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Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Network

The Childwatch International regional network in Sub-Saharan Africa works to promote the development and use of child research to ensure the realization of children's rights in the region.

The regional network has so far focused on the following issues:

  • Perspectives and approaches in African childhood research
  • Mechanisms and priorities in child research funding in Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Capacity building of institutions engaged in child research

Network activities

2010: Training workshop on “Designing participatory, rights-based research with children in Africa”.

2006: Colloquium on Child Research in Sub-Saharan Africa

A colloquium on child research in Sub-Saharan Africa was organized in Dakar, Senegal 21 - 22 November 2006, hosted by CODESRIA. The colloquium aimed at interrogating the current child research capacity in the region; demonstrating the potential of African research, especially for promotion of child rights through policy and practice; working towards closing the gap between research and policy/practice and lastly to build a Childwatch International Research Network in Sub-Saharan Africa.  

The colloquium was organized by Childwatch International and CODESRIA in collaboration with representatives from the Childwatch Key Institutions at Kenyatta University, Kenya and the University of the Western Cape and University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Forty participants from 13 different countries in Africa participated in the colloquium. In preparation for the talks, three discussion papers were commissioned to provide the context for the colloquium and to help shape the content and direction of discussions. The papers provided brief overviews on:

  1. Perspectives and approaches in African childhood’s research;
  2. Mechanisms and priorities in child research funding in Sub-Saharan Africa; and
  3. An Analysis on existing institutions engaged in child research in a number of selected countries.

A report was elaborated following the colloquium. Download Report.

The papers from the 2006 colloquium have also been compiled and published as a CODESRIA monograph. The publication presents papers by Steven Arojjo and Rebecca Nyonyintomo, Makerere University, Kelvin Mwaba, University of the Western Cape, Maureen Mweru and John N’gasike, Kenyatta University. The report is edited by: Shung King, M., September, R., Okatcha, F.M. and Cardoso, C. Please find further information about the publication here>>

2004: Symposium on Child Poverty and Marginalization

A regional symposium for Southern Africa was organized in Lusaka, Zambia in October 2004, inviting researchers from the region. The title of the symposium was Children living in circumstances of poverty and marginalization.

2003: Symposium and Consultant visit East Africa

A regional symposium and consultant visit took place in Nairobi, Kenya, November 2003.  

Background information: 

At a meeting in Oslo during the Childhoods 2005 Conference, a proposal for a conference on the continent during 2006 was discussed. The meeting brought together researchers and non-governmental organisations working on Child Rights and children related issues. The first major result of this meeting was the creation of a steering Committee that was responsible for organizing an International Conference.

The steering Committee formed was composed by: Jomo Kenyata University, Kenya; University of Western Cape and the University of Cape Town, South Africa; and CODESRIA, based in Senegal. The Committee met in Nairobi, Kenya late 2005 and early 2006, to establish a framework to guide a review of the laws, research and activities done over the past fifteen years with and for children.

A colloquium on child research in Sub-Saharan Africa was organized in Dakar, Senegal 21 - 22 November 2006. The colloquium resulted in the establishment of an African Child Research Network, whose aims are the following:

  • Building research capacity;
  • Dissemination and dialogue;
  • Collaborative research;
  • Establishing a Centre for keeping all Child Research work in Africa;
  • Dialogue, commitment towards the key actors;
  • Influencing the continent’s decision-makers.

 

Tags: ["regional network", "Sub-Saharan Africa"]
Published Sep. 24, 2008 3:06 PM - Last modified Apr. 17, 2013 3:39 PM