the UN a reality. Further, one staff member at each Plan office will be designated the ‘UN focal point’ for that office. These focal points will act as liaisons between their respective offices and the two Plan UN Offices, facilitating and improving communication flows and coordination on UN engagement within Plan.

12.2 Training/Raising Awareness Engagement and work with the UN varies across Plan. Accordingly, knowledge and awareness of the different agencies and bodies within the UN varies. The two Plan UN Offices will seek to increase the knowledge and capacity of Plan staff with regards to working with the UN. It is important that all staff understand the importance of their role and programme at the regional and national levels, and how they can contribute to and impact Plan’s engagement with the UN at the international level for global impact.

Training and awareness raising within Plan can and will be approached from multiple avenues. Informally, information will be shared via different communication tools to help Plan staff learn and become more aware of the UN’s work and functions.

However, training and the exchange of experiences through lessons learned workshops and training sessions will

also be organised to train and empower Plan staff on how they can engage with the UN and the Plan UN Offices through their work. In collaboration with offices, and discussions on training needs and staff capacity, trainings will be conducted throughout the duration of the strategy to increase knowledge, awareness, teach new and reinforce old skills with regards to engaging with the UN. While trainings will be broadly applicable to the work of the UN as it relates to the UN Strategy, the Plan UN Offices will work with ROs and COs to tailor trainings to their specific needs, and will therefore have region-specific goals and objectives. The Geneva office has already commenced providing staff training in this regards, conducting trainings on the CRC in FY11 in both the East and Southern Africa, and Asia regions, and trainings on how to engage with the HRC mechanisms including UPR and Special Procedures, in FY12 in the Americas region. A UPR and CRC Optional Protocol training is scheduled for FY13 at the Asia regional office.

12.3 Reporting A critical component to achieving strategic goal one of achieving General consultative status for Plan with ECOSOC will be reporting. ECOSOC requires that NGOs with Special Consultative Status report on all their interactions with the UN, across all levels of their work. The Plan UN Offices will therefore establish a reporting system to log Plan’s interactions with the UN, due annually to the Plan UN Offices by 31 January.

To facilitate what can be admittedly cumbersome process, the Plan UN Offices will

One Plan UN Strategy 43

explore online ways to easily report all UN activities, and will engage in discussions during the roll-out meetings to determine how best to meet this criterion without burdening Plan offices. The Plan UN Offices will also work with the identified IH/CO/ RO/NO/LOs, UN focal points on requirements and details for reporting, and to assess on an on-going basis the most effective and efficient way to gather and share the information for use not only in ECOSOC reporting, but to feed into and improve programming as well as to underpin strategic analysis.

12.4 Research Plan will require solid and valid research from which it can develop the organisational policies and positions it requires to be a “go to” organization at the UN on child rights, child protection, gender equality and girls’ empowerment, and education.

The UN is a place for policy, not for messages and slogans, and Plan must have firm positions, and information to back those positions, in order to influence and affect change in its policy areas.

The Plan UN Offices will thus undertake desk reviews in their KPAs to inform policy and positions upon which advocacy activities are based. An example of these reviews can be seen in the birth registration desk reviews undertaken by the Geneva office and two thematic studies and reviews in preparation for the HRC’s annual day of the rights of the child:

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1. Birth Registration and Right to Identity and International Law: An Internal Review;

2. Birth Registration and Right to Identity in the Monitoring and Reporting Cycles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; 3. Studies on children living and working on the streets, used at the HRC, March 2011; and 4.

Plan’s involvements in programs and activities related to children and the Administration of Justice: Study to inform Plan’s involvement in the Human Rights Council’s Annual Full Day on the Rights of the Child, March 2012.

