UNESCO

UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It seeks to build peace through international cooperation in Education, the Sciences and Culture. UNESCO's programmes contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals defined in Agenda 2030, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015.

Political and economic arrangements of governments are not enough to secure the lasting and sincere support of the peoples. Peace must be founded upon dialogue and mutual understanding. Peace must be built upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of humanity.

In this spirit, UNESCO develops educational tools to help people live as global citizens free of hate and intolerance. UNESCO works so that each child and citizen has access to quality education. By promoting cultural heritage and the equal dignity of all cultures, UNESCO strengthens bonds among nations. UNESCO fosters scientific programmes and policies as platforms for development and cooperation. UNESCO stands up for freedom of expression, as a fundamental right and a key condition for democracy and development. Serving as a laboratory of ideas, UNESCO helps countries adopt international standards and manages programmes that foster the free flow of ideas and knowledge sharing.

UNFPA

UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. Our mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.

UNFPA Supports:

1. Reproductive health care for women and youth in more than 150 countries – which are home to more than 80 per cent of the world’s population

2. The health of pregnant women, especially the 1 million who face life-threatening complications each month

3. Reliable access to modern contraceptives sufficient to benefit 20 million women a year

4. Training of thousands of health workers to help ensure at least 90 per cent of all childbirths are supervised by skilled attendants

5. Prevention of gender-based violence, which affects 1 in 3 women

6. Abandonment of female genital mutilation, which harms 3 million girls annually

7. Prevention of teen pregnancies, complications of which are the leading cause of death for girls 15-19 years old

8. Efforts to end child marriage, which could affect an estimated 70 million girls over the next 5 years

9. Delivery of safe birth supplies, dignity kits and other life-saving materials to survivors of conflict and natural disaster

10. Censuses, data collection and analyses, which are essential for development planning

UNFPA is formally named the United Nations Population Fund. The organization was created in 1969, the same year the United Nations General Assembly declared “parents have the exclusive right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children.”

Wits RHI

The Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI) was established by Professor Helen Rees in 1994 to support the new South African government formulate and implement new national policies around sexual and reproductive health. Wits RHI aim is to:

• Understand pathways for intervention

• Improve access to quality services

• Expand prevention and treatment choices

• Generate data for policy and programming

• Build research capacity to expand generation and application of evidence

Wits RHI is part of the Faculty of Health Sciences and the largest research institute of the University of the Witwatersrand. Wits RHI is a UNAIDS and South African Medical Research Council (MRC) collaborating centre as well as a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) strategic partner.

Family For Every Child

Family for Every Child is an international network of organisations which work together (under the Charity's guidance) to mobilise knowledge, skills and resources dedicated to ensuring that more children can grow up in safe and caring families or in appropriate alternative permanent care. Family for Every Child has 34 Members in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, America and New Zealand.

Family for Every Child aims to achieve the following five goals:

• Enabling children to grow up in permanent, safe and caring families

• Ensuring a range of high-quality, appropriate alternative care choices for children

• Taking steps to prevent children from having to live outside of any adult care, without the care of families or other carers, and in the interim, protecting these boys and girls

• Promoting better and more participatory decision making about children’s care

• Building strong child protection systems which strengthen families and promote quality care for children

Child Rights Network for Southern Africa (CRNSA)

CRNSA is the regional representative of national children’s rights networks in Southern Africa. It has been tasked with promoting practices and policies that fulfil children’s rights and welfare through national child rights networks across the sub-continent. Engaging with national child rights networks operating in member states of the Southern  African Development Community (SADC) as well as with regional and international institutions such as the African Union (AU), the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), the Pan African Parliament (PAP), and NEPAD (New Path for Africa’s Development) for improved quality of life for children.

The network was established in 2012 to improve child rights governance in Southern Africa. With a mandate to strengthened country child rights networks that protect and promote the rights of children to ensure appropriate child development and child participation in decisions that affect them.

Terre des hommes (Tdh)

In Africa, malnutrition in children and access to quality healthcare remains a challenge. Many young people migrate due to poverty and are exposed to different risks during their journey. At their destination, they often fall into the trap of exploitation or get into conflict with the law. Terre des hommes (Tdh) improves the health of children, accompanies child migrants to protect them and fights for alternatives to child detention. We train professionals to provide adequate support and advocate for political solutions respecting children’s rights.

Terre des hommes (tdh)  is committed to empowering children: ensuring survival, supporting children in times of need, protecting children from exploitation, actively promoting children’s agency and participation. Within Germany it seeks to inform and educate the public about the situation of children, women and other vulnerable and marginalised groups in the global South, and advocates for fairer policies towards developing countries.

Amref Health Africa

Amref Health Africa is Africa's leading health charity and one of the leading healthcare development agencies on the continent.

Working primarily with women and girls, Amref’s vision is of lasting health change within Africa's most vulnerable and remote communities. Amref promises to:

• Improve the lives of disadvantaged people in Africa through better health

• Bridge gaps between communities, health systems and governments

• Be a leading force for advocacy for health system reforms in Africa

• Be a leader in the NGO community, developing and documenting best practices and training programmes

Click here for more information.

