SINT EUSTATIUS (ORANJESTAD) – The youth professionals of the countries and the public entities of the Kingdom of the Netherlands can look back on a successful digital edition of the yearly organized conference, in which monitoring and evaluation and the social impact of COVID-19 on children and the youth were the two main themes.
During this anniversary conference, the Taskforce looked back at the past 5 years. The Taskforce also looked ahead to how it can create a framework in the near future that stimulates safe and healthy upbringing in a promising environment for all children and young people. Sharing knowledge, creating connections, and intercountry collaboration remain important even in these difficult times.
The challenges posed by, for example, COVID-19 require the countries and public entities of the Kingdom to join forces. This is essential in order to be able to jointly tackle the issues surrounding children’s rights. Consequently, children in the Kingdom can retain the perspective of a healthy and safe future. A future in which the voice of the child is very important.
The conference consisted of a very diverse program that allowed for professionals from all countries and public entities of the Kingdom to have interactive discussions with each other around the table. The conference had a hybrid character in the sense that the Taskforce members and youth professionals from the Kingdom were digitally present in the studio from which the live stream was recorded.
This diversity allowed for beautiful and interesting table conversations. The first day of the conference focused on monitoring and evaluation. Ton Liefaard, a prominent professor on children’s rights, explained how monitoring and evaluation not only contributes to accountability, but also to working more efficiently.
Aboubacry Tall, a children’s rights professional who works for UNICEF in Senegal shared his knowledge on “Rights-based and equity-focused monitoring”. The second day focused on the social impact of COVID-19 on children and the youth. Micha de Winter, emeritus professor of social education issues, took part in the table discussions and shared results of an interesting research that he conducted on the social impact of COVID-19 on children.
The program also considered the UNICEF initiative #mynewworld, in which children between the ages of 13 and 18 were asked to share their ideas about what their ideal world would look like after this pandemic. This initiative was welcomed with open arms by the children, as they got the opportunity to have their voices heard. The idea is to convert their suggestions into actual implementations.
The Taskforce has expressed its intention to consider the voice and vision of children more in the future. The Kingdom Taskforce for Children’s Rights can look back on a successful 5th edition of the Taskforce conference, which was organized by St. Eustatius, in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.
Visit www.ourchildrenourfuture.org for more information.