Reviews like these are valuable for presenting the current state of advocacy and UN engagement in the KPAs, and for identifying gaps and areas where more attention and efforts are needed by Plan, by its partners, and by the UN. However, original research will also be required, and Plan’s programmes can provide a wealth of knowledge. The Plan UN Offices will coordinate with the Research team at IH, and with all LOs, COs, ROs, and NOs, to be aware of current research being undertaken by Plan that can be used at the UN, and to develop and initiate new undertakings to strengthen the evidencebase needed to promote Plan’s work and strengthen its policy and advocacy positions.

12.5 Communication Internal communication will be integral for implementing and fulfilling the Strategy’s goals. Internal communication takes many forms. Each Plan UN Office is equipped with a communication and advocacy staff member. Together, they will develop and implement a communication strategy for their offices, the goal of which will be to facilitate a strong bi-directional flow of information between the Plan UN Offices and all other Plan offices to share and exchange information, tools, guides, and research between Plan offices; from the UN through the Plan UN Offices to all levels of Plan; and from all levels of Plan to the UN, through the Plan UN Offices (depicted in Figure 3).

The strategy will be developed in consultation with Plan offices to devise mutually conducive system that promotes optimum sharing of information and resources within Plan, and that will best utilise Plan’s existing communication mediums such as Planet, Newsletters, and Yammer. This will help keep Plan staff in all offices informed on the goings-on at the UN, and improve coordination and collaboration.

Most importantly, respect and adherence to Plan’s new Guidelines for UN Engagement will ensure optimum communication flow within Plan on all UN engagement, promoting cooperation, collaboration, and creation of new synergies in Plan’s approach to its UN work at all levels.

Figure 3: Plan-UN Communication Flow

NOs

EU AU

NY

IH

ROs

PLAN OFFICES COs

UN OFFICES

UNITED NATIONS

GVA

One Plan UN Strategy 45

12.6 Annual Review and Evaluation The UN Strategy will guide Plan’s work with the UN, and very specifically will direct the efforts of the two Plan UN Offices.

From the strategy, and with available staff and resources, the Plan UN Offices will extrapolate their annual work plans, devising targets and indicators to monitor and mark their work and achievements. Measurement in relation to undertakings with the UN poses a challenge given the collective nature of the work. It is the collective efforts, and strong voices of leadership, like those of Plan, that will affect the change sought.

The Offices will work to develop indicators and measurable goals that reflect the work of Plan offices together, such as reporting efforts between COs and the Plan UN Offices, as well as ones to measure the advocacy efforts directly at the UN.

This is a living document.

There are approaches and areas undertaken within this strategy that may need revision or reconsideration as implementation is underway.

Further, the constantly changing nature of the international agenda and priorities requires flexibility in any approach to working with the UN. Therefore, an annual review of the strategy is planned in order to measure progress against the strategy’s goals, as well as to update the strategy, taking into account the changing priorities in the global political economy, at the UN, and internally at Plan.

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The annual review meeting will be held, on a rotational basis, in Geneva and New York. Staff from all LOs; all ROs and certain NOs; the policy, research, and communication teams at IH; and the leads from the programme and advocacy departments will participate in this annual review. The first annual review meeting will be held in early 2014 in New York.

A full evaluation of the strategy, its effectiveness, impact, successes and challenges, will be undertaken in advance of development of the next strategy. This assessment will follow the assessment guidelines currently under development by IH for all of Plan.

13. External Implementation External implementation of the UN Strategy will focus on the UN system, and the actors and relationships outside of Plan needed for effectively implementing the strategy.

Namely, this will involve Plan’s status with ECOSOC, its partnering approach, and membership on groups and coalitions with other NGOs and civil society actors, and the organization’s ability to effectively communicate its work and brand to a larger audience.

13.1 Reporting to the Economic and Social Council Strategic goal one of the UN Strategy aims to achieve General Consultative Status for Plan International with ECOSOC. Plan gained Special Consultative Statues with ECOSOC in June 2011. ECOSOC status is reviewed every four years. While Plan can submit this application at any time, achieving General Consultative Status requires meeting requirements and lobbying decision makers at the UN to portray Plan’s credentials and reasoning for securing this position.

