Pre-consultation interviews highlight advocacy and communication potential of Commitment to Children Audit
Barcelona, 30 May 2011 – The international expert group working on the Commitment to Children Audit is about to submit the first draft of the concept paper, including both the international and the national audit modules, the audit units and the proposed set of indicators. As planned, over the past month the working group has discussed the basic layout and common indicators of the national audit part and prepared the Guidelines for National Audit Panels that will allow experts to further analyse a country’s commitment and put it in context at country level.
With the submission of the first draft, the definitional phase of the project will come to a close leading to the second and crucial stage, when the concept paper will undergo a broad consultation process through GMC regional and country offices and other strategic partners.
The consultation process is planned to begin towards July and last just over two months until September, when consultees will be requested to submit their final feedback and reactions to the draft concept note.
Prior to the broader consultation process, and in order to help push the project forward steadily, a few pre-consultation interviews are being conducted with senior officers within GMC members and strategic partners.
The majority of interviewees have so far shared the opinion that the CCA has great potential to become a “very influential and compelling instrument for advocacy purposes and a highly productive message factory for communications departments” because it will not only measure a country’s commitment against its economic resources and its geographic and economic neighbours, but will also focus on equity by monitoring progress for the poorest. “The international ranking the CCA will produce opens a great new window of opportunity to complement CRC Committee reports and point at those countries underperforming” a GMC member has said.
In addition to the general agreement on the usefulness for communication and advocacy purposes, interviewees have underlined the importance of the CCA as a “rallying tool for the child rights movement to stride ahead in its common goal to ensure that the rights of every child are respected”, as one partner explained.
Both pre-consultation interviews and the broader consultation process aim at actively engaging GMC members and partners in the creation and development of the Commitment to Children Audit so that the final outcome reflects the different priorities and contexts within the Movement leaving nobody out.
Having almost reached the end of the first phase of the project, the remaining three stages are the following: broad consultation through regional and national offices to be completed in September; producing the international and national audits until December, and finally, from January to May 2012, consolidation and launch of the audit results. Worth mentioning is that the global launch of the CCA is planned to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the UNGASS on Children on May 7th 2012, which will also mark the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the Global Movement for Children.
If you wish to take part in the consultation process, please send an e-mail to communications@gmfc.org indicating CCA Consultation Process in the Subject box.
