Integrated Child Protection and EiE Guidance
Child Protection in Humanitarian Action (CPHA) and Education in Emergencies (EiE) are natural partners in humanitarian response. The two sectors have much in common: both are child-focused, are priorities for affected populations, and, through collaboration, they reinforce each other’s sectoral outcomes. As stated in the INEE Minimum Standards 2024 Edition, “Quality education in emergencies provides physical, psychosocial and cognitive protection that can save and sustain lives.”
Mainstreamed, joint, and integrated programming across CPHA & EiE add value to affected populations, service providers, and donors. Working together can create more efficient, better-targeted, and more effective programs that result in improved outcomes for children and young people (Alliance and INEE, 2021).
The Alliance and INEE are committed to strengthening the intersection between child protection and education during humanitarian crises at all levels of the Humanitarian Programme Cycle and at every stage in a response.
What impact do we want to have with integrated programming:
- Improve child well-being and healthy development
- Improve learning outcomes through holistic support to well-being
- Prevent and mitigate certain protection risks while improving access, retention, and success in learning
- Prevent children “slipping through cracks” between sectors by centering the child in multi-sectoral, integrated programming
- Contribute to efforts to transform humanitarian delivery, and support the localization agenda for stronger systems and communities in crises
For guidance, tools and resources that support joint and integrated programming, please see the Alliance CPHA-EIE Initiative web portal.
Child Protection
Humanitarian crises often have long-lasting, devastating effects on children’s lives. Whether caused by armed conflict or a sudden onset natural disaster, crises exacerbate pre-existing vulnerabilities and protection risks as well as create new risks for children. Children may face a greater risk of injury and disability, neglect, physical and sexual violence, psychosocial distress and mental disorders, family separation, recruited into armed forces, exploitation, and death. Refugees, internally displaced, and stateless children can be especially vulnerable.
Child protection is the ‘freedom from all forms of abuse, exploitation, neglect, and violence, including bullying; sexual exploitation; violence from peers, teachers, or other educational personnel; natural hazards; arms and ammunition; landmines and unexploded ordnance; armed personnel; crossfire locations; political and military threats; and recruitment into armed forces or armed groups.’. Child protection actors and interventions seek to center the protection of children in humanitarian action to prevent and respond to all forms of abuse, neglect, exploitation, and violence. Effective child protection builds on existing capacities and strengthens preparedness before a crisis occurs. During humanitarian crises, timely interventions support the physical and emotional health, dignity, and wellbeing of children, families, and communities. Child protection in humanitarian action (CPHA) includes specific activities conducted by local, national, and international child protection actors. It also includes efforts of non-child protection actors who seek to prevent and address abuse, neglect, exploitation, and violence against children in humanitarian settings, whether through mainstreamed or integrated programming. International and national organizations, community groups and schools, family support, and the children themselves can all serve to enhance the level of protection children experience. Sustainable solutions build on and strengthen these existing protective factors so that children are protected in the short and long terms.
Experience repeatedly shows that when children are protected in an effective and holistic manner, other humanitarian efforts - including education - are more successful. In turn, simultaneously strengthening child protection and education systems is proven to be one of the most cost-effective ways to build resilience and promote sustainable development. An intersectoral approach is therefore necessary to address the multifaceted challenges and risks faced by children in humanitarian settings.
Joint INEE-Alliance Initiative
The Alliance and INEE are committed to strengthening the intersection between child protection and education during humanitarian crises. The Joint Pledge at the Global Refugee Forum 2023 outlines three areas of shared responsibility and collaboration. They are:
- Capacity and knowledge sharing amongst Child Protection and Education practitioners
- The promotion of evidence-based approaches to Education and Child Protection integration
- Collective action for collective impact: Joint advocacy on child protection and education integration
Key resources
The Alliance and INEE have collaborated on the Guidance Note for Supporting Integrated Child Protection and Education Programming in Humanitarian Action which provides guidance, tools and resources to support program design, implementation, and monitoring.
The Alliance CPHA-EIE Initiative web portal contains all this information alongside updated resources.
INEE-Alliance Position Paper: Collaboration Across Child Protection and Education in Emergencies sets out the rationale and principles behind the cross-sector collaboration.
GEC-CPAoR Education in Emergencies - Child Protection Collaboration Framework provides guidance for cluster coordinators and members on how to collaborate cross-cluster on planning and monitoring joint and integrated programming.
The INEE Child Protection Collection contains a library of additional related resources.