A new report has highlighted critical flaws in the Department for International Development's ability to respond to children in armed conflict.
The inquiry by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Protecting Children in Armed Conflict highlights a fundamental lack of understanding, policy and strategy within the UK government to provide effective support to children living in armed conflict and contribute towards ending cycles of violence.
Key findings from the report include:
- Despite 80% of humanitarian needs being in conflict, over 50% of which are likely to be children, DFID does not place priority on children's safety within their humanitarian response and it has no child protection policy to inform its operations.
- No minister within DFID is responsible for the issue of children affected by armed conflict.
- DFID does not know how much taxpayers' money is being channelled into providing safety to children in conflict, despite this being an explicit priority of affected communities
- None of the team of experts established by the Foreign Office's Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative have received pre-deployment training in the area of child protection, despite children and young people making up the majority of sexual violence victims.
- DFID does not have any experts of staff leads on child protection or the issue of children affected by conflict.
Failure to protect and educate children
The report is the culmination of written evidence provided by a number of specialist child protection organisations.
The All Party Parliamentary Group was formed last November, with War Child as the secretariat.
War Child UK CEO Rob Williams said the “failure to protect and educate children fleeing conflict undermines the value of the rest of our aid efforts”.