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| Youth leaders gather for a photo following the Youth Discussion for Child Protection Forum ©Unicef/Ryan Febrianto/2017 |
JAKARTA - Ghivo Pratama, a young man from Padang, West Sumatra, gestures excitedly while he talks about visiting junior high schools in Bandung and Jakarta as part of ACTION, a youth anti-violence community. They were there to talk about tolerance: “Every child has to be protected from all types of violence,” he said at the Youth Discussion for Child Protection forum.
Faye Simanjuntak, 14, another
attendee at the forum and the founder of Rumah Faye,
was equally enthused discussing her group’s violence-prevention work, and the
counselling services she’s procured for child trafficking victims. “Listening
to their experiences, and engaging them in our actions -- these the keys to
creating a safe climate for us to thrive,” she said.
In all, seven activists spoke
at the forum held last November to celebrate Universal Children’s Day.
Alongside officials from the Ministry of Planning (Bappenas), the Ministry of
Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection and the Coordinating Ministry for
Human Development and Culture, the youth champions spoke in front of 150
adolescents and young activists about what had drawn them to the field of child
protection. They spoke confidently and passionately about what protecting
children meant to them. Not far from the stage, Government representatives
could be seen aking down notes, clearly
impressed with what they were hearing. It was the youth inspiring policymakers rather
than the other way around!
In addition to sparking dialogue
among youth leaders, the event aimed to raise awareness on Indonesia’s new
child protection policies, namely the 2015-2019 National Plan of Action (NPA)
on Child Protection, the 2015-2019 NPA on the Elimination of Human Trafficking
and the 2016-2020 National Strategy on the Elimination of Violence against
Children.
By the end of the day, the youth activists had come up with several
recommendations for Government, including the creation of a digital
communication platform, and expanded opportunities for adolescents to design, implement
and monitor government-run child protection initiatives.
Government
representatives responded positively to the recommendations, promising to set
up a collaboration mechanism they hope to see replicated at the subnational
level. Given the Government’s promise to make child protection a priority over
the next few years, in part by building a National Movement, the action is
timely – even in advance of the forum, powerful youth partnerships have started
joining forces to increase their reach.
In 2015, a group of youth
groups formed the Youth
Network on Violence against Children (YNVAC) coalition.
Members include Aliansi Remaja
Independen (ARI),
which
mobilizes hundreds of young people to advocate for the elimination of child
marriage; KOMPAK
Jakarta which conducts outreach in schools to
reach victims of sexual and commercial exploitation; Komunitas
Sudah Dong , which runs anti-bullying campaigns; and Sinergi
Muda, which empowers youth to design online
and offline solutions to stop violence against children. The YNVAC also
conducts urban ‘child protector’ courses in several cities.
Across the public and
private sector, there is a growing consensus that children should play an
important role in the design, implementation and monitoring of child protection
initiatives. The forum was thus an excellent opportunity for youth to build
rapport with government counterparts, providing a powerful reminder that many are
already stepping up to the plate to drive change. The time is now to build
synergy between young leaders and Government, and ensure that youth
perspectives are incorporated into the creation of policies that affect them
directly.
“This [event] is just the
beginning of something big,” said Ravio Patra, coordinator of YNVAC and
co-initiator of the event, to the Government officials. “…we are ready to work
with you to make a bigger impact.”
