The 6P Child Rights Capacity Development Programme was initiated in 2014 with the aim of supporting 60 child focused organisations across Eastern Europe and East Africa to better apply Six Child-Rights based principles (6P) in their work with and for children. This was possible as a result of the support of the OAK Foundation’s and until 2020 it has been coordinated by Child to Child, a pioneer child participation organisation established in 1978.
Unlike other child rights capacity development initiatives, the 6P Child Rights Capacity Development Programme is unique in its focus on building capacity to achieve the practical application of a child rights-based approach. Using a blended learning approach, it has used a variety of (online and offline) tools and resources to enable collaboration as well as tailored support to participating organisations.
The 6P Programme focused on assessing both what the beneficiary organisations aimed to achieve, and how they went about their work. At the beginning of the programme organisations had the opportunity to do an assessment … how well equipped are they in fulfilling their responsibilities to apply each of the principles, and to start the process of thinking about what the principle would look like if it was being fully applied in the organisation’s work. Equipped with this information, organisations were then able to identify what capacity development needed to be undertaken in order for their organisations to fully be able to meet their responsibilities to apply the principles in a way that was appropriate to the work they were undertaking.
Key outcomes of our journey
In Phase 2 of the Capacity Development Programme participating organisations collaborated as a “Community of Practice” in the development of a portfolio of training resources, including online “e-learning” courses making use of case studies and situations experienced in their work.
In Phase 3 of the programme the Community of Practice collaborated in the development of an “Open Access” introduction to the six principles and their application, a series of online “e-learning” courses that could be used by an organisation new to the application of child rights principles to start their own journey to align their work with international child rights standards.
During the Phase 4 of the programme, the OAK Foundation supported the 6P CoP with establishing an independent sustainable governance mechanism for the 6P programme and its vibrant Community of Practice network. The 6P Community of Practice has come together as an entity in its own right and, coordinated by a steering committee comprising 12 of the organisation’s members, it has taken the shape of a network that supports both existing members of the Community of Practice, and new organisations, to progress in their journey to develop the organisational capability to apply the Child Rights Principles.