The African Young Positives Network (AY+)

Launched in 2011 during the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa. (ICASA2011) in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, the African Young Positives Network (AY+) is the regional network of young people living with HIV and AIDS across the African. AY+ was born out of a pertinent need for a platform to engage young people living with HIV in Africa to take charge, lead the process and protect their human rights and for greater and meaningful involvement. AY+ has a vision of an African continent where the rights, welfare and interests of young men and women living with HIV are assured and protected. AY+ undertakes its daily work aided by a regional secretariat based in Kampala, Uganda and guidance and over sight from the AY+ steering committee and advisory group. The AY+ is currently working in 23 countries.

AY+ mobilizes YPLHIV and partners across the region and beyond to support sustainable community development interventions for and by young men and women living with HIV. Through the different activities, young people are equipped with appropriate tools and support to drive their own agendas and actively contribute to the AIDS response. psychosocial, sexuality, economic and educational challenges that pose as barriers to humanity.

AY+ advocates for unique needs and social issues affecting YPLHIV through a structured four-approach mechanism outlined below:

1.     Establish sustainable Networks of YPLHIV with opportunities for open communication and consultation on an ongoing basis with linkages to PLHIV Networks and Youth Organizations in Attica.

2.     Push the needs and the general agenda of YPLHIV to all platforms of the HIV response in countries, the region and beyond.

3.     Design interventions and projects to equip YPLHIV with tools to plan and drive their own agendas at country and community level.

4.     Advocate for human rights of all Key populations of young people especially young men and women living with HIV in Africa.

For more information go to: www.ayplus.org

Sentebale

Sentebale is a charity founded by The Duke of Sussex and Prince Seeiso in 2006 following Prince Harry’s gap year to Lesotho in 2004. Sentebale helps the most vulnerable children get the support they need to lead healthy and productive lives; with a mission of becoming the leading organisation in the provision of psychosocial support for children living with HIV in Southern Africa.

Sentebale works to deliver programmes in Lesotho, Botswana and Malawi in the areas of education, health, protection, advocacy, disability and other country specific areas that cause vulnerability for children and youth.

The Africa Early Childhood Network (AfECN)

The Africa Early Childhood Network (AfECN) is an independent professional network that brings together civil society, academia, private entrepreneurs and individuals at national and regional levels to promote holistic child development. Established in 2015, the network was created to develop and advance coherent ECD policy development and implementation throughout the African continent. Harnessing the diversity of strong civil society organizations delivering critical programming and advocacy for young children, AfECN strengthens impact through coordinated action, driven in close collaboration and consultation with key stakeholders.

The Vision of AfECN - An Africa where all children are learning, safe, healthy, happy and are achieving their full potential.



Africa Capacity Alliance (ACA)

Africa Capacity Alliance (ACA) specializes in capacity building, training, information sharing and advocacy.

The ACA, formerly the Regional AIDS Training Network (RATN), builds the capacity of individuals and institutions across Africa to effectively strengthen health and community systems in relation to Significant Infectious Diseases (SIDs), Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and health equity and rights. ACA does this through training, capacity development, information sharing and advocacy.

ACA currently implements Danida Lot CIV Project which is about strengthening the advocacy and organizational capacities of regional civil society organizations and youth networks to contribute to realizing children (girls and boys) and youth’s rights to protection and participation. The project is implemented in the Horn of Africa countries (Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Somalia).

ACA works through member institutions and regional and local partners. There are 37 member institutions spread in Eastern and Sothern Africa; Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda in East Africa; Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini and Namibia. Currently, ACA implements a program on Child Rights Governance in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, South Sudan and Somalia/Somaliland, in addition to Kenya and Uganda)

PATA- Paediatric Aids Treatment for Africa (Copy)

PATA's mission is to mobilize and strengthen a network of frontline healthcare providers to improve paediatric and adolescent HIV prevention, treatment, care and support in sub-Saharan Africa. 

The PATA network includes healthcare providers at more than 300 associated health facilities across 24 countries that collectively care for over 200,000 children and adolescents on ART. PATA's vision is that all children and adolescents living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa receive optimal treatment, care and support and live long, healthy lives.

PATA’s objectives are:

1. To improve the quality of paediatric and adolescent treatment, care and support at health facility level

2. To grow and deepen engagement of the the network and increase peer-to-peer exchange between health providers across countries and regions

3. To incubate, document and share promising practices in paediatric and adolescent treatment, care and support in order to effect positive change in policies, programmes and practices at national and global levels

PATA works through four activity streams: PATA Forums, PATA Incubation Projects &
Programmes, PATA Practice-Based Evidence & Advocacy and PATA Connect. Working across the region in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya and Eswatini.

Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation

The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing pediatric HIV infection and eliminating pediatric AIDS through research, advocacy, and prevention, care, and treatment programs. Founded in 1988, EGPAF supports activities in 19 countries around the world.

Mission Statement

The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation seeks to end pediatric HIV/AIDS through research, advocacy, and prevention and treatment programs.

---

Parenting in Africa Network (PAN)

Parenting in Africa Network (PAN) is a Network of organizations, individuals and institutions keen to promote ‘skillful’ parenting practices in Africa, for the overall well-being of children and families.

Recognizing that there is a limited source of credible materials and information on parenting education and support in Africa, the network provides forums and platforms for learning and sharing information regarding parenting with skills, and knowledge, in order to safeguard children. 

Events