A year of transforming commitments into action

At the start of the year, the EU set the frame for delivering children’s rights with two new grand initiatives – the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child and the European Child Guarantee initiative. This was a huge success for Eurochild and the entire child rights community after years of advocacy. The challenge is far from over, as this is not the end goal – realising children’s rights for each and every child, leaving no child behind requires national action.

Here’s what we are proud to have achieved this year to get closer to our goal:

Making the Child Guarantee a success

Members of the Eurochild Taskforce on the European Child Guarantee are advocating tirelessly to make this first ever EU initiative a success for children. Eurochild is supporting member-led activities, that will raise awareness about or influence the Child Guarantee at national level.

Plataforma de Infancia (Spain) is developing a guide to support organisations interested in accessing ESF funds to launch adequate projects in the context of the implementation of the Child Guarantee.

Fondazione L’Albero della Vita (Italy) is reaching out to relevant ministries and institutions that would be key in influencing the content of the National Action Plan.

The Smile of the Child (Greece) is organising a web show on child poverty in Greece.

Transforming child protection systems to promote family based care and end children’s separation from families

After supporting our members in Greece, Poland and Croatia with technical assistance, we are proud to make a new push for child protection reforms in Turkey and Greece, with support from the Martin James Foundation.

We launched findings from our DataCare Project together with UNICEF ECARO and over 50 national experts, making the case to the EU to monitor comparable indicators for children in alternative care. Additionally, we have secured further funding to push Member States and the EU to include our indicators in the National Action Plans and the common monitoring framework of the European Child Guarantee.

Expanding our commitment to children’s participation

Eurochild’s child participation strategy has been updated! Eurochild Children’s Council members and other children met with 3 European Commissioners and the chair of the EP Intergroup to present the outcomes of consultations with over 10,000 children on the EU strategy on children’s rights and the Child Guarantee. Moreover, Eurochild members and partners in 21 EU Member States consulted native speaking children on the accessible language versions of the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child. EU officials recently went through a child participation training led by children.

Gathering communities of experts, advocates and professionals

We convened over hundreds of Ministers, Members of the European Parliament, Commissioners, other decision-makers, professionals, children and civil society representatives online to encourage dialogue and identify what we can do to further realise children’s rights. Our events leading up to the UN Day of General Discussion on highlighted children’s rights and alternative care, and to the Universal Children’s Day focused on education and early childhood development.

We have successively outdone our own records for numbers of participants in our highly engaging online events this year, exchanging knowledge and concrete examples of good practices to provide the necessary push to drive national and European action. Catch up with our latest events.

Our digital and media footprint grew

Through our digital channels, we reached growing audiences and provided relevant commentary, news and resources from across our membership and highlights from our events. Our Twitter base reached the milestone of 10,000 followers and we left an imprint among new audiences through our multi-country video campaign – #CanWeBelieveinYou. Our commentary on European and national developments (for instance, the Hungarian anti-LGBT legislation) brought much needed attention to children’s rights in print and digital media.