2. EDUCATION:
• Somalia has one of the lowest school enrollment rate in the
world
• About 30% of Somali children mostly boys have access to
quality primary education opportunities-Somali Government
records
• 3 million children out of 4.9 million, are out of school. Only
44% of the children enrolled in schools are girls-2018 ANNUAL
REPORT, UNICEF SOMALIA
GRAVE VIOLATIONS
• In 2018 Education Cluster reported 2,127 verified cases of
child recruitment by non-state armed groups.
• As of June 2019 SGs annual report on Children and Armed
Conflict indicates “a total of 2,228 boys and 72 girls, some as
young as 8, were recruited and used by parties to conflict in
Somalia”.
SOMALI CHILDREN IN CONTEXT
3. The education Cluster is the ideal coordination body
for child safeguarding and child protection in the
education sector
The education Cluster coordinates education actors
including local and international non-governmental
organizations, UN agencies, donors and government
ministries.
Education Cluster Partners are doing their best to
provide children with protection services within
education institutions
Somali government ratified the Convention on the
Rights of the Child in 2015
AVAILABLE COORDINATION MECHANISMS AND PROCEDURES FOR SAFE
GUARDING OF CHILDREN IN EDUCATION IN SOMALIA
4. FENPS is one of Education Cluster
partners
Its mandate is to help children and
other people at risk
All the work it does involves
promoting Somali children’s physical
and mental well-being through
education, protection services and
advocacy for their rights in
compliance with the Islamic Sharia
and the UNCRC .
WHY FENPS? WHY CHILD SAFEGUARDING?
5. FENPS is a non-governmental organization established in 2003 to
play a role in addressing the particular needs of especially
vulnerable groups in society, for example young girls in general,
children belonging to minority groups, internally displaced
people, refugees, returnees, the disabled and children from
deprived backgrounds, who often lack education, health care,
protection and livelihood opportunities.
VISION: FENPS has a vision of a society where all children have
access to quality education and are not subjected to any abuse.
MISSION: The mission of FENPS is to uplift children and allow
them to grow in confidence and realize their fullest potential
through guidance, education and training in secure and caring
environments that are conducive to learning. The aim of FENPS is
to provide youth and children with positive values and skills for
their personal and national development.
ABOUT FENPS
6. FENPS is doing two things to promote safeguarding and child
protection in education in Somalia, viz:
a) improving its internal child safeguarding policy to strengthen the
capacity of its employees in order to protect its beneficiaries (children
and other people at risk) and also to protect the organization and its
employees and
b) advocating for promotion and implementation of safeguarding and
protection of children in all educational organizations in Somalia to
enhance the impact of their work on children
WHAT IS FENPS DOING NOW TO PROMOTE
SAFEGUARDING IN EDUCATION?
7. In June 2019 FENPS joined Keeping Children Safe (KCS)
KCS supported FENPS in developing child safeguarding manual, and
now FENPS has its child safeguarding policy, Standards and
procedures improved
FENPS made presentations on child safeguarding in two Education
Cluster meetings (i.e.in July 2019 and in August 2019).
FENPS spread the word of child safeguarding and Keeping Children
Safe initiatives and at least 3 other local NGOs applied to KCS to
improve their child safeguarding policy and procedures, following
FENPS lead.
FENPS and Save the Children facilitated 2 days training workshop on
child safeguarding and child protection for 20 administration level
persons from 20 local NGOs in October 2019 in Mogadishu.
FENPS achievement in improving its
child safeguarding policy and
advocacy to other local NGOs in
Somalia
8. Target Audience:
FENPS targets organizations who work with or for children,
particularly Education Cluster partners (Somali NGOs), schools
,Colleges and Universities in Somalia.
The Message:
The message FENPS wants to get across is to urge concerned
organizations to develop child safeguarding policies in their
education settings in order to contribute to minimizing all
possible risks of damage to children under their care.
TARGET AUDIENCE AND MESSAGE OF FENPS
9. Way forward:
FENPS is considering to continue improving its procedures regarding
child safeguarding and to reach out more audiences in the year 2020
and beyond if everything goes according to its plan.
Recommendation:
The subject of safe guarding is new to most of the Somali NGOs so
that it is strongly suggested to build the capacity of Somali NGOs in
the areas of developing and implementing child safe guarding
policies ,Standards and procedures in their places of work and
schools in a realistic and practical way, which can be put into
operation simply and effectively.
Local/national NGOs should be provided with financial and technical
support to enable them to manage and implement international
donor funded projects/programs that will contribute to localizing
/contextualizing the humanitarian aid and development
programmes with intent of achieving the SDGs agenda
WAY FORWARD AND RECOMMENDATIONS
10. Use of codes of conduct and co-signed standards with staff,
volunteers and associates that state how FENPS and its partners
are expected to behave towards children with specific warnings
that disciplinary actions will be taken against anyone who shows
abusive behaviour inside or outside FENPS targeted on children.
The organization, its beneficiaries, employees and all other
persons involved are now protected than ever because of the
safeguarding policies developed within FENPS organization that
have had positive impact both on the work and learning
environments where everybody, be a child or an employee, feels
safe and protected to a certain extent despite the fact that there is
still a possibility of risk happening to children-hence the need for
more consistent vigilance and watchfulness on risky situations
with which children may be going through.
GOOD CHILD SAFEGUARDING PRACTICES NOTED
11. Written child rights and safeguarding documents that
look good on paper, but not proven in practice.
TO THE ORGANIZATIONS:
Make child safeguarding part and parcel of
everything you do (e.g.) education policies, plans,
programs and activities in their workplaces and
schools.
Engage in meaningful communication and
networking with other partners such as KCS to
improve your Child Safeguarding procedures and
make your organization and beneficiaries are
protected with special attention paid to children.
WHEN CHILD SAFEGUARDING IS INEFFECTIVE