The heads of both UN Offices will undertake these efforts, with the hopes of submitting and being granted General Consultative Status by the end of the 2012-2016 strategy.

A condition of this status, and requirement for General Consultative Status, is to submit a quadrennial report on all Plan’s activities and undertakings with the UN, in all thematic areas, globally.

Plan must therefore submit its report comprehensively detailing its UN work in June 2015. The two Plan UN Offices will work to compile and submit this report on time, contingent on strong cooperation from all Plan offices, reporting on their activities annually as outlined in internal implementation.

13.2 Partnerships In order to efficiently carry out its advocacy activities across all KPAs, strong networking and co-operation with partners is needed.

When major child rights organisations co-operate and co-ordinate in various initiatives, their collective efforts improve the quality of work and strengthen the child rights agenda. In addition, Plan does not, and cannot, hold expertise in all areas related to child rights, protection, inclusion, and education, it will be necessary for it to partner with other organizations and agencies in order to leverage their expertise. It is envisioned that three approaches to partnership will primarily be needed in implementing this strategy: • M embership and leading roles in coalitions and networks; • L ong-term/global partnerships with UN agencies; and • S pecific collaborations on distinct projects undertaken for a particular period with a particular purpose.

Both UN Offices are already engaged and hold leadership positions in networks and coalitions in the VAC arena, as well as NGO groups supporting child rights or advocating at the HRC or the UNGA. These include: • T he International NGO Council on Violence against Children, New York Office on Steering Committee; • N GO Committee on UNICEF, New York Office Advisory Board Member; • N GO Group for the CRC, Geneva Office holds Vice-Presidency on the board; and 1. Co-lead of the Universal Birth Registration Working Group 2. Member of the Working Groups on HRC, UPR, and Children and Violence • I nternational Coalition for the Ratification of the Third Optional Protocol to the CRC on a Communication Procedure, Geneva Office on Steering Committee.

Both offices continue to strategically seek out or maintain memberships in NGO coalitions and networks where Plan can contribute and influence UN agendas, and increase its presence and profile.

Further, the Plan UN Offices will play a key role in securing partnerships with UN agencies. Notably, Strategic Goal Two will guide these efforts towards a Plan-UNICEF strategic global partnership. In addition, existing partnerships, such as those with the UNHCR, will be strengthened. It is understood that all high-level, strategic partnerships will require a collective and directed approach, combining the efforts

One Plan UN Strategy 47

of the Plan UN Offices, IH, and relevant Plan offices and teams.

Lastly, partnerships may be sought on specific, discrete tasks, such as jointreports and submission.

13.3 Communication External communication of this strategy, of the Plan UN Offices, and of Plan’s presence at the UN will focus on two target audiences: the UN, Permanent Missions and associated bodies and staff; and the general public. Effective communication to both groups will be crucial in increasing awareness and recognition of Plan, and creating associations between Plan’s brand and quality policy, programming, and research and advocacy in child rights, child protection, gender equity and empowerment, and education.

The communication strategies that will be developed within the Plan UN Offices will include approaches to external communication for both groups, recognizing that the language, style, and substance of the messaging differs significantly between the two. The Plan UN Offices will work with IH Communication team to create a visible public presence, using the spectrum of media and social media tools available to increase visibility and awareness of their work. Communicating with the UN will take form in meetings, presentations, and the sharing of information at a technical level.

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Plan International Liaison Office to the United Nations Headquarters 211 East 43rd Street, Suite 1902 New York, NY 10017 USA Fiyola Hoosen-Steele fiyola.hoosen-steele@plan-international.org

Photo: © Plan / Glenn Daniels

Plan International United Nations Liaison and Advocacy Office Rue de Varembé 1 CH-1202 – Geneva, Switzerland Anne-Sophie Lois anne-sophie.lois@plan-international.org