Minimum standards for child protection in the humanitarian crises: general standards for children and psycho-social aid Caroline Veldhuizen, Child Protection in Emergencies, Advisor for Save the Children Sweden for training «Standards of Humanitarian Aid» (27-28 Aug 2014, Kyiv, Ukraine)

1. Minimum Standards for Child Protection
in Humanitarian Action
Clare Feinstein & Karine Buisset
Child Protection Initiative

2. Objective of this presentation:
 Strengthen your understanding of the
minimum standards for child protection in
humanitarian action
 Strengthen your understanding on how to use
the standards for program design and
implementation

3. Issues to be covered:
 Understanding Child Protection in an Emergency
 Key humanitarian standards:
The Sphere Handbook & Companion standards
 Minimum Standards for Child Protection in
Humanitarian Action
 STANDARD 10: Psychosocial distress and mental
disorders
 How to use the CPMS in program design and
implementation

4. Understanding Child Protection in an Emergency
What is an ’emergency’?
•Man-made: conflict, civil unrest
•Result from natural hazards: hurricanes, droughts,
earthquakes, and floods
•A combination of both
An emergency always has devastating effects on children’s
lives:
•Children may be continually exposed to danger
•Their basic needs might not be met
•Their development might be hindered
•They might suffer from psychosocial disturbances
•…..

5. Understanding Child Protection in an Emergency
What is ’child protection in emergencies’?
•Child Protection is the prevention of and
response to abuse, neglect, exploitation
and violence experienced by children in all
settings
Types of abuse:
Emotional abuse
Physical abuse
Sexual abuse
Exploitation
Neglect

6. Understanding Child Protection in an Emergency
What are the principal protection issues for
children in emergencies?
•Physical violence
•Sexual violence
•Children associated with armed
forces and groups
•Unaccompanied and seperated
children
•Psychosocial distress

7. Understanding Child Protection in an Emergency
Which children are most in need of
protection in an emergency?
•Unaccompanied and separated children (UASC)
•Children who were vulnerable pre-emergency (living on the street,
children with physical or intellectual disabilities, young (unwed)
mothers, ethnic or religious minorities)
•Survivors of sexual violence
•Children who have been displaced
•Children who are out of school
•Boys (and girls) who are at risk of, or already recruited by an armed
group or armed force

8. Understanding Child Protection in an Emergency
What are the developmental effects of
emergencies on children?
•Physical: Include health, brain and biological
development
•Emotional: Include attachment relationships, self
esteem, confidence and self-identity
•Cognitive: Include language, intelligence, thinking,
problem solving and analytical skills
•Social: Include communication, relationship building,
attitude, social skills, integration in a social environment
(norms, limits and rules), conflict resolution skills,
participation and association (ethical and moral
development).

9. Understanding Child Protection in an Emergency
What are the main legal instruments, which
apply to children in emergencies?
•Human Rights Law e.g. Convention on the Rights of the Child
(CRC), 1989
•International Humanitarian Law e.g. the four Geneva
Conventions of 1949 and their two Additional Protocols of 1977
•International Refugee Law
•UN Security Council Resolutions
•National and Regional Instruments
•International inter-agency standards and guidelines

10. Key humanitarian standards:
The Sphere Handbook & Companion
standards

11. Key humanitarian standards:
The Sphere Handbook
• An internationally recognised set of common principles and
universal minimum standards to improve quality and accountability
of humanitarian response
• Result of a broad consultation process within humanitarian sector
• The Humanitarian Charter sets out moral and legal principles
on which Sphere’s rights-based approach is built
• The right to life with dignity: Standards contribute to disaster-affected
people to survive and recover in stable conditions and
with dignity

12. Key humanitarian standards:
The Sphere Handbook
• Core Standards and Protection Principles applicable to all
humanitarian sectors
• Technical standards: WASH, Food security & nutrition, Shelter
& NFI, Health action
• Used also for national disaster management policies and guidelines
• Broad ownership – vibrant Sphere community of users – many
Handbook translations

13. Key humanitarian standards:
The Companion standards
Current companions to the Sphere Handbook:
INEE – Minimum Standards for Education – Preparedness,
Response, Recovery (2004)
LEGS - Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (2009)
MERS – Minimum Economic Recovery Standards (2009)
CPMS – Child Protection Minimum Standards (2012)

14. Key humanitarian standards:
The Companion standards
• Overall goal of the companionship concept: to provide humanitarian
professionals with a pool of harmonised, easy-to-use sets of quality
and accountability standards
• The Companion Standards complement the Sphere Handbook,
covering additional key areas of humanitarian response
• Similarities with Sphere:
- a consultative and consensus-based writing/revision process
- rights-based approach
- structure: standard - key actions - key indicators - guidance notes

15. The Minimum Standards for Child Protection
in Humanitarian Action

16. The need for minimum standards for
Child Protection in Emergencies
"It would provide benchmarks for what is
a good enough child protection
programme“
"Indicators would allow organizations to
better evaluate their response work in
terms of child protection"
"To would help organizations prepare for
child protection issues during emergency
response“
"To enable new cluster members at country
level to benefit from evolution of the sector so
far, and encourage all actors to obtain a
minimum level of quality in responses"

17. The Minimum Standards for Child Protection
in Humanitarian Action
The need for minimum standards for Child
Protection in emergencies
"It would provide benchmarks for what is
a good enough child protection
programme“
"Indicators would allow organizations to
better evaluate their response work in
terms of child protection"
“It would help organizations prepare for child
protection issues during emergency
response“

18. CPMS Development Process

19. CPMS Objectives
• Establish common principles and strengthen coordination amongst child
protection actors.
• Improve the quality of child protection programming to achieve greater
impact for children.
• Improve accountability within the child protection sector during
emergencies.
• Further define the professional field of child protection.
• Make available good practice in child protection to date.
• Enable better advocacy and communication on child protection risks,
needs and responses.

