Submitted by CRIN on
CREATE: A children’s rights curriculum for health workers in East Africa
Gerison Lansdown
July 2014
A new curriculum has recently been launched to provide front line health workers in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda with practical guidance on how to respect and promote children’s rights in their day to day work. It has been developed through a partnership between the MS Training Centre for Development Cooperation based in Arusha, Tanzania, the Open University in the UK and Child Rights Education for Professionals (CRED-PRO), an international programme committed to strengthening understand and application of children’s rights in professional practice. It was produced with the active engagement of 10 authors from the four participating countries, including representatives from government, academia, professional practice and the NGO sector, and has been supported by a wide network of other agencies from across the four countries.
All four countries have ratified both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. However, to date, relatively little training has been introduced to help health workers understand children’s rights and their implications for their daily work. In their Concluding Observations, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommended to all four governments that they should ensure that all professionals working with children are trained in children’s rights. This curriculum is seeking to contribute to that goal. A culture of respect for children’s rights will only be achieved if all relevant professionals have a strong knowledge of what rights children have, and how to apply this knowledge in their day to day practice.
The curriculum can be used by individuals wishing to learn more about children’s rights or it can be used by tutors, teachers, or lecturers wishing to incorporate children’s rights into their professional courses. It is an open educational resource, with few copyright restrictions, so can be adapted to accommodate the needs of particular students, or for relevance to other countries. It can be used as a complete course or taken in parts to complement other learning. A tutor guide has also been developed to provide guidance on how to use the materials and incorporate them into training courses.
The curriculum is available online at:
http://www.open.ac.uk/about/international-development/ido-africa/develop...
It can also be downloaded as a pdf.
Funding for the programme was provided by the Oak Foundation in Geneva with additional support from Opito.
The curriculum comprises 5 modules each containing between 2-4 study sessions. Each study session provides the student with:
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a focus question that sums up what is being addressed in the session
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key words that needs to be understood by the end of the session
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a short introductory overview
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learning objectives for the session
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basic information on the topic
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a series of learning activities to help the student apply the knowledge
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gained as they go through the session
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self-assessment questions at the end of the session
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suggested reading or additional resources
The curriculum comprises five modules addressing the following issues:
Module One: Childhood and children’s rights
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Study Session One: Understanding childhood explores the nature of childhood and how it is understood differently in different cultures.
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Study Session two: Child development looks at the different stages of development that a child goes through as they mature from birth to 18 years and helps guide the health worker in acknowledging and respecting children’s evolving capacities and the levels of protection they need to ensure their optimum well-being.
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Study Session Three: Children’s needs and rights examines what children’s needs and introduces the idea that children’s rights provide the basis for the meeting of these needs.
Module Two: Children’s right and the law
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Study Session One: International and regional law introduces the UNCRC and the
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African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and how and why these are relevant for health workers.
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Study Session Two: National laws and policies looks at the measures that have been introduced in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia to implement children’s rights into national laws.
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Study Session Three: The right to health explains what the right to health actually means and its implications. It highlights the importance of a holistic approach to health and outlines the responsibilities of governments, health services and individual health workers to ensure that the right to health is fully realized.
Module Three: Children’s rights and health practice
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Study Session One: The child as an active participant outlines the right of children to express their views and have them taken seriously, and its implications in the field of health.
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Study Session Two: Best interests of the child and non-discrimination explores the need to give consideration to the best interests of the child when making any decision that affects that child, and the requirement to ensure that no child is ever discriminated against in relation to accessing health care.
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Study Session Three: Addressing violence against children explores the right to protection from all forms of violence, looks at the impact of neglect, physical, sexual and emotional violence and abuse on children, and examines the role of health workers in identifying, addressing and protecting children from violence.
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Study Session Four: Child friendly health facilities introduces the idea of health facilities which are designed with children in mind and provides information on suggested standards that should guide the design of health facilities for children and how to produce a charter for children’s rights.
Module Four: Children’s rights in the environment: role of the health worker
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Study Session One: Social determinants of health introduces the idea that health is not simply a medical issue based on natural and biological factors and medical interventions, but is also a social issue. This session helps the health worker explore the social determinants of health and understand how they affect children’s health and other rights.
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Study Session Two: Advocating for children’s rights introduces the concept of advocacy and highlights the potential role for health workers in advocating for child rights within and across the communities in which they live.
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Study Session three: Mobilising the community explores practical strategies helps health workers understand community mobilization in relation to children rights.
Module Five: Children’s rights: planning, monitoring and evaluation
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Study Session One: Monitoring and evaluation in your practice introduces the concept of monitoring and evaluation to help analyse what is happening to children in local communities. It is a means of helping the health worker measure actions taken to improve children’s right to health and to see if they are making a difference.
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Study Session Two: Action Planning and Implementation looks in more detail at two parts of the monitoring and evaluation process: making and implementing plans. It demonstrates how these processes can be used to help to advance children’s rights. The session highlights the importance of involving children and others in developing plans, to ensure that they are relevant to children’s needs.
