Stakeholders Acting Together for Strengthened Child Protection in Armenia

Implementing Partner: World Vision, Inc.

Funding Period: : August 2010 - July 2013

Amount: $2,500,000

Purpose: Improve the well-being of the most vulnerable childrenby strengthening the child protection system and empowering actors at national, regional, and community levels.

Objectives

• Strengthen the national monitoring mechanisms for child protection by:
  • Supporting the National Committee for Child Protection in developing a monitoring strategy
  • Supporting the National Committee for Child Protection in the implementation of the national annual monitoring scheme at regional and community levels
• Strengthen Child Protection system at the regional level by:
  • Strengthening the role of child protection units in the regional coordination and case management process
  • Supporting the Government of Armenia's strategy for deinstitutionalization in three regions
  • Strengthening the capacity of the judicial system to deal with juvenile offenders and child protection issues
• Strengthen community capacity for child protection by:
  • Raising community capacity for child protection
  • Empowering children and their families to identify and address child protection and development issues in their communities

The project will improve the well-being of the most vulnerable children in Armenia by strengthening the child protection (CP) system and empowering actors at national, regional and community levels. The project will build the human resources and institutional capacities of the existing three-tier child protection system, including the National Committee for Child Protection (NCCP) (national level); child protection units (CPU) (regional level); and Guardianship and Trusteeship Committees (GTC) (community level). In addition, the project will support the development of a child rights (CR) curriculum, ensuring its mainstreaming into the official curriculum of the Judicial School. It will provide training for judges and court personnel using the child rights module.

The project will focus on supporting the Government of Armenia's (GoA) deinstitutionalization (DI) strategy by implementing a pilot strategy in three additional regions. On the community level, the project will focus on mobilizing children, families, and local communities around child protection and child rights by raising community awareness, connecting families and children to policy makers and service providers, and giving children opportunities to raise and address child protection and child rights issues in their communities. In addition, children at risk of being institutionalized in the scope of this project will be included in the child empowerment initiatives.

In conjunction with these activities, the project will use public messaging, informational materials, and the media to raise awareness of the issue of domestic adoption.