20. CPMS Structure
CPMS follows the Sphere
Standards’ format
Introduction
Standard (one phrase)
Key Actions
Indicators
Guidance Notes
References

21. What is a minimum standard?
• Agreed universal benchmarks to be achieved or
aspired to without being altered.
• A common agreement of what needs to be
achieved and adequate quality.
• Some Standards will need to be prioritized or
phased, depending on the starting point in the
context.
• Some Standards will not be relevant for a
particular context.

23. Standards to ensure a
quality child protection
response
1. Coordination
2. Communication, advocacy and media
3. Human Resources
4. Programme cycle management
5. Information management
6. Child Protection Monitoring

24. Standards to address
child protection needs
7. Dangers and injuries
8. Physical Violence and
other harmful practices
9. Sexual Violence
10. Psychosocial distress
and mental disorders
11. Children associated
with armed forces or
armed groups
12. Child labor
13. Unaccompanied and
separate children
14. Justice for children

25. Standards to develop adequate child
protection strategies
15.Case Management
16.Community-based child
protection mechanisms
17.Child-friendly spaces
18.Protecting excluded children

26. Standards to mainstream Child
Protection in other Humanitarian
Sectors
19.Economic Recovery
20.Education
21.Health
22.Nutrition
23.WASH
24.Shelter
25.Camp Management
26.Distribution
and Child
Protection

27. Who are the standards intended for?

28. How can the CPMS be used?
To design and cost
humanitarian
interventions
To establish common and
measurable expectations
To establish agreement
on common principles
between different actors
To monitor and
evaluate
0
programming
To induct and train new staff or
partners
As self-learning tool and
reference text
To enable advocacy on child
protection issues, and to brief
decision-makers on child
protection
To enable those working in
other sectors of humanitarian
action to protect children better

29. STANDARD 10
Psychosocial distress and mental disorders

30. STANDARD 10
Psychosocial distress and mental disorders
What is ‘Psychosocial well-being’?

31. STANDARD 10
Psychosocial distress and mental disorders
Psychosocial well-being is determined by the interplay between
psychological and social factors. The one continuously influences the
other.
Psychological
Mind;
Thoughts;
Emotions;
Feelings;
Behaviour
Interaction and Relationship
with others;
Environment;
Cultures and traditions
Roles and Tasks
• Psychological factors
Those experiences which affect emotions,
behaviour, thoughts, memory and learning ability.
• Social factors
Those experiences which affect people's
relationships with each other.
09-13
Psychological
Mind;
Thoughts;
Emotions;
Feelings;
Behaviour
Social
Social
Interaction and Relationship
with others;
Environment;
Cultures and traditions
Roles and Tasks

32. STANDARD 10
Psychosocial distress and mental disorders

33. STANDARD 10
Psychosocial distress and mental disorders

34. STANDARD 10
Psychosocial distress and mental disorders
What is Psychosocial well-being?
The state of being or doing well in all aspects of life:
• basic survival needs are met
• age-appropriate physical, intellectual,
emotional and development needs are
addressed
• social relationships are positive and supportive
• people have access to economic and
environmental resources

35. STANDARD 10
Psychosocial distress and mental disorders
What is ‘Resilience’ and ‘Coping’?

36. STANDARD 10
Psychosocial distress and mental disorders
What is ‘Resilience’ and ‘Coping’?
•Resilience is a universal capacity, which allows a person, a
group or community to prevent, minimise or overcome the
damaging effects of adversity. It is the ability to positively
cope
•Coping is defined as efforts made by an individual to deal
with adversity. These efforts can be cognitive - changing the
way of thinking about a challenge - or taking actions, to deal
with the adversity

37. STANDARD 10
Psychosocial distress and mental disorders
Protective Risk factors
Protective factors
• Child
• Family
• Friends/other adults
• Community
• Society
09/01/14
Risk factors
• Child
• Family
• Friends/other adults
• Community
• Society

38. STANDARD 10
Psychosocial distress and mental disorders
Psychosocial well-being of children in Ukraine

39. STANDARD 10
Psychosocial distress and mental disorders
Key actions - Preparedness:
• Make sure there is coordination and a referral system between all
sectors
• Provide training on Psychological First Aid to those involved in child
protection and work with other sectors to make sure that their staff
are trained

40. STANDARD 10
Psychosocial distress and mental disorders
Key actions - Response:
– Strengthen pre-existing community networks to provide psychosocial support to children
and their families
– Support activities for children such as recreational activities, sports, cultural activities and life
skills, to help recreate a routine and help them build their resilience
– Organise activities specifically for young people and adolescents
– Set up a referral system for children/caregivers who need mental health services
– Provide support to caregivers to improve care for their children, to deal with their own
distress and to link them to basic services
– Ensure that child protection staff are trained on the IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and
Psychosocial Support (IASC MHPSS)

41. How to use the CPMS in program design and
implementation
1. Make sure you have read the minimum standard, key actions,
indicators and guidance notes
2. Start with contextualising the standards
3. Look at the key actions: which actions are (to be) integrated in the
program?
4. Look at the indicators: which actions are (to be) included in the
program?
5. Use the guidance notes to better understand the standard
6. Identify your needs to be able to meet the standard
7. Check if there are additional IA standards and guidelines

42. Thank you!
Thank you!