Justice for Africa’s Children:
Policy research, report writing, event management, and campaign dissemination
The challenge
In the wake of the global pandemic and following enormous cuts to overseas aid, it has become painfully evident that Africa's children are increasingly excluded from progress on a wealth of children's rights. Across sub-Saharan Africa there have been notable increases in the number of child labourers, children out of school, and malnutrition, where much of the rest of the world is seeing reductions.
Laureates and Leaders for Children, a global movement of influential actors for children’s rights, had worked throughout the pandemic to raise political awareness of the threats facing children in low-income countries. In the aftermath, the movement sought to draw attention to the urgent need to stop enormous injustices being faced by children in sub-Saharan Africa.
Common Good Global was engaged by the client, Laureates and Leaders for Children, to support the global secretariat develop its policy positions, research and co-author its flagship report, and support the Justice for Africa’s Children campaign’s advocacy through high-profile events and social media.
The impact
UN General Assembly Launch
Former heads of state, Nobel Laureates, leaders of trade unions and global movements, and survivors of child rights violations addressed a packed event during the UN General Assembly to launch the Justice for Africa’s Children campaign.
Groundbreaking Report
Justice for Africa’s Children exposes the injustices created and perpetuated by discrimination, which disproportionately harm the world’s most vulnerable children. Spanning tax, debt, climate, international agreements, displacement, aid, conflict, governance, participation, and girls’ rights, the report calls for targeted interventions for a fairer future for Africa’s children.
African Union & the G20
One of the report’s demands was to recognise African leaders within global decision-making architecture, including full membership of the G20 for the African Union. After sustained advocacy conducted by Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi and the Laureates and Leaders for Children Secretariat in advance of the G20 in India, the AU was formally admitted in the subsequent G20 communique.
The work
The Laureates and Leaders for Children global secretariat had identified that persistent discrimination and sustained global injustices were putting children across sub-Saharan Africa at extreme risk of marginalisation.
Common Good Global was engaged to work with the secretariat to co-author a flagship policy report, Justice for Africa’s Children, edit contributions made by fellow authors, and contribute to the report’s policy recommendations. This task also required using open data to evidence and fact-check the claims and demands made in the report.
Prior to the report’s publication, Common Good Global worked with the team to deliver a high-profile UN General Assembly side event launching the Justice for Africa’s Children campaign. This involved writing briefings for and liaison with speakers, participant management, and event promotion.
Common Good Global also worked on the production and launch of the publication, liaising with the report designer, supporting an online launch event, building the online home for the report, and creating a social media toolkit and promotional campaign.
During the launch event, content was shared live across social media platforms using speaker cards and working with a small group of transcribers for accuracy.
Laureates and Leaders for Children continues to use the policy positions and demands from the Justice for Africa’s Children report in its advocacy work, with a major win during the G20 hosted by India, where the African Union was admitted as a member.