Anniversaries are not, in themselves, necessarily a cause for celebration. But they do provide an opportunity to assess progress and identify what can be done better in the future. In the first of two blogs marking twenty years of the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF), Executive Director Dr Joan Nyanyuki weighs the evidence. 

Someone once described the African Child Policy Forum as a “small organisation punching well above its weight.” This was not said disparagingly but in admiration of ACPF’s influence and the regard in which it is held across Africa and beyond. 

Blowing one’s own trumpet is rarely advisable - it’s usually best left to others. But as ACPF quietly celebrates  twenty years of tirelessly championing the rights and wellbeing of African children, and despite some suggestions to the contrary, there are many good reasons to be optimistic. 

When I joined ACPF as its Executive Director in 2019 I was well aware of its reputation as a respected and independent organisation. Our advice is sought - and heeded - by African Union and United Nations bodies. Our research, analysis and recommendations have been adopted into international treaties and national laws and policies. Our reports and studies influence academics, international non-profits and grassroots civil society organisations. 

ACPF has much to be proud of. As our distinguished Patron and former Board Chair Mrs Graça Machel says,“ACPF shows what African organisations can do for Africa. Over the years, we have given a voice to children and young people and ensured their opinions are taken into account.” 

ACPF was founded in 2003 with a call for “Africans to recognise our responsibility to own our destiny and to collectively provide for the realisation of all rights to all our children.” Child abuse and exploitation is by no means a uniquely African problem, but our founders believed that Africans could - and should - take responsibility for the rights and wellbeing of their own children. 

Even two decades ago there was a feeling that progress on children’s rights and wellbeing was too little and too slow. The 1990 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child - better known as the African Children’s Charter - had promised a new era. Henceforth, children were to be viewed and treated not as bodies to be exploited, but as individuals with civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. 

ACPF aimed to build on this shift in attitudes and behaviour by advocating for stronger laws and policies backed up by sold research and evidence. As our founder Dr Assefa Bequele explained in the introduction to one of our early reports, “Three things matter on the policy front: politics that put children at the centre of public policy; laws that protect them; and budgets that provide for their basic needs and full development.” 

Persuading governments, regional economic communities and pan-African institutions such as the AU to listen to children and take their opinions seriously hasn’t always been easy. We tread a delicate line between supporting African governments to do the right thing and calling them out when they don’t. We’ve been accused both of being too friendly towards governments and too critical of them - which makes me think we are probably getting it about right. 

We have raised the regional and international prominence of the African children’s agenda through a reinvigorated and expanded network of partners. Our flagship African Report on Child Wellbeing (ARCW) series and signature research reports inform and influence governments. Fora such as the International Policy Conference (IPC) and our technical symposiums have made a significant contribution to shaping the African children’s agenda. 

I am particularly proud of our relationships with the AU Commission (AUC), the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC), regional economic communities (RECs) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). Among our many successes have been developing guidelines on child justice and inter-country adoption endorsed by the ACERWC; contributing to ACERWC and UNCRC General Comments; drafting a framework to monitor the AU’s Renewed Call for Accelerated Action towards the Africa Fit for Children programme; and advising on translating AU instruments into domestic laws and policies. 

Since our first IPC in 2004 we have welcomed more than 13,000 participants to ACPF events including Heads of State, government ministers, UN, AU and ACERWC representatives and leading CSOs, experts and academics. Our ground-breaking Child-Friendliness and Girl-Friendliness Indices rate the performance of every African government and tracks their movement up or down the rankings. The ARCW is listed by the ACERWC as a key influence in the drafting of Agenda 2040. 

Among many others, three key impacts spring to mind. 

-    We drafted and helped to finalise the Children’s Policy of the East African Community (EAC) - a policy which has been adopted by all six member states and which has contributed to realising the rights and wellbeing of 88 million children in the region.  

-    Following our 5th IPC, ACERWC endorsed our Guidelines for Action on Inter-country Adoption in Africa; ACRWC state parties are now requested to provide data on inter-country adoptions and ensure they are in a child’s best interests; Australia closed its adoption programme in Ethiopia, which subsequently banned inter-country adoption in 2017; Uganda revised its laws; and Kenya imposed a moratorium.

-    The government of Eswatini was so shaken by its lowly position in the 2008 Child Friendliness Index (45th out of 52 countries) that it created a ministerial team to improve child rights and wellbeing, pledged to ratify all international  instruments and pass new laws. By 2013 it had risen to 9th, a position it retained in 2018, making it one of the ‘most friendly’. Eswatini also performed well in the 2020 Girl Friendliness Index (GFI), ranking 10th and again appearing in the ‘most friendly’ category. 

Our reputation for independent, evidence-based research is reflected in our membership of some of the most influential global and pan-African organisations. You’ll find us playing a lead role at the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children; the African Partnership to end Violence Against Children; the Global Coalition to End Child Poverty; the Global Reference Group on Accountability to Child Rights and Wellbeing (GRGA); the Global Working Group for Advocacy on Investment in Children; the International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), and many others. 

Proud as I am of these achievements, our success - or failure - will only become apparent in the long-term. Right now, the future for African children is, to put it mildly, uncertain. In my second blog marking twenty years of the ACPF, I’ll be looking at some of the big challenges ahead for Africa’s children and young people - and what we and our partners are doing to address them.