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More than 100 Sri Lankan child representatives will take part in the first ever Children's Parliament in Sri Lanka on September 18 in Colombo. National level decision makers from leading political parties, MPs, government officials, NGOs, the UN and international organizations will attend the event at the BMICH and listen to children as they present their priorities for the decade to come.

The event will be telecast live on Rupavahini from 3 pm - 5 pm on Tuesday September 18 to enable Sri Lankans to witness for themselves how children can exercise their rights to participate meaningfully in matters that affect them.

The child delegates were selected by children from thousands of Sri Lankan children from throughout the island who started on a process several months ago to challenge and shape plans that Sri Lankan and global decision markers are drawing up for children for the next ten years.

Termed "the Lankan Children's Challenge!" by Save the Children in Sri Lanka who are facilitating the process and the Children's Parliament, children will be able to voice their opinions to both Sri Lankan decision makers and to global leaders from around the world who are scheduled to take part in the world's largest conference on children at the United Nations in New York on 19th September.

Over 15,000 Sri Lankan children from every district in Sri Lanka have been involved in a series of discussions and a survey over the past few months to find out what children's priorities are. Save the Children UK and Save the Children Norway in Sri Lanka who are facilitating this process are helping children's voices to be heard and their concerns raised at the UN Special Sessions (UNSS). The UNSS on Children will be world's largest ever on children. Presidents, Heads of State and other senior government and non-government delegates will converge on the United Nations from 19th to 21st September to review global achievements for children over the last 10 years make commitments and plans for the next decade.

Save the Children, which is part of the world's largest independent movement for children, has been working closely with other organizations including the United Nations preparing for the Session. One of Save the Children's role globally is to ensure that children's opinions and views on their priorities and concerns are heard at the UNSS.

Save the Children works in over 100 countries around the world. Two members, Save the Children UK and Save the Children Norway have been in Sri Lanka since the early seventies and implement programmes that benefit children from all parts of the country in partnership with the government, local NGOs, communities and children themselves. Its focal areas include early childhood development, education, child protection, and street children, children affected by armed conflict and emergencies.

More that a decade ago, at the end of 1990 government leaders from around the world met at the World Summit for Children and agreed to take specific action to improve children's lives. This year's UN Special Session will take a close look at how far governments have managed to fulfil their promises.

The Sri Lankan Children's Challenge! - how it evolved

The Sri Lankan Children's challenge is the final product of a serious of discussions and consultations that Save the Children and it partners with children have facilitated from around the country.

Save the Children first of all simplified the Government Report on progress made for Sri Lankan Children in the past decade as well as plans that the world had proposed for children: A World Fit for Children. They produced an attractive information pack for children that incorporated these simplified documents as well as one booklet on child participation and another describing how a meaningful discussion can be facilitated with children.

Next save the Children and their partners in the Government, NGOs and communities facilitated over 1,000 meetings with around 15,000 children from all districts in the country including the conflict affected North and over past few months. Special care was taken to include "marginalized" groups including disabled children, children who had been abused sexually and by other means, street children, child labourers, children in camps, children living in homes and children of very poor communities.

These children were then invited to take part in a survey that gave them opportunity to raise concerns they have as children and to comment on and prioritize the issues that adults around the world have come up with for the next ten years, A World fit For Children. The findings of the survey will be collated and analyzed by independent experts and the reports will be presented to the high level Sri Lankan delegation that is expected to include H.E. President Chandrika Kumaratunga to the UN Special Session. This will be the Sri Lankan Children's Challenge!

Save the Children, which is committed to child participation, has together with its partners facilitated nine provincial meetings in August where children from different districts met to choose representatives who will then go onto a national levels consultative meeting for children in September in Colombo this year. The Sri Lankan Children's Challenge! will be presented to decision makers at this meeting and is expected to include Parliamentarians, government officers, NGO workers, the private sector and others.

This way, children's can be heard and taken into serious consideration when making plans and decisions that affect them.

What impact will the Sri Lanka Children's Challenge have?

* Sri Lankan children's voices and opinions will be heard at the highest levels both in Sri Lanka and internationally

* Sri Lankan children would have experienced being part of a democratic and participatory process

* Sri Lankan children would understand that their opinions matter and can make a difference in shaping their own and others' lives.

