Egypt's first National Child Rights Observatory is to promote children's rights, reports Reem Leila Ever since Egypt signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), it has committed itself to respect, protect and fulfill the rights of children in Egypt. Accordingly, the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) recently announced the creation of Egypt's first observatory to help in fulfilling the mission. The National Child Rights Observatory (ENCRO) is a quatri-partite initiative between the Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC), the NCCM, Italian Cooperation and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). ENCRO, located at the NCCM, is to lay the bases for a scientific research mechanism through which the council can monitor and evaluate efforts exerted in childhood and motherhood development. IDSC will be responsible for providing technical support during the implementation of activities on research and surveys. Italian Cooperation funds the implementation of the observatory and provides technical assistance to the units. UNICEF provides the technical and financial support to ENCRO's staff members. Lamia Mohsen, secretary-general of the NCCM, said this would prove that Egypt is a place where children's rights are respected, promoted and protected. The project, Mohsen said, will strengthen the council's ability to coordinate, develop, monitor and advocate more accountable, transparent and participatory public policies for children. On 23 May ENCRO started producing and managing evidence for policy-making. The ENCRO policy and planning unit will propose and coordinate formulation of results-based and child-rights centred policies. The monitoring and evaluation unit will supervise the implementation of national policies in order to guarantee the well being of children, mainly through the National Plan of Action for Children. The observatory will also work on maintaining social mobilisation through communication to enrich the policy of dialogue, promote active citizenship and volunteerism as well as create positive attitudes towards the rights of children and other vulnerable groups. According to Ragaa Shehata, head of ENCRO, the observatory aims at investing scientific research in observing the status of childhood. It will also monitor efforts in this field to direct the regulations in a child rights-based path and maintain Egypt's commitment to apply international conventions which Egypt has signed on as a state party. "ENCRO will focus on establishing a fully operational and sustainable entity to generate timely, accurate and reliable strategic information about the well-being of children which are relevant to evidence-based and child friendly policies," Shehata said. "It is essential for ENCRO to concentrate on making children and adults knowledgeable and supportive of child rights, thus focussing on the importance of their participation with decision-makers while mapping out any policy related to childhood." ENCRO will follow a certain strategy to help in producing and disseminating evidence on the well-being of children and the most pertinent issues that affect their lives. It will also assist in developing and enhancing the NCCM data base, to place all possible indicators through and which all the efforts in the field of child rights can be monitored and mended when areas of defect are discovered. By the end of 36 months, the duration of the project, "NCCM is expected to have an institutionalised observatory with the capacity, tools and methodologies for national social and fiscal monitoring policy-makers, front line workers, media and the general public are better informed about child rights in Egypt," said Shehata. It is likely that the NCCM will have a functioning department of communication that is an effective national advocacy resource, to encourage children and youth to play an effective role in their local community to increase people's awareness about children's rights. Also, Shehata believes, when the project comes to an end, the NCCM will gain an institutionalised, properly financed, well equipped and fully operational monitoring and evaluation unit "for all directly implemented and supported interventions." Mohsen said the research and data management activities of the ENCRO comprise two major pillars: research and surveys and its major categories of activities which include field research and desk studies on the fulfillment of child rights. Regional household surveys are in line with the 6,000 household surveys undertaken by IDSC. This is in addition to developing a set of national child rights indicators to monitor children's status and well-being in Egypt, as well as issuing periodic progress and status reports on child well-being and the fulfillment of their rights. The second pillar, according to Mohsen, concerns strategic information and knowledge management. Its activities include inter- active online knowledge portal on child rights in Egypt, coming up with periodic publications of the Egypt Child Rights Index, as well as a legal e-library including all legislation, decrees and international agreements related to child rights.