* Adults will understand that children are capable of participating meaningfully and will begin to take children seriously

* Future planning for programmes and plans for children will be influence by children themselves

The Government Report

The Sri Lanka Government has already submitted a report to the UN on the progress made as well as the challenges ahead. Reduction of the number of babies dying at birth in the estate sector (which earlier recorded a high number of deaths), large immunization programmes that have lead to reduction in infectious diseases and no new cases of polio in the country and improved access to drinking water and sanitary toilets are cited as examples of progress made for Sri Lankan children.

Others include better care childbirth, strengthening compulsory education, introducing laws banning child labour under the age of 14 years, expansion of early childhood development activities and provision of humanitarian supplies and basic services to children in conflict affected areas. The Government Report also discusses the progress made in understanding how global and national economies affect children and protecting the environment for future generations of children.

However, the Government report also acknowledges the many challenges that lie ahead for Sri Lankan children. Death at childbirth, malnutrition and people infected with malaria in conflict affected areas and poor remote villages remains high. Access to clean water and toilets remain a major problem in certain areas. These problems are compounded in many cases by poor co-ordination between agencies involved. Although there is improved status of girls and women, not all women have access to reproductive health services.

One of the outcomes of this is the increasing numbers of illegal abortions. There are still many gaps in the provision of maternity care for women. Twice as many educated women are unemployed as men due to gender disparities. Children in Institutes and Homes continue to suffer from poor monitoring and weak policies. Sexual abuse, child labour, children in contact with the law and children from very poor communities face many problems as do other marginalized children.

The situation of children in conflict affected areas continue to be a major challenge. The Government recognizes that it is unable to reach all children affected by the conflict to address their basic needs. School drop out rates is very high and access to education is a challenge in these areas. There is shortage of trained staff to implement field based rehabilitation programmes and children continue to be recruited as child soldiers by the LTTE.

Macro-economic problems such as repayment of loans and structural adjustment programme (SAP) affect children directly and indirectly. Heavy expenditure on the war leaves fewer resources for children.

Environmental programmes lack guidance by clear policy and fail to link children, families and comminuties.

Although Sri Lanka was one of the first countries in the world to sign the Convention on the Rights of the Child and some national laws have been revised, the Children's Charter (the local version of the CRC) is still not law. Monitoring of the implementation of the CRC continues to pose problems.

The Government Report has drawn lessons from looking back on the last ten years. The first is that many of the successes during the last decade came from projects where the government worked in partnership with communities, the media and non-governmental organizations. There second is that although many policies and changes have been made to promote children's rights, they have been successful only where steps have been taken to develop the skills and abilities of people working at all levels. The third lesson is that the effects of the armed conflict on children and women were reduced because of the government's firm commitment to maintain welfare programmes combined with work undertaken by international organisations and NGOs to maintain basic services and the supply of essential items.

The Government identifies as priority for the next decade the following areas: reduction of infant and child mortality, early childhood development, universal access to quality basic education, rehabilitation of children affected by conflict, harnessing and channelling the energy and creativity of children and young people, poverty alleviation, developing abilities and skills of people and the supply of reliable and accurate information to support development. The report anticipates a reduction of international aid due to improving social indicators and says that the next ten years must be developing skills and abilities of Sri Lankans with technical help from developed countries. It also recognizes that international intervention is also important when dealing with the rights of children affected by armed conflict.

Save the Children has summarized and simplified the Government Report (from which extracts are taken above) and distributed it to children in an attractive and interactive way so that children themselves may understand it and give their opinions on both the achievements as well as challenges. This simplified report forms part of an information pack designed for children.

Save the children in Sri Lanka designs a

participatory project to get children's voices heard

at the world's largest conference on children

SC designs child friendly

information pack in Sinhala,

English and Tamil.

SC IN Sri Lanka together with its partners in the

Government, NGOs and communities facilitate 1,000

consultations with 15,000 children from ALL districts

Survey on children's concerns and

children's prioritization of global

plans for children

Children discuss issues further at Provincial Meetings that

include representation from ALL districts and drawn from

children involved in community level consultations

Findings of the Survey presented to

Sri Lankan delegation to UN

Special Session

National Event: Child Representatives

from ALL Provinces and children

representing marginalized groups present

Sri Lankan Challenge to decision makers

